What to use to fill the gap between waterblock and chips.

[n0ns3ns3]

Hi,
I have ordered a "universal" waterblock for the graphics card. It supposed to cover the GPU and RAM (separate block for VRM).
There is a "huge" gap of ~3mm between the block and the RAM chips.
So possible solutions are:

1. Use 3mm thermal pad
2. Use a combination of thermal pad/grease with 2-2.5mm copper shims

So the question is " will that make any REAL difference in cooling performance" ?

 

[rubix_1011]

Thermal pad is probably a safer bet in the event that your thermal paste/grease is conductive. Almost all full cover GPU blocks use thermal pads.

 

[n0ns3ns3]

Thermal pad is probably a safer bet in the event that your thermal paste/grease is conductive. Almost all full cover GPU blocks use thermal pads.

True.
They use it for thin gaps.
May be I phrased it wrong, but the question is about copper shims. Is it worth to bother to do this construction of copper shims + thin thermal pads over thick thermal pads.
Thermal pads are at most have 5-6 W/mK while copper is about 400W/mK.

 

[rubix_1011]

I don't think you'll gain much if you tried the copper shims, but I suppose you might gain a tiny, tiny cooling advantage if you were going to overclock the GPU memory.

 

[4Ryan6]

Hi,
I have ordered a "universal" waterblock for the graphics card. It supposed to cover the GPU and RAM (separate block for VRM).

I would be better to know exactly what you have bought, and what card it is bought for, to be able to advise you properly, so can you provide some links?

 

[n0ns3ns3]

Hi,
I have ordered a "universal" waterblock for the graphics card. It supposed to cover the GPU and RAM (separate block for VRM).

I would be better to know exactly what you have bought, and what card it is bought for, to be able to advise you properly, so can you provide some links?

The current card is old reference GTX570 (which is probably will be replaced in near feature since it can do DOOM only at ~40FPS on med settings at 1920x1200, by something like GTX1070).
Today, the card is running at 850/2000MHz for the core/mem. (732/1950 stock). The GPU is water cooled, the rest is cooled by the original reference cooler. I removed the vapor chamber with radiator and added holes for the tubing. At winter, with much lower ambient, I'm able to run the card on 950/2100MHz.

Here is the GPU/RAM block
As you can see on the block images, the GPU and RAM areas are on the same level.
On the card the GPU is about 3mm higher than RAM.
From my experience, replacing the original TIM (the one between the CPU die and IHS) on my i7-4770K, lowered cores temp under load, by almost 20C. And there was a very thin TIM layer. Here we are talking about 3mm. So my concern is that thermal pads will do a very poor job at transferring the heat from RAM to the block.

WDYT ?

 

[4Ryan6]

That link went to clothes and shoes etc.

 

[n0ns3ns3]

That link went to clothes and shoes etc.

strange, opens fine for me when i click it in post.
Google for Bykski N-GX-M. There is also Bykski N-GX-X which differs by the microchannel width around GPU area (0.5mm on M vs 0.2mm on X).