[SOLVED] Recommended thermal pads and thermal pads thickness for GTX 1060

[Filingo]

I just replaced my thermal pads on the GPU but it was too thick. Now I ran out of pads.
I had Thermalright Odyssey (1mm) and I'm not sure they're the best.. despite the high supposedly rating (12.8 W/mK), or that I got fake pads from AliExpress.

So I am looking for 0.5mm and 2mm pads - The card has both these thicknesses from what I measured, but they were old and crumbling so maybe that's not their original thickness so I'd be happy if someone can confirm the thickness for this card:

https://www.gigabyte.com/il/Graphics-Card/GV-N1060G1-GAMING-6GD-rev-10#kf

 

[Phaaze88]

Changing thermal pads is a crapshoot.

12.8 W/mK
You can't rely on this, because there is no universal test condition amongst pads.

Thermalright Odyssey (1mm)
It's not enough to know the depth/thickness, because pads with matching depth have different levels of hardness to them - soft/medium/firm, etc.
Too firm, and the pads can warp the PCB and cause worse thermals due to altering the cooler mounting pressure.
Too soft, and the pads don't mate well with the heatsink.
On the plus side, GDDR5 memory does not require pads and heatsinks and can be cooled off the gpu's fans alone. Can't do that with GDDR6 and R6X.
So if you don't find an answer to your query, you can just use the fans for cooling the memory and roll without pads.


I suggest asking across multiple sites for the best chance at finding someone who's changed pads on this card and succeeded.

 

[Filingo]

Thank you, I did ask in multiple places
Do you have any recommended pad type then? The Gelid GP-Extreme maybe? because it's softer from what I read. So if it's slightly thicker I can just squeeze it, unlike now where, as you said, the PCB is really bending because the Odyssey is too thick and too hard

 

[Phaaze88]

I do not have any recommendations. I've taken apart and cleaned a few gpus, but that's it.

I know that GDDR5 can be cooled without pads, because I've been running my own 1080Ti(GDDR5X) with a Kraken G12, and no pads and sinks on the memory since June of last year. Not a hitch from it yet.

 

[Filingo]

Thank you!
Although, my hot spot increased dramatically when I put too thick pads (right now)

 

[Phaaze88]

The hotspot is not very reliable. The reading is from the hottest sensor, but it's not specified where on the gpu that is.
Sure, it can give you an idea of the state of the cooler mount, but if you don't know which screws you should tighten/loosen up to fix it, well...