Question Do thermal pads have to come in contact with the heatsink for effective cooling?

[pizzahotdog45]

Right now I’m repasting a used GTX 980ti and the heatsink doesn’t touch the vrms, at all…

This leads me to believe they vrms were made to be passively cooled by the fans, but I was wondering if adding thermal pads on top of the vrms, even though they dont touch the heatsink would offer any better thermal performance.

Any advice is greatly appreciated!

 

[geofelt]

Air is a very poor conductor of heat.
Not a good idea to restrict airflow.
A photo of the issue might help to clarify the issue.

 

[pizzahotdog45]

https://imgur.com/a/tCE90Wn