Thermal Pads for Older GTX cards

[Oldschool_OC]

Hi everyone,

I recently re-did the thermal paste on my GPU's.

Now I have decided to treat my video cards to new thermal pads for the RAM chips on them, as it is very unlikely that a new video card will be in the budget anytime soon.

Obviously I will also have to re-do the GPU thermal paste again in the process.

Have three GTX 970 and one GTX 1060 6GB.

I ended up getting some Thermalright pads in various thicknesses (1.0 and 1.5). The pads are rated at 12.8 w/mk.

Since I know very little about thermal pads I decided to ask if 12.8 w/mk is sufficient for such RAM chips. What do you suppose the factory might have used on comparison?

Thanks for any input.

 

[EarthDog]

Good question...I'm not sure. I'd bet it will be fine.

 

[Mr.Scott]

Factory will use the cheapest thing they can find.
The Thermalright pads are way better.

 

[Oldschool_OC]

Thanks Mr.Scott.

Didn't occur to me the factory would cheap out, but thinking about it, it actually makes sense.

 

[Blaylock]

Fujipoly used to be the top brand/most recommended years ago. If memory serves me correctly they were rated around 12.8 w/mk as well. The Thermalrights should be a considerable improvement over OEM, though you won't notice a difference (read OC) unless you were having thermal issues in the first place. Still, it provides a good piece of mind and with thermals, lower is always better.

 

[EarthDog]

Factory will use the cheapest thing they can find.

In fairness, this depends on the card, but is mostly correct. Some mid-range+ SKUs tout they put 'premium' thermal pads on the VRMs, etc. You see this on motherboards now too.

My advice would be to confirm your card isn't advertising such a thing and if not, go for it....... understanding the info in Blay's post.

 

[P A U L]

what is a thermal "pad"? is a layer of paste called the pad??

 

[EarthDog]

No. Paste is still paste. A thermal pad isn't a liquid. It's more of a solid thermal paste.