GDDR6 Upgrade Service Shows Niche Demand for More VRAM During Memory Tightness

A niche repair-market story is still showing how valuable GPU memory capacity has become for local AI users. Tom's Hardware reports that a Japanese repair shop is offering GDDR6 VRAM upgrades at $25 per GB, including a modification that brings an RTX 2080 Ti to 22GB for $282. For RamTrend, this is not a broad supplier pricing benchmark, but it is a concrete demand signal. Users are paying to extend older GPUs with larger VRAM pools because model workloads can be constrained by available graphics memory. That keeps GDDR capacity relevant beyond new GPU sales and highlights how local AI demand is changing upgrade economics. The price impact is modestly upward. The article points to a memory crisis and a paid upgrade market, but it covers a specialized service rather than channel-wide GDDR contract pricing.