Liquid Metal on GPU Die

[Randallel]

First and foremost, I know the risk of putting liquid metal on the die.

After replacing the TIM with liquid metal and booting up a game, it would crash if the GPU hit around 90% usage. I'm curious to why that is. I've never heard people having an issue like this. I've tried this twice, with somewhat the same results.

When I replaced the liquid metal with thermal paste; the GPU worked as it did prior. Same temps/boost clocks.

 

[Mark RM]

I suspect it's not spreading even enough to remove hot spots from a die that is far more complex and power hungry than a CPU die. This is just conjecture.

 

[n0ns3ns3]

for liquid metal to work properly, the surfaces have to match each other perfectly as the liquid metal is applied as very thin layer.
that's why putting liquid metal between IHS and cooler is far from best idea.
anyway, even if it was working, the temperature wouldn't be different in any meaningful way due to large surface of GPU die.

 

[daylightriot]

i know this is a dead forum but feel the accepted answer is inadequate.

Firstly, applying liquid metal to a gpu will improve thermals dramatically. I have a 980ti strix with liquid metal applied, my gpu now runs cooler and quieter.

Secondly, before applying liquid metal, use acrylic non conformal spray on the area around the die. do this by putting tape over the die and then giving the area mentioned a liberal spray. if you happen to put too much liquid metal on the die, this will protect your hardware from shorting or even getting damaged.
Applying the liquid metal should be done very carefully. paint a very thin layer on the die. seriously, i needed about a grain of rice sized blob of liquid metal on a 980ti which has a big die area.

Thirdly, only use liquid metal if you KNOW you're heatsink is made from copper. if its not copper, it will corrode/form galium in time and break you're hardware. theres videos on youtube by steve from gamers nexus explaining this process in more detail.

Conclusion
My 980 ti would thermal throttle @ stock before i applied liquid metal. now my fans never go up past 50% in games and the thermal throttling has vanished. I can even oc this card without thermal throttling. I've had the liquid metal applied for about 6 months with no issues so far. if an issue occurs, I will mention it in this post.