Question Palit RTX 3080 High Temp. Difference

[DarkKnight53]

I've got a Palit RTX 3080, I bought it a year ago from someone else and never opened the card to check thermal pads and the paste.

I've done thermal paste on different gpus and cpus before but never touched thermal pads and wanted to see the situation on mine.

I think these are original thermal pads and they don't look in good shape

I opened it and changed the thermal paste. I saw some of the thermal pads were teared up and I tried to put it back to same place to not damage them further.

Before the thermal paste change my max gpu temp was 79, memory 85, hot spot 93.

After I opened it and changed the thermal my gpu temp is 73 but hot spot goes up to 103, there's a 30 celcius difference.

My question is, what could be causing this? Is it the bad thermal paste or teared pads.

Also what can I do to lower these temps. I have Phankteks P600 and its got a lot of room for gpu, good air flow with several fans but my gpu is still hitting 100+ on hot spot and 80+ on the core with max load.

Update with pictures and specs:
CPU: Ryzen 5600
Cpu Cooler: Scythe Mugen 5
PSU: Sharkoon Silentstorm Coolzero 850W 80+ Gold (2.5 years old)
MB: Gigabyte B550M DS3h
RAM: Kingston Fury Black 2x8 3600mhz
SSD: 2x m2 SSD
Case: Phanteks P600
Fans: 3x exhaust Akasa Viper (top and back) , 3x intake Phanteks 140mm (front)

Case Pictures

 

[Ralston18]

Update your post to include full system hardware specs and OS information.

PSU: make, model, wattage, age, condition (original to build, new, refurbished, used)?

Disk drive(s): make, model, capacity, how full?

Fans: make, model, locations, air flow directions?

Is it possible for you to take a couple of photographs showing the inside of the case?

If so, take photographs and post here via imgur (www.imgur.com).

 

[DarkKnight53]

Update your post to include full system hardware specs and OS information.

PSU: make, model, wattage, age, condition (original to build, new, refurbished, used)?

Disk drive(s): make, model, capacity, how full?

Fans: make, model, locations, air flow directions?

Is it possible for you to take a couple of photographs showing the inside of the case?

If so, take photographs and post here via imgur (www.imgur.com).

I updated the post

 

[Ralston18]

CPU cooler fan direction?

GPU fan? PSU fan?

Overall, it appears to me that the airflows could be conflicting to the point where little or no air flows in some places.

More fans does not necessarily mean more cooling.

Hopefully, there will be other thoughts and comments provided.

 

[drivinfast247]

The hotspot will on the GPU. Repaste again making sure there's full coverage on die.

 

[RodroX]

And be carefull that small pieces of broken thermal pads to not overlap to the other pads and create a bigger gap between the GPU/PCB and the Heatsink.

That way you will be sure every thermal sensitive areas are making the right contact with the heatsink.

 

[Phaaze88]

As RodroX said, with the pads torn like that, they likely overlapped when you reassembled the gpu, increasing the gap between die and cooler cold plate. Replace them all.

https://www.thermal-grizzly.com/en/tg-putty/s-tg-p
Have a look a this. If available to you, it should be more convenient to use than pads.

 

[DarkKnight53]

As RodroX said, with the pads torn like that, they likely overlapped when you reassembled the gpu, increasing the gap between die and cooler cold plate. Replace them all.

https://www.thermal-grizzly.com/en/tg-putty/s-tg-p
Have a look a this. If available to you, it should be more convenient to use than pads.

I opened the gpu, fixed the overlapping pads to make sure they are flat on each part and re-applied thermal paste.

These are current highest temps I've seen on max load

It got better because it was getting close 110 celcius before and my game crashed couple times

Memory temps are great, gpu temp is somewhat great but there's still 20-23 degrees difference between hot spot and gpu.

I'm using a thermal paste tube that I bought 6 years ago which doesn't even have a brand. Would buying a better thermal paste lower the temps?

My last guess is maybe thermal pads are so worn out, they are still preventing the contact because they are not flexible enough.

 

[RodroX]

I opened the gpu, fixed the overlapping pads to make sure they are flat on each part and re-applied thermal paste.

These are current highest temps I've seen on max load

It got better because it was getting close 110 celcius before and my game crashed couple times

Memory temps are great, gpu temp is somewhat great but there's still 20-23 degrees difference between hot spot and gpu.

I'm using a thermal paste tube that I bought 6 years ago which doesn't even have a brand. Would buying a better thermal paste lower the temps?

My last guess is maybe thermal pads are so worn out, they are still preventing the contact because they are not flexible enough.

Im not sure what you call max load?, but as you wrote, a newer thermal paste may make a difference, something like Arctic MX-4 or MX-6, those are not very expensive and they are very good.

In any case, in the image you posted I can see GPU load at 56%, so not sure what you been runing to do the testing?

I like to use (https://benchmark.unigine.com/heaven), I run 1920x1080 - High Settings - 2xAA and Windows Mode, and I pay a lot of attention to temps and time spend running the benchmark.

For example, las week before I repasted my RTX 2070, I was getting GPU 75°C and HotSpot 106.5°C at only 50 seconds from benchmark start. After the repaste with MX-4, Max temps I got after ~15 mins was GPU: 70.2ºC - Hot Spot: 86.2ºC, and thats like 5 loops non-stop of the whole benchmark.

Then again, the RTX 3080 use more power and it may produce more heat. And the case, fans and ambient temp may also be factors to consider.