[SOLVED] Repaste & Repad suggestions for an Asus Strix RTX 3090 ?

ccoo84

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Sep 10, 2013
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So I decided yesterday to go bonkers, & buy the Asus Strix RTX 3090..

My question now is, I already know myself & I will want to repaste & repad the graphics card But I'm having trouble finding any sugestions about pad size & best paste to use..
Lastly I know allot of people my ask why do this, & I have no answer. lol


Anyway what kind of thermals do you think I may see after?
Thank you in advance.
 
Solution
So I decided yesterday to go bonkers, & buy the Asus Strix RTX 3090..

My question now is, I already know myself & I will want to repaste & repad the graphics card But I'm having trouble finding any sugestions about pad size & best paste to use..
Lastly I know allot of people my ask why do this, & I have no answer. lol


Anyway what kind of thermals do you think I may see after?
Thank you in advance.


This site will show you the pad dimensions, which is what I followed when I repasted and repadded my strix 3090. I used Gelid Extreme pads and Thermalright TFX paste, and they've worked well since.

Was pretty straightforward, just be sure to...

Phaaze88

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Ok, I won't try to ask.

But I'm having trouble finding any sugestions about pad size & best paste to use..
Probably because very few people have bothered due to how well built this card's cooler is.
Even fewer people will try to make modifications after the fact(if it ain't broke...), and even fewer of those individuals - or maybe none of them - will bother to share their results publicly.
Meaning you're more or less on your own in the experimental phase.

Anyway what kind of thermals do you think I may see after?
Absolutely impossible for anyone to answer; you will be the one telling us what you gained or lost over the originals, and how many different pads you tried - or not, if you choose to keep the results of your research to yourself.


1)Find out the thickness of the original pads. Try asking Asus support or use a caliper... or try asking around multiple tech sites - you may hear from someone who's successfully swapped the pads on that card.
2)Do NOT go too crazy on the W/mK rating. The higher the rating, the better the thermal transfer of the pads is, but the harder they are. The manufacturers use pads on the soft side.
Going too hard results in a warped PCB and uneven cold plate to die mount when you reinstall the cooler - or worse, the PCB cracks, and goodbye gpu.

Good luck!
 

Juffbox

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Apr 4, 2020
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So I decided yesterday to go bonkers, & buy the Asus Strix RTX 3090..

My question now is, I already know myself & I will want to repaste & repad the graphics card But I'm having trouble finding any sugestions about pad size & best paste to use..
Lastly I know allot of people my ask why do this, & I have no answer. lol


Anyway what kind of thermals do you think I may see after?
Thank you in advance.


This site will show you the pad dimensions, which is what I followed when I repasted and repadded my strix 3090. I used Gelid Extreme pads and Thermalright TFX paste, and they've worked well since.

Was pretty straightforward, just be sure to use a lot of thermal paste on the die given its large size. I had to re-paste twice since I didn't use enough the first time.
 
Solution

Phaaze88

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This site will show you the pad dimensions, which is what I followed when I repasted and repadded my strix 3090. I used Gelid Extreme pads and Thermalright TFX paste, and they've worked well since.

Was pretty straightforward, just be sure to use a lot of thermal paste on the die given its large size. I had to re-paste twice since I didn't use enough the first time.
There's a comment below saying:
Asus Rog Strix 3090 Information is wrong, yellow marked thermal pad on main cooler is not 1mm thick, it needs to be 1,5mm!
With kind regards
Uwe

What's that about?

The guide also doesn't mention the exact pads that were used; pads of the same size will have different degrees of hardness - that does matter.
 

Juffbox

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Apr 4, 2020
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There's a comment below saying:
Asus Rog Strix 3090 Information is wrong, yellow marked thermal pad on main cooler is not 1mm thick, it needs to be 1,5mm!
With kind regards
Uwe

What's that about?

The guide also doesn't mention the exact pads that were used; pads of the same size will have different degrees of hardness - that does matter.

Hmm I'm not sure, I used the 1.0mm pads, and it has worked just fine. Hotspot and Vram temps have stayed below 85 C even under 370-390 W loads. Maybe 1.5 is more optimal, but current circumstances are good enough for me.

I think the VRM cooling (which is the yellow section on the pictures) is less important since the VRM on the strix is overspecced (though I could be wrong). Padding and pasting brings the most benefit to the core, hotspot and Vram temps.
 

Phaaze88

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Hmm I'm not sure, I used the 1.0mm pads, and it has worked just fine. Hotspot and Vram temps have stayed below 85 C even under 370-390 W loads. Maybe 1.5 is more optimal, but current circumstances are good enough for me.
See, and this is my counter to all this. Which 1.0mm pads? Which 1.5mm pads, and so on.
The exact brand and model of pads needs to be discovered, because they all come in different degrees of hardness(soft/medium/firm/etc). That hardness will be the difference between:
-successful reduction in temperatures across the board.
-lower temperatures in one area, but worse in another.
-dead gpu.


Clicking Watch Replacement brings up a Youtube video, and clicking the title brings me to the actual link.
There's a mention of the pads used in the video description: an Amazon link to Gelid Ultimate. Okay, cool... but then I scroll down through the comments - the very first one asks what pads were used, and there's a reply from the video creator saying Gelid Extreme...
That's one hell of a typo, if one...