3090 FE thermal pad replacement success!

[Arterion]

Howdy folks,

After seeing some outrageous temps on my 3090 FE, not to mention the jet engine-like noises it was making as a result (loud enough to be heard from a different room with the door closed), I decided I needed to do something about it. Did a bit of reading and was astonished to find some of these premium flagship cards have shipped with garbage thermal pads. So, with some trepidation, I took it apart and replaced them - very carefully. And it seems to have worked.

GPU temp: 74°C --> 71°C.
GPU memory junction temp: 110°C (!) --> 82°C.
GPU hot spot temp: 93°C --> 84°C.

These temps were obtained after 3x FurMark benches, followed by half an hour or so of the Final Fantasy XIV Dawntrail benchmark on loop. No artifacting or odd behaviour - everything seems tickety-boo. A couple of hours real gaming have also revealed no issues. And the card is now damn near silent even under heavy load.

Quietly pleased with myself!

 

[Arterion]

Nice, I have been considering doing the same with my 3090 FE, just didn't have it in me to take it apart.

Which thermal pads did you replace them with?

Thanks

I used a combination of Gelid Extreme 1.5mm and 2mm on the front side, and 1.5mm Thermalright Odyssey Extreme on the back.

Went with Arctic MX-6 paste on the core.

There's an excellent guide on Reddit, and also one on youtube (from a crypto guy) on how to do this - between the two, I had all the info I need. The guide which said put 2mm on the back was incorrect for my card; they were too thick.

 

[Arterion]

What thermal paste did you use? Keep an eye on that GPU hotspot temp. If the delta from GPU temp to GPU hotspot temp rises above 15 degrees, your thermal paste is pumping out.

If it does, look into PTM 7950 as it won't pump out.

Arctic MX-6. Hotspot looks ok to me, I put thermal pads on that area, but I'll be monitoring temps for a little while yet!

 

[Arterion]

I was going to do this but didn't bother in the end as with a nice undervolt curve my mem junction temps (the scary one) rarely go above 90c. If left at stock it used to be high but never as high as the OPs.

It really is daft to run a 3090FE at stock, undervolting is king.

Interesting, does undervolting just achieve lower temps? Or are there other effects?

 

[Arterion]

Uses less volts, ergo less power, ergo lower temps, but with the same or even better and more consistent performance. If you do it right.

I see. Thanks for the tip, I'll look into it.

 

[Arterion]

I undervolted my 3090FE and it made a huge difference to temps, and didn't affect performance much at all. Well worth doing.

Thanks! I'm gonna see if I can find some simple guides and have a go!

 

[Arterion]

got pics of the install of the new pads? it be good to see them compared to the old ones.

Sorry Mav, no, I don't - my bad!

 

[Arterion]

Are original pads wrong sized? Or dont have full coverage?

It's a known issue that they're just poor pads which don't really function that well to start with and degrade over time. Mine were like very soft marshmallow when I went to take them off.

 

[Arterion]

I replaced all the pads and paste on my 3090 when it was new it used to hit 100c easy and throttle so i bit the bullet and bought some gelid pads and decent paste, at the time i was cacking it doing it but it dropped temps by nearly 20c overall and ran much better

What paste did you use out of curiosity?

 

[Arterion]

MX-4 iirc

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/arctic-mx-4-thermal-compound-4g-th-01b-ar.html

Noice. I went with the MX-6 but I suspect they're very similar. How are your core temps with the MX4 under load?

 

[Arterion]

i think core never went over 80c after the replacements but i sold the 3090 a while ago...

Fair enough! What did you replace it with?

 

[Arterion]

Nice! Massive upgrade?

 

[Arterion]

It wasn't as my 3600X bottlenecked big time so i also had to buy a 5800x3D but then it was unleashed to be fair the 3090 was probably bottlenecked too at the time

Aye, I feel my 3090 is probably a bit bottlenecked by my 5600. At any rate, I'm not in a position to upgrade my CPU or graphics card at the moment, so I will carry on like this for a while. The 3090 is still coping really well with everything I'm throwing at it.