980Ti repaste woes

[mackerel]

In recent crunching usage I noticed my 980Ti thermally throttling. That's no unusual. It was running 160W at the time. That is unusual. I knew the thermals needed looking at. No excess dust on the fan/heatsink, so repaste it was. Opened it up, and I saw the old paste had significantly pumped out. I don't recall what paste it was, but I had done it in the past. On went MX-6 in its place. I cracked open a new tube. I've never used it before, and it is THICC. Maybe even needing a 3rd C. Attempts at spreading it didn't go well but got there in the end.

Then there were thermal pads. Many of them over the ram chips had degraded so far they were literally falling apart. The ones over VRM seemed in better condition. I got spare pads, I should replace them. Visually, the old pads seemed to be card original based on pictures elsewhere. But what thickness? Couldn't find a good answer online, so I tried to measure the old pads. Digital callipers said the ram pads were near enough 1mm so that seemed easy. The VRM pads were hitting about 1.3mm. Is that a standard size? I tried comparing it to the ram pads, but neither visually or by feel could I say they were that different. Maybe compression related? If I really squeeze the ram pads, they go to 0.9mm. Same on the VRM pads. So, are they the same or not? Measured my "new" pads, the 1mm ones were in tolerance of 1mm, with protective film still on. I decided to replace the ram ones, and reuse the VM ones which didn't disintegrate nearly as bad as the ram ones.

Reassembled and compared some before-after results. Using PrimeGrid GFN-17 project, obviously throttling before. Peak temps were about the same after, but no reported thermal throttling. Power usage was about 10% higher. It is better but this is still nowhere near applying 250W, and it is still on the edge of throttling even if not reaching it. I could leave it for now.

Thinking more, could both VRM and ram pads be 1.5mm, but the ram ones compressed more over time?

I got pics elsewhere I'll add later.

 

[Voodoo Rufus]

I think most thermal pads come in .5 mm increments. I normally buy a bulk variety pack of Amazon and cut them to size.

 

[mackerel]

I think most thermal pads come in .5 mm increments. I normally buy a bulk variety pack of Amazon and cut them to size.

I have 0.5mm and 1.0mm pads spare, but what I don't know is what were the original ones?

This is me trying to compare the VRM pad (left) to the ram pad (right). Looks and feels about the same. Maybe the left one is slightly fatter, but hard to tell from looking.


This is what I ended up doing, with original pads over VRM (left) and new 1.0mm pads over ram (right). I was too lazy to cut them for each chip and since I have plenty spare I just made strips.


Also this is the heatsink contact area. On the left is what I saw after cleaning off the old paste. The grey lump to the right is very hard. I couldn't shift it with my fingernail. It felt too thick to be left there as it was obviously not flat to the rest. Using a flat screwdriver I poked at it and it crumbled off with some force. I don't think I added new scratches to the area, but there is copper showing there now. Did it oxidise somehow? The smaller dark areas were other much smaller areas that were similar.



And the stats before and after. Both running PrimeGrid GFN17 for some time.

 

[Kenrou]

Brand/model?

 

[mackerel]

Brand/model?

Oops, forgot to say. It is the FE.

 

[Kenrou]

From the (very) little info I see on the FE, all pads should be 1mm, but from what I remember from my Strix you're about ~15c above where you should be unless you got the original shroud which was... Bad... Hotspot is VRM I think.

 

[mackerel]

From the (very) little info I see on the FE, all pads should be 1mm, but from what I remember from my Strix you're about ~15c above where you should be unless you got the original shroud which was... Bad... Hotspot is VRM I think.

It is a blower. Did they do multiple versions of it for the 980Ti? I know they updated it for Pascal generation but that's much later. It was on the edge of throttling even when new, but I do recall getting to the 250W power limit, where I'm on the edge of throttling now at <200W.

Hotspot should be hotspot.

 

[Kenrou]

FE, Asus, Gigabyte, MSI are the ones I remember off the top of my head, I think MSI was the better of the lot.

 

[EarthDog]

Why guess? Slather liberally, lol.

Amazon.com

 

[mackerel]

Why guess? Slather liberally, lol.

That link doesn't work for me. Amazon tries to be smart and does redirections and other things so don't assume someone in another region will see what you see. In this case, it didn't get that far and all I get is a blank screen. However from the URL I can see you tried to link to Thermal Grizzly Putty Advance. I'll have to admit I didn't know this existed and seems like it would do the job, even if it means giving Der8auer money. I see there is Basic/Advanced/Pro and I have to know the difference between them first!

 

[Kenrou]

New: The Latest TG Putties – Basic, Advance, and Pro

TG Putty is an electrically non-conductive alternative to thermal pads, perfect for upgrading graphics cards and replacing thermal pads.

www.thermal-grizzly.com

TG Putty Basic with medium thermal conductivity


TG Putty Advance with good thermal conductivity


TG Putty Pro with excellent thermal conductivity


*The product is not explosive, however, formation of explosive mixtures are possible

 

[EarthDog]

That link doesn't work for me. Amazon tries to be smart and does redirections and other things so don't assume someone in another region will see what you see.

.....


...@Kenrou, can you see the link? You're a Euro/UK too, right?

 

[Kenrou]

@Kenrou, can you see the link? You're a Euro/UK too, right?

I can on PC but I have a private DNS that geo unlocks. On mobile it asks me to change country and goes to a slightly different product.