We hope this helps some people - timestamps below! 00:00 We received a video card in a sorry state 08:59 Figuring out the thickness of the stock thermal pads with feeler gauges 13:57 Measuring the backplate / standoffs 17:05 Cutting thermal pads to rescue the GPU 19:01 Reassembled card - test 20:38 Dismantled - visual check
THIS ^ Dude makes an entire video on the strix thermal pads, how to measure, writes them down, applies them... and people APplaud!??!?! Where the hell are the numbers?!?!?!?!?!
IMHO, having been through this nightmare just today (figuring out thermal pad thickness for my Palit 2080ti) it would be just so MUCH F***** EASIER if the damn brands would publish some decent documentation including a diagram describing screws and thermal pads used. It would save us all a ton of time and stress. We all know many brands use utter garbage thermal paste and pads, and after a couple of years, they will be almost destroyed, so they really need to be changed from time to time.
The right to repair isn't their friend. I count on them to do the least possible, the least legally required, when it comes to providing parts info., and that's why videos like this are so valuable.
Just gonna copy n paste what I said to someone else.......... It's totally shocking, if they didnt use shit materials in the first place we wouldnt need to replace the pads ect I'm having a nightmare with my 2080ti gigabyte windforce oc, the pads were crap quality and ruined, couldnt get a measurement and cant find info anywhere, gonna have to buy one of these wee things and try that, the more I fuck about with the wrong sizes the more money I waste and the more chance I have of bricking something that cost over £1200, raging mate
Already lost one rtx 2080ti to memory issues, now my second one rtx 2080 dual is overheating. Need to change the thermal pads too. Never in my life had issues with graphic cards until now and its not like theyre cheap…
@@honza1988. It's absolutely insane the kind of CRAP thermal pads most brands are installing on 1-2K USD cards. The memory hotspot fiasco in the RTX 3000 series says it all. Many people had to risk the replacement of the memory thermal pads because the brands are incapable of spending a few USD more in order to put decent ones, and GDDR6X chips reach critical temps that threaten their lifespan. Some brands like Gigabyte are so awful that their pads even MELT after a while, and they start to drop oil!!! This is insane, we are paying a shit ton of money for these new cards and this lack of quality is borderline scam.
Great video. Very helpful However, I found myself confused on what thickness is for what. If I may suggest that at the end of all of your videos you do a quick recap of what size pads go where. What I gathered is that the backplate requires 1.5MM Heatsink all pads are 2mm Please correct me if I'm wrong here Thank you
Being an ex mechanic this was right up my street, great idea using the feeler gauges, they don't get used much these days, so now diversifying into the gpu business.
When choosing thickness of the thermal pad, you need to take into account the softness of the thermal pads you are using as well. A 3mm ultra soft pad will squish down to 2mm, a hard pad may not.
@@Machistmo not sure what you mean, Victor was right that thermal pads compress a lot. Measuring them on screwed down card/plates and buying same size pads is probably not best way.
It's totally shocking, if they didnt use shit materials in the first place we wouldnt need to replace the pads ect I'm having a nightmare with my 2080ti gigabyte windforce oc, the pads were crap quality and ruined, couldnt get a measurement and cant find info anywhere, gonna have to buy one of these wee things and try that, the more I fuck about with the wrong sizes the more money I waste and the more chance I have of bricking something that cost over £1200, raging mate
@@DestroyerofBubbles I mean seriously, where are you even supposed to find this kind of information about your specific gpu anyway. There has to be some kind of manufacturer's manual to go off of, otherwise this is complete and utter bs.
@@mariyastoyanova31 It's BS mate, Ive seen loads of people saying they have contacted ASUS, Gigabyte ect and the get told 'they dont release that information' raging
@@DestroyerofBubbles Fr, I'm trying to contact MSI right now but have figured out that I need to register my product on their website to even talk to someone on the live chat, and for that I need to open up my case just to get a 3 digit code so I can register my product. My pc case is massive and so the only place it can fit comfortably in my undersized UK room is inside my desk cabinet and to even take it out I need to drag the whole desk (2 monitors and all) away from my wall to have enough space to unplug everything from the back while remembering the order as it is cable managed and that's when I can finally pull just the case out of my desk- don't even get me started on the side panels. And from there I need to provide an invoice for something I bought 3 damn years ago not even with the same credentials. Sorry for the unnecessary life story but jesus christ is a serial number alone not enough for these people??
Great video. It's really cool to see how you figured it all out. It's also really a shame ASUS won't tell people the thicknesses of the pads as I've seen on twitter when people have asked. Also, James, you nailed it on this one. Your presentation skills are getting awesomely better and you seem more comfortable in front of the camera compared to when you started. Cheers!
Use some putty put it on and tighten everything (not to hard though) take it apart again measure the thickness then. It should give you close enough measurements. Thermal usually in thicknesses of 0.5 - 4.0 mm or more (only seen that on some XFX video cards). Works also for laptops if you have to replace thermal pads and thermal grease.
I wish I found this video before having to throw away a couple of packs of thermal pads before finding the correct sized ones, even a caliper didn't help me much XD
There's a better way to measure. Use Putty where the pads would go. Take it apart and then measure the thickness of the putty after it's been compressed.
A diagram of the backplate and heatsink thermal pads measurements at the end, or a link to Imgur post, would have been perfect for this video to recap. Guess I’ll have to do it myself!
Thanks for this. Asus was not very forthcoming with thermal pad info for my TUF 3090 when I asked them. Asus is using very soft thermal pads this generation. I was super careful when watercooling my 3090, but a bunch of them still were in a condition that I would not be comfortable reusing them.
That probably explains why the pads were missing when we got the card, maybe they were destroyed upon removal. With the card reassembled we found that VRAM temperature never exceeded 88c when under an extreme load, so VRAM temperature while gaming will be considerably lower.
The northwest repair guy warns that you should ALWAYS put some thermal paste on the gpu if it's going to touch the cooling block, whether it's going to be on or off. The surface needs some protection.
Thanks a Lot for the Perfect video, Is it possible to add a schematic of the card with all the thermalpads dimensions on the card for a noob like me who does not know what is Vram front side, VRM Mosfet, VRM Inductor, Backplate, Backplate VRM caps, Thank you Sir.
? after taking it apart why not just use the bottom of a digital caliper instead of mucking around with feeler gauges? seems like alot of work just to measure
What, you think the cards will explode if you don't replace them? It's for extreme enthusiasts. It will run exactly as advertised without doing this work, they aren't selling you bullshit performance. Welcome to modding.
I want to change the thermal pads as soon as I receive my card that I bought as a user, I am waiting for it for this week, What thickness should I take and what brand do you recommend? ZOTAC GAMING GeForce GTX 1660 Ti 6GB GDDR6 ZT-T16610F-10L
Just did this operation with my strix 3080 OC. Used Gelid Extremes. With -500 Coreclock, +1000 Memoryclock and 66 Powerlimit (approx. 240-245W) i get 45c GPU temp, 78c Memorytemp and 57c Hotspot temp with fans at 80%. Gonna turn the fans down a bit but im really happy with the results!
Just put a ruler against the board at 90 degrees with the numbers going up, rotate the board to level the front lip and back lip (so the depth should disappear) and there is your actual height of each component. Feeler gauges will work but it seems highly inefficient.
It happened to me. Lol 3080 Ti on an alpha cool Aio. Can't fit that Aio and some screws missing from the stock cooler. Was worth the performance boost though!
I have a GeForce RTX™ 3080 GAMING OC WATERFORCE WB 10G (rev. 1.0) Memory junction at 110c think I should try to separate the card and put new thermal pads in?
update- new thermal pads gp extreme- gelid for memory chipsdropped me to 76c junction temps while 100mh put old pads that were on mem chips to the back
@KitGuruTech Do you know the thickness of the thermal pads of an Asus Dual OC Rtx 3070? There is no info on the internet, I bought a used one with no original pads, and I think they don't have the correct measure. Please HELP!
Re did the paste on my RX 580 and fans where slower + lower temps, did take two trys to get mount right. Any idea on UK rules on warranty and changing thermal pads/paste?
Great video and well-timed - hopefully - but I think you cut out one of the most useful bits. At one point you said you found that one of the thermal pads wasn't thick enough and had to replace it. It would have been incredibly useful to show you determining that. Was it by visual inspection, looking down the edge of the card? Or by looking for impressions in the pads (as you showed later)? Or something else? We all make mistakes and it is very useful to know how best to detect them.
Hi Quentin, It was noticed by a visual inspection once the cooler was installed. Looking between the cooler and PCB, It was clear that one of the pads wasn't making contact. Unfortunately, I unintentionally didn't have the camera rolling for that part.
Hi James 🥰🥳😎👋 great video to upload. Would love to see more of these types of videos in general as the new fancy shines things aren’t always around and these sorts of tutorials would help gamers and enthusiasts etc help maintain their existing rigs. Great work on this episode and looking forward to seeing your next episode! Cheers from Australia 🇦🇺 🍻
I assume you are joking? If not, I would hate to see the state of your video cards with potentially 2mm of thermal paste 'mashed' all over the components around the areas. If anyone is reading this, please do NOT try to cover your whole graphics cards in 2+mm of thermal paste across the VRMs etc - it will spread everywhere and not be able to conduct/transfer heat.
We hope this helps some people - timestamps below!
00:00 We received a video card in a sorry state
08:59 Figuring out the thickness of the stock thermal pads with feeler gauges
13:57 Measuring the backplate / standoffs
17:05 Cutting thermal pads to rescue the GPU
19:01 Reassembled card - test
20:38 Dismantled - visual check
To make it easier on everyone: Vram front side 2mm, VRM Mosfet 2mm, VRM Inductor 2.5mm, Backplate: 2.5mm, Backplate VRM caps: .5mm
the hero we needed. thanks bud.
THANK YOU SO MUCH
Thank you! Do you know how much you need per thickness?
Not on an 3090.
i have never seen 5mm thermal pads. 3mm is the thinkest one I can find
why would you not show us the sizes by locations at the end ? wasnt that the entire point of the video
THIS ^
Dude makes an entire video on the strix thermal pads, how to measure, writes them down, applies them... and people APplaud!??!?!
Where the hell are the numbers?!?!?!?!?!
IMHO, having been through this nightmare just today (figuring out thermal pad thickness for my Palit 2080ti) it would be just so MUCH F***** EASIER if the damn brands would publish some decent documentation including a diagram describing screws and thermal pads used. It would save us all a ton of time and stress. We all know many brands use utter garbage thermal paste and pads, and after a couple of years, they will be almost destroyed, so they really need to be changed from time to time.
The right to repair isn't their friend. I count on them to do the least possible, the least legally required, when it comes to providing parts info., and that's why videos like this are so valuable.
Just gonna copy n paste what I said to someone else.......... It's totally shocking, if they didnt use shit materials in the first place we wouldnt need to replace the pads ect I'm having a nightmare with my 2080ti gigabyte windforce oc, the pads were crap quality and ruined, couldnt get a measurement and cant find info anywhere, gonna have to buy one of these wee things and try that, the more I fuck about with the wrong sizes the more money I waste and the more chance I have of bricking something that cost over £1200, raging mate
Already lost one rtx 2080ti to memory issues, now my second one rtx 2080 dual is overheating. Need to change the thermal pads too. Never in my life had issues with graphic cards until now and its not like theyre cheap…
@@honza1988. It's absolutely insane the kind of CRAP thermal pads most brands are installing on 1-2K USD cards. The memory hotspot fiasco in the RTX 3000 series says it all. Many people had to risk the replacement of the memory thermal pads because the brands are incapable of spending a few USD more in order to put decent ones, and GDDR6X chips reach critical temps that threaten their lifespan. Some brands like Gigabyte are so awful that their pads even MELT after a while, and they start to drop oil!!! This is insane, we are paying a shit ton of money for these new cards and this lack of quality is borderline scam.
Companies being consumer friendly??? Good joke.
So, you are sharing confidential corporate material here?
Asus wont be pleased with you!
Great video. Very helpful
However, I found myself confused on what thickness is for what. If I may suggest that at the end of all of your videos you do a quick recap of what size pads go where.
What I gathered is that the backplate requires 1.5MM
Heatsink all pads are 2mm
Please correct me if I'm wrong here
Thank you
Being an ex mechanic this was right up my street, great idea using the feeler gauges, they don't get used much these days, so now diversifying into the gpu business.
Its been that long since I last used feeler gauges, I almost forgot what they looked like 😁
When choosing thickness of the thermal pad, you need to take into account the softness of the thermal pads you are using as well. A 3mm ultra soft pad will squish down to 2mm, a hard pad may not.
Yeah very good point, that is why it is a good idea to check how much/if all pads have squashed down and are contacting.
When choosing your thermal pads, sitting on a coke bottle might help. Seriously how dumb are people?
@@Machistmo what?
@@Machistmo I was thinking Pepsi, will give better results IMHO
@@Machistmo not sure what you mean, Victor was right that thermal pads compress a lot. Measuring them on screwed down card/plates and buying same size pads is probably not best way.
i'm surprised ASUS hasn't tried to take this down saying it's confidential information.
these companies, the lot of them, are a bunch of wankers.
It's totally shocking, if they didnt use shit materials in the first place we wouldnt need to replace the pads ect I'm having a nightmare with my 2080ti gigabyte windforce oc, the pads were crap quality and ruined, couldnt get a measurement and cant find info anywhere, gonna have to buy one of these wee things and try that, the more I fuck about with the wrong sizes the more money I waste and the more chance I have of bricking something that cost over £1200, raging mate
@@DestroyerofBubbles this right here ^^^^^
@@DestroyerofBubbles I mean seriously, where are you even supposed to find this kind of information about your specific gpu anyway. There has to be some kind of manufacturer's manual to go off of, otherwise this is complete and utter bs.
@@mariyastoyanova31 It's BS mate, Ive seen loads of people saying they have contacted ASUS, Gigabyte ect and the get told 'they dont release that information' raging
@@DestroyerofBubbles Fr, I'm trying to contact MSI right now but have figured out that I need to register my product on their website to even talk to someone on the live chat, and for that I need to open up my case just to get a 3 digit code so I can register my product. My pc case is massive and so the only place it can fit comfortably in my undersized UK room is inside my desk cabinet and to even take it out I need to drag the whole desk (2 monitors and all) away from my wall to have enough space to unplug everything from the back while remembering the order as it is cable managed and that's when I can finally pull just the case out of my desk- don't even get me started on the side panels. And from there I need to provide an invoice for something I bought 3 damn years ago not even with the same credentials. Sorry for the unnecessary life story but jesus christ is a serial number alone not enough for these people??
ASUS TOP SECRET EXPOSED
Hi, Whats the exact thickness of all the thermal pads?
Very interesting way of measuring the thermal pad thickness. I like it. 👍
Glad you like it!
Great video. It's really cool to see how you figured it all out. It's also really a shame ASUS won't tell people the thicknesses of the pads as I've seen on twitter when people have asked. Also, James, you nailed it on this one. Your presentation skills are getting awesomely better and you seem more comfortable in front of the camera compared to when you started. Cheers!
Thanks, glad you enjoyed it. 👍
You can never measure thermal pads properly because once you pull off the stock thermal pads, they are already compressed.
Can you list out the sizes please
Use some putty put it on and tighten everything (not to hard though) take it apart again measure the thickness then. It should give you close enough measurements. Thermal usually in thicknesses of 0.5 - 4.0 mm or more (only seen that on some XFX video cards).
Works also for laptops if you have to replace thermal pads and thermal grease.
Gonna try that the now lad, thanks for sharing
Good idea, my daughter got lots of playdough
I wish I found this video before having to throw away a couple of packs of thermal pads before finding the correct sized ones, even a caliper didn't help me much XD
So you heard what asus did? :D
There's a better way to measure. Use Putty where the pads would go. Take it apart and then measure the thickness of the putty after it's been compressed.
Just use some modeling clay - faster, easier and more precise
A diagram of the backplate and heatsink thermal pads measurements at the end, or a link to Imgur post, would have been perfect for this video to recap. Guess I’ll have to do it myself!
Please post your imgur link. Replacing mine tomorrow or day after tomorrow.
links for thermal pads?
Thanks for this. Asus was not very forthcoming with thermal pad info for my TUF 3090 when I asked them. Asus is using very soft thermal pads this generation. I was super careful when watercooling my 3090, but a bunch of them still were in a condition that I would not be comfortable reusing them.
That probably explains why the pads were missing when we got the card, maybe they were destroyed upon removal.
With the card reassembled we found that VRAM temperature never exceeded 88c when under an extreme load, so VRAM temperature while gaming will be considerably lower.
The northwest repair guy warns that you should ALWAYS put some thermal paste on the gpu if it's going to touch the cooling block, whether it's going to be on or off. The surface needs some protection.
Thank You very much.
Changing thermal pads and identifying their thickness was always very problematic for me. This video helps a lot.
Thanks a Lot for the Perfect video, Is it possible to add a schematic of the card with all the thermalpads dimensions on the card for a noob like me who does not know what is Vram front side, VRM Mosfet, VRM Inductor, Backplate, Backplate VRM caps, Thank you Sir.
Stay away from corsair products.
? after taking it apart why not just use the bottom of a digital caliper instead of mucking around with feeler gauges? seems like alot of work just to measure
Can I just say this: if you’re paying more than 1000 for any card, you shouldn’t have to wrench on it.
What, you think the cards will explode if you don't replace them? It's for extreme enthusiasts. It will run exactly as advertised without doing this work, they aren't selling you bullshit performance. Welcome to modding.
I want to change the thermal pads as soon as I receive my card that I bought as a user, I am waiting for it for this week,
What thickness should I take and what brand do you recommend?
ZOTAC GAMING GeForce GTX 1660 Ti 6GB GDDR6
ZT-T16610F-10L
Hi people. Anyone know the thickness of the thermal pads for an Aorus RTX 2080 Xtreme? Thanks
Just did this operation with my strix 3080 OC. Used Gelid Extremes. With -500 Coreclock, +1000 Memoryclock and 66 Powerlimit (approx. 240-245W) i get 45c GPU temp, 78c Memorytemp and 57c Hotspot temp with fans at 80%. Gonna turn the fans down a bit but im really happy with the results!
Just put a ruler against the board at 90 degrees with the numbers going up, rotate the board to level the front lip and back lip (so the depth should disappear) and there is your actual height of each component. Feeler gauges will work but it seems highly inefficient.
It happened to me. Lol 3080 Ti on an alpha cool Aio. Can't fit that Aio and some screws missing from the stock cooler. Was worth the performance boost though!
What thermal pad measurements do you need for the asus 3060 ti strix ?, and what brand
Front is universally the same thickness needed on most AIB but the back plate can very alot from 3 to 2 also some compress more or less than others.
James, you always provide great information and useful guides. Well done per usual mate !
Thanks Andy.
I have a GeForce RTX™ 3080 GAMING OC WATERFORCE WB 10G (rev. 1.0)
Memory junction at 110c
think I should try to separate the card and put new thermal pads in?
update- new thermal pads gp extreme- gelid for memory chipsdropped me to 76c junction temps while 100mh
put old pads that were on mem chips to the back
just luck i came accross this video, yes this was usefull information. Thanks.
@KitGuruTech Do you know the thickness of the thermal pads of an Asus Dual OC Rtx 3070? There is no info on the internet, I bought a used one with no original pads, and I think they don't have the correct measure. Please HELP!
We are all now dumber
Hi! What exactly is name of that steel tool for measuring the pads
Too long vid
Thanks!
Can the Faber-Castell Knedable Eraser be used as an alternative to regular thermal pads? the rubber seems pretty much the same.
LOL
Do inductors actually need thermal pads?
Re did the paste on my RX 580 and fans where slower + lower temps, did take two trys to get mount right.
Any idea on UK rules on warranty and changing thermal pads/paste?
I'm not sure on where you stand with warranty. All I can say is some cards have warranty seals on the screw heads and some don't.
@@KitGuruJames Well dont want to void my warranty, thanks.
Great video and well-timed - hopefully - but I think you cut out one of the most useful bits. At one point you said you found that one of the thermal pads wasn't thick enough and had to replace it. It would have been incredibly useful to show you determining that. Was it by visual inspection, looking down the edge of the card? Or by looking for impressions in the pads (as you showed later)? Or something else? We all make mistakes and it is very useful to know how best to detect them.
Hi Quentin, It was noticed by a visual inspection once the cooler was installed. Looking between the cooler and PCB, It was clear that one of the pads wasn't making contact. Unfortunately, I unintentionally didn't have the camera rolling for that part.
@@KitGuruJames you can deduce it by a possible lack of imprints of backplate or memory (depending on which side the mem pad sticks to)
@@KitGuruJames Thanks.
This is really great video. Bunch of useful information presented clearly. Well done!
Is it though? Not a single measurement was shared......
can you do the 3090 tuf?
Would appreciate it greatly
How is this called to measure the gaps? at 9:49
It's a Feeler Gage
VRAM needs 2mm!
Hi James 🥰🥳😎👋 great video to upload. Would love to see more of these types of videos in general as the new fancy shines things aren’t always around and these sorts of tutorials would help gamers and enthusiasts etc help maintain their existing rigs. Great work on this episode and looking forward to seeing your next episode! Cheers from Australia 🇦🇺 🍻
Thanks, glad you enjoyed it. 👍
what a graphics card and why make a video something we can buy
I dont know what he is talking about and what he is showing either.
It is maybe an out of season april fools joke here
@@leinadreign3510 Its a very rare mythical creature...
Can or can't?
what thermalpads are used and mm of each?
Screw thermal pads. Just buy the thermal goop. Goop, mash to fit, and go. Silicone goop is rated at 10w mk. Pricey but good quality.
I assume you are joking? If not, I would hate to see the state of your video cards with potentially 2mm of thermal paste 'mashed' all over the components around the areas. If anyone is reading this, please do NOT try to cover your whole graphics cards in 2+mm of thermal paste across the VRMs etc - it will spread everywhere and not be able to conduct/transfer heat.
@@theonlyredspecial my aorus 1080ti has some components on 0.5mm, is it ok if i use 1mm? counting pressure and stuff would be fine? thanks !
is this serious?
@@pav1u People are pree dumb.