Gigabyte Aorus Master 5090 Teardown and PCB Pics

[kindai]

I think people are going to be shocked about the quality of this teardown. First I will stick the how to and then share my thoughts. It seems to validate some rumours that the cards have been rushed through.

Anyway onto the card.



Teardown is quite simple.

Remove every screw you see here.





Thats it. Job done. The PCB lifts away after removing the 2 fan connectors.





Gigabyte have plastered the card in this thermal goo which has the consistancy and feel of blended potatoes.









Despite having a large metal backplate, there is no effort or attempt made to use it as a heatsink. 0/10 for effort Gigabyte.





The core seems to have a second type of paste used with a metalic element to it. Almost like half-lm half-goop.

 

[kindai]

So for the avoidance of doubt, the pictures of the card are how it is "out the box". This is not user damage or similar.

Scratches on the outside.



More marks and some sort of defect in the "Team" sticker thing.




Hard to see but there seems to be a plastic protector stuck on here, all the corners are peeling off.




The PCB has numerous markings, fingerprints, residues, and blobs of "something" that looks like a poorly applied coating. Some poor quality soldering also going on a couple of spots.




The front side isnt much better, numerous markings and looks like some liquid markings of sorts to the power connector.





Will any of these things affect the card? Unlikely, but it is disappointing to see none the less. It does make me wonder how stringient the QC on these cards is going to be and if they have been rushed out, how many people may end up getting cards that prematurely fail.

 

[Rroff]

Disappointing to see the assembly quality but I'm not seeing anything design wise which says rushed - the way nVidia has designed the cards makes it quite hard to use the backplate in a meaningful way to remove heat and it is likely there for rigidity purposes only (if you've not seen it the GN video with the nVidia engineer is worth a look).

I assume you are aware about the properties of the thermal goop and why it is being used.

 

[momo56]

Did you re-use the stock paste when you put it back together ? Curious how it compares to regular paste.

 

[kindai]

I assume you are aware about the properties of the thermal goop and why it is being used.

I dont know what goop they are using or how good it is to be honest. Either way I cant use it in my new build as it will just dissolve.

Did you re-use the stock paste when you put it back together ? Curious how it compares to regular paste.

I am waiting for some pads and kyrosheet to turn up instead of paste.

 

[Rroff]

Did you re-use the stock paste when you put it back together ? Curious how it compares to regular paste.

I hope Kindai read the disclaimer on the Aorus Master (due to the type of paste used): "If the card is disassembled, it may not retain its original performance without professional reassembly."

 

[kindai]

read

nope

disclaimer

double nope.