Question RTX 3090 FE - worth it to replace thermal pads?

Jul 5, 2020
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Look at this:
https://www.tomshardware.com/news/replacing-geforce-rtx-3090-thermal-pads-improves-temps-by-25c

Running FurMark for a few minutes on my card, I could confirm that the memory junction temperature keeps rising until it's well above 90°C.

I'm not into overclocking or mining, and with all the money I had to throw at that card, I'd really like it to last me a good amount of time. My use cases are 3D modeling/rendering & gaming. What do you guys think, should I replace those thermal pads?
 
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Deleted member 2838871

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I haven't had that problem. I OC'ed my card and ran FurMark for 30 mins (3090 fans 100%) and temps were upper 70's... temps are lower when doing 3D stuff and gaming.

If you decide to take the card apart make sure you know what you are getting yourself into... Gamers Nexus has a video on it and I'm not touching it. :LOL:

P.S.

I'm in the PNW and ambient temps are low... which also plays a part. Mine would probably be higher if I was in Texas.

P.S.S.

From that article "The memory's thermals shouldn't be as big of a concern if you're not into cryptocurrency mining."

So to answer your question... since you aren't... I'd say no. I personally think the cooling is amazing. I put a hybrid kit on my 1080 Ti because the FE card ran so hot... don't see a need for that here.
 
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Jul 5, 2020
16
6
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I haven't had that problem. I OC'ed my card and ran FurMark for 30 mins (3090 fans 100%) and temps were upper 70's... temps are lower when doing 3D stuff and gaming.

If you decide to take the card apart make sure you know what you are getting yourself into... Gamers Nexus has a video on it and I'm not touching it. :LOL:

P.S.

I'm in the PNW and ambient temps are low... which also plays a part. Mine would probably be higher if I was in Texas.

P.S.S.

From that article "The memory's thermals shouldn't be as big of a concern if you're not into cryptocurrency mining."

So to answer your question... since you aren't... I'd say no. I personally think the cooling is amazing. I put a hybrid kit on my 1080 Ti because the FE card ran so hot... don't see a need for that here.

My impression is that they did a great job with the cooling of the GPU chip, but kinda forgot about the GDDR chips... in fact, they dissipate their heat (through some dollar-store thermal pads) into a thin backplate that looks like it has a quite poor ability to carry that heat away, if nothing for its geometry.

I live in Italy and the weather here is not unlike the southern coastal part of PNW, just milder. So yeah thanks for sharing your experience, I might not need to put my hands inside my card. From the video guides it looks like a pain in the butt, with the additional stress that one wrong move will cost you a grand and a half (of bloody euros, in my case!).
 
D

Deleted member 2838871

Guest
My impression is that they did a great job with the cooling of the GPU chip, but kinda forgot about the GDDR chips... in fact, they dissipate their heat (through some dollar-store thermal pads) into a thin backplate that looks like it has a quite poor ability to carry that heat away, if nothing for its geometry.

I live in Italy and the weather here is not unlike the southern coastal part of PNW, just milder. So yeah thanks for sharing your experience, I might not need to put my hands inside my card. From the video guides it looks like a pain in the butt, with the additional stress that one wrong move will cost you a grand and a half (of bloody euros, in my case!).

Hahah... you mean one wrong move will cost you $3000... because that's what they are going for here in the USA now... at least on eBay.

To clarify, my previous temp numbers was the GPU chip. Was leaving work and not thinking straight when I posted that... anyway, got home a little while ago and updated HWinfo so I see the GPU ram temps... and ran Furmark and did some gaming and GPU temps were around 60C... but the "GPU memory junction" temps during Furmark peaked at 94C... the gaming temps were a little less peaking at 92C.

From that article "In our own tests, the memory inside the GeForce RTX 3080 and RTX 3090 peaked at temperatures of 94 degrees Celsius and 104 degrees Celsius, respectively. Micron rates its GDDR6X chips for operational temperatures up to 95C. Running the memory out of spec during prolonged durations is a recipe for disaster."

That being said, I agree with you. Great job with the cooling of the GPU chip... not so much with the ram chips. Still, it's within spec. Honestly... I'm not gonna worry about it at the moment. I don't want to put my hands inside this card either... I am going to monitor the temps though when doing extended gaming and see if I need to change my mind. I don't see myself doing that unless 100C+ is reached and/or throttling which appears unlikely.
 
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Zerk2012

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Ambassador
Look at this:
https://www.tomshardware.com/news/replacing-geforce-rtx-3090-thermal-pads-improves-temps-by-25c

Running FurMark for a few minutes on my card, I could confirm that the memory junction temperature keeps rising until it's well above 90°C.

I'm not into overclocking or mining, and with all the money I had to throw at that card, I'd really like it to last me a good amount of time. My use cases are 3D modeling/rendering & gaming. What do you guys think, should I replace those thermal pads?
What case and fan setup are you using better airflow could improve it.
EDIT I've also used a PCI-E fan set below cards to help.
 
D

Deleted member 2838871

Guest
What case and fan setup are you using better airflow could improve it.
EDIT I've also used a PCI-E fan set below cards to help.

Not sure about OP but I'm running the Meshify 2... and I have plenty of airflow... 5 case fans 140mm. The one thing I don't have is one of them directly under the GPU. Thanks for the tip though... may have to try it if I change my mind. As said, gonna monitor the memory temps.
 

Zerk2012

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Ambassador
Not sure about OP but I'm running the Meshify 2... and I have plenty of airflow... 5 case fans 140mm. The one thing I don't have is one of them directly under the GPU. Thanks for the tip though... may have to try it if I change my mind. As said, gonna monitor the memory temps.
About the same case as mine yours's is just longer Meshify C.
 
Jul 5, 2020
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What case and fan setup are you using better airflow could improve it.
EDIT I've also used a PCI-E fan set below cards to help.

My case is a Corsair 600Q, an inverted ATX form. I have two Corsair ML120 fans on the front, blowing air into the 240mm radiator of a Corsair Hydro H100i V2 AIO, and into the case. Then I have three 140mm fans blowing air out, one at the back and two at the bottom of the case. My cpu is an AMD R9 5900X, not producing much heat. All my other temps are pretty good, the fans rarely have to ramp up speed (although the weather's still cold, I haven't tested it in summer yet), and the airflow seems good.
 
Jul 5, 2020
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Hahah... you mean one wrong move will cost you $3000... because that's what they are going for here in the USA now... at least on eBay.

To clarify, my previous temp numbers was the GPU chip. Was leaving work and not thinking straight when I posted that... anyway, got home a little while ago and updated HWinfo so I see the GPU ram temps... and ran Furmark and did some gaming and GPU temps were around 60C... but the "GPU memory junction" temps during Furmark peaked at 94C... the gaming temps were a little less peaking at 92C.

From that article "In our own tests, the memory inside the GeForce RTX 3080 and RTX 3090 peaked at temperatures of 94 degrees Celsius and 104 degrees Celsius, respectively. Micron rates its GDDR6X chips for operational temperatures up to 95C. Running the memory out of spec during prolonged durations is a recipe for disaster."

That being said, I agree with you. Great job with the cooling of the GPU chip... not so much with the ram chips. Still, it's within spec. Honestly... I'm not gonna worry about it at the moment. I don't want to put my hands inside this card either... I am going to monitor the temps though when doing extended gaming and see if I need to change my mind. I don't see myself doing that unless 100C+ is reached and/or throttling which appears unlikely.

Yeah it seems Nvidia played uncomfortably close to the operating limits of the vram. However, I am quite a bit skeptical of the claim that you can drop those temperatures by 25C degrees just by replacing the thermal pads... I certainly don't wanna go through all that trouble to find out that temps improved just by 2C.

In the meantime I think I'll monitor the vram temps during prolonged sessions of my case use: Cyberpunk 2077 and rendering with Blender. If I never break 95C I might follow your example and stop worrying about this.
 
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Deleted member 2838871

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Yeah it seems Nvidia played uncomfortably close to the operating limits of the vram. However, I am quite a bit skeptical of the claim that you can drop those temperatures by 25C degrees just by replacing the thermal pads... I certainly don't wanna go through all that trouble to find out that temps improved just by 2C.

In the meantime I think I'll monitor the vram temps during prolonged sessions of my case use: Cyberpunk 2077 and rendering with Blender. If I never break 95C I might follow your example and stop worrying about this.

Sounds like a plan. I have a hard time believing 25C as well. Remember this thread and if there's any further updates or if you change your mind let us know. I'll do the same. (y)
 
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Jul 5, 2020
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Sounds like a plan. I have a hard time believing 25C as well. Remember this thread and if there's any further updates or if you change your mind let us know. I'll do the same. (y)

OK for the moment I ran Furmark again, after installing MSI afterburner and setting some fan curves of my liking. My GPU asymptotes to 63C, and the VRAM to 88C, and the GPU fans stay quiet, they never going above 40%. I'm quite happy with this. Lokk here:

https://ibb.co/Mn64HB4

I don't know why I was spiralling out of control with my previous test...

I'll do the use-case tests and get back to you.
 
Jul 5, 2020
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OK for the moment I ran Furmark again, after installing MSI afterburner and setting some fan curves of my liking. My GPU asymptotes to 63C, and the VRAM to 88C, and the GPU fans stay quiet, they never going above 40%. I'm quite happy with this. Lokk here:

https://ibb.co/Mn64HB4

I don't know why I was spiralling out of control with my previous test...

I'll do the use-case tests and get back to you.

One thing I'm puzzled of is: why can't I undervolt the GPU with MSI Afterburner? How is one supposed to do that?
 
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Deleted member 2838871

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I don't know why I was spiralling out of control with my previous test...

I'll do the use-case tests and get back to you.

Very nice... I might have to try that as well with the fan curve.

One thing I'm puzzled of is: why can't I undervolt the GPU with MSI Afterburner? How is one supposed to do that?

Not sure... I've seen threads about it though. I'm sure someone will chime in.
 
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