RTX 5090 96GB Mods Confirmed by US Modder, but No Proof Shown Yet
RTX 5090 96GB and 64GB memory upgrades are now possible, according to Greg Sky, a Michigan-based GPU repair technician who runs the rework shop GPU Lab. In a post on X on October 31, 2026, he wrote “64 and 96gb 5090 confirmed,” and the claim spread quickly after AI commentator am.will (@LLMJunky) shared it with the line “5090 firmware has finally been unlocked.” As of publication, no photos, benchmarks or firmware details of a working card had been shared publicly, and NVIDIA has not commented.
64 and 96gb 5090 confirmed.
Nov 1, 2026
— Greg Sky (@regsky_) October 31, 2026
The stock GeForce RTX 5090 ships with 32GB of GDDR7. A 96GB version would triple that and match the memory of NVIDIA’s RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell workstation card, which is built on the same GB202 chip. For people running large AI models at home, that is the difference between needing several GPUs and needing one.
Who Is Greg Sky?
Greg Sky (@regsky_) describes himself on X as a “professional independent Nvidia gpu tech” based in Grand Rapids, Michigan, who has been repairing NVIDIA cards since 2021. His business, GPU Lab, sells and performs 48GB RTX 4090 upgrades, moving the GPU core and memory from a customer’s card onto a new board that can hold memory on both sides. The shop also lists 32GB RTX 4080 Super upgrades and data center GPU repairs.
That background is why the post drew attention. In the post that spread the news, am.will wrote that Greg is “among the only people in the United States performing these types of modifications,” and argued that “one of the biggest reasons that people don’t order modified cards is because they are afraid they will have no support or warranty once it leaves China.”
5090 firmware has finally been unlocked
96GB upgrades are coming.
If you're interested in GPUs and modification and you're not following Greg, you should probably change that.
He is among the only people in the United States performing these types of modifications, which is a big deal.
One of the biggest reasons that people don't order modified cards is because they are afraid they will have no support or warranty once it leaves China, which is most likely true.
— am.will (@LLMJunky) October 31, 2026
What Greg Has Said About the RTX 5090 96GB Upgrade
Greg has shared only a few details so far, all in replies on X. He said 3GB GDDR7 memory modules cost “like 100$ per module” and that the upgrade “only makes sense in China where you can’t get the 6000 pro, OR if you already have the 5090 and want to upgrade it.” He promised “more info over the next few months.”
He is not taking orders yet. Greg wrote that he will not accept pre-orders until he has secured boards and memory, and warned that “3gb gddr7 is going to be the Wild West to obtain soon.” He also said he is currently in China “collecting SMT manufacturing equipment for gpu modding stateside.” In an earlier post on October 25, he said he would spend two to three weeks there talking to PCB and memory partners. The “Nov 1, 2026” line in his post likely reflects local time in China, where it was already November 1 when he posted.
Several things remain unclear. Greg has not said who unlocked the firmware, how it was done, whether it works on every RTX 5090 or whether he has run a modified card himself. Only three days earlier, on October 28, he posted “There is no 96gb 5090. Strait from the boss,” along with a translated chat with a contact in China, adding that “a ‘group’ has been working on it for over a year supposedly.” His new post suggests that work has now produced results, but until a working card is shown, the 64GB and 96GB RTX 5090 remains a claim.
Why the RTX 5090 Was So Hard to Upgrade
The hardware side is well understood. The RTX 5090 uses a 512-bit memory bus with 16 GDDR7 chips of 2GB each. Fitting 16 more chips on the back of a custom board, known as a clamshell layout, gives 64GB with today’s 2GB chips. Using 32 of the newer 3GB chips gives 96GB, the same setup NVIDIA uses on the RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell, which pairs 96GB of GDDR7 with 24,064 CUDA cores, against the RTX 5090’s 21,760, and the same 1,792 GB/s of bandwidth.
The hard part is firmware. The GPU’s video BIOS tells the card and driver what memory is installed, and NVIDIA signs these images so modified versions cannot simply be flashed. The 48GB RTX 4090 mods that came out of Chinese workshops were made possible in part by leaked NVIDIA configuration data for that generation. For Blackwell, there were only rumors of leaked RTX 5090 firmware. VideoCardz reported on October 23 that there was still “no publicly verified method” for upgrading the RTX 5090’s 32GB, despite claims from Chinese suppliers about 64GB and 96GB versions.
Those claims have surfaced before. In September, a Chinese seller listed a modified RTX 5090 with 96GB of VRAM on Alibaba for $3,888, but Tom’s Hardware noted that the listing described GDDR6X memory at 14 Gbps, specs that do not match the RTX 5090’s GDDR7. Back in June, a Reddit user who said they run a small GPU lab in the US warned r/LocalLLaMA readers that 96GB RTX 4090 and RTX 5090 cards were a scam at the time.
Why AI Users Want More VRAM
Demand comes almost entirely from local AI. Large language models must fit in GPU memory to run fast, and a single 96GB card can hold models that would otherwise need three stock RTX 5090s. That demand has already pushed RTX 5090 prices far above the $1,999 launch price. Tom’s Hardware put custom RTX 5090 cards at $6,000 and up in the US in September, and Greg wrote that he thinks this is “why 5090 prices shot to 7k each.”
The math is not simple for buyers, though. The RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell sells for about $16,000 after recent price increases, according to Tom’s Hardware, which makes a modified RTX 5090 tempting on paper. But at Greg’s estimate of about $100 per module, the 32 memory chips for a 96GB build would cost around $3,200 alone, before the board, labor and the card itself. Supply is also tight, with reports that RTX 5090 production may have ended and many cards already flowing to conversion factories in China.
What It Means for You
If you own an RTX 5090 and run AI models, a 64GB or 96GB upgrade may become an option in the coming months, but nothing can be ordered today and no price has been announced. A modified card is no longer an NVIDIA-supported product, and the work involves removing and reattaching the GPU core and memory with BGA rework equipment. For its 48GB RTX 4090 upgrades, GPU Lab says it runs a 48-hour burn-in test and offers a default 90-day warranty. Until Greg or someone else shows a working RTX 5090 96GB card with verifiable test results, treat the news as a credible claim from an established modder, not a finished product.
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