RTX 3080 FE - Backplate Thermal Pad Mod

Puppetmaster · 17 Mar 2021 at 00:25

Primarily gaming on the 3080 (bought with mining profits from 2018 :cool:

) but also clawing some of the cost back when not gaming.

1080ti is mining 24/7 though.

JohnG7 · 17 Mar 2021 at 00:26

Well hope it blows up.

gpuerrilla · 17 Mar 2021 at 00:28

100c isnt bad with all that gear in it!

Im waiting for the thermal pads for the 3090 before I squeeze back up the memory clocks and it has reasonable cooling in the case.

Puppetmaster · 17 Mar 2021 at 00:29

Th0nt said:
100c isnt bad with all that gear in it!

Im waiting for the thermal pads for the 3090 before I squeeze back up the memory clocks and it has reasonable cooling in the case.

Only getting 86mh/s atm though, got a bit toasty when I oc'd it.

gpuerrilla · 17 Mar 2021 at 00:33

I see, I was revving 108MH/s then seen 104c so backed off a bit keeping it at or below 100c myself till the pads can drop them temps.

mikehhhhhhh · 17 Mar 2021 at 08:26

I don't think 100c is anything to worry about - that is my target temperature on my 3090.

My additional cooling has got me to 100c @115MH/s with the fan at 45%, which is a comfortable noise level for the living room.

gpuerrilla · 17 Mar 2021 at 09:29

Even with a sink+fan on the plate soon as I push above 100MH/s the mem temps go over 100c. It is in a case so unless I bring down ambient (like opening the nearby back door) I think only the pad mod will get it properly under control, they must have been stingy with the pads on my card.

mikehhhhhhh · 17 Mar 2021 at 09:33

Th0nt said:
Even with a sink+fan on the plate soon as I push above 100MH/s the mem temps go over 100c. It is in a case so unless I bring down ambient (like opening the nearby back door) I think only the pad mod will get it properly under control, they must have been stingy with the pads on my card.

What core and memory clocks?

gpuerrilla · 17 Mar 2021 at 09:34

Core is on a curve about ~900mhz memory is only +100.

mikehhhhhhh · 17 Mar 2021 at 09:55

Th0nt said:
Core is on a curve about ~900mhz memory is only +100.

I've got core fixed at 1050Mhz and Mem fixed at 10250Mhz and I'm getting 115MH/s with 100c VRAM.

That is where I found peak efficiency.

Gears · 17 Mar 2021 at 10:22

I recently replaced the thermal pads front & back on my 3080 FE with the 1.5mm Thermalright ones. I previously only had 3mm on the backplate as per Igor's mod but I had Minus 8 pads which are very firm and it was bulging the backplate so not a fan. Replaced them with 1.5mm and they seem to make sufficient contact.

Anyway full repaste and pad job dropped VRAM temps by ca. 20C. Now running +1400 mem, -180 core at 71% PL which gives me just shy of 102Mh/s stable (VRAM now at 90C on 80% fan). Card would do +1500 even at 102.5Mh/s but not stable for long.

TL;DR: replacing thermal pads front & back is very effective and not difficult, just take your time.

Grim5 · 17 Mar 2021 at 10:36

Ek active backplates 135 euro

https://www.ekwb.com/news/a-new-cla...kplates-for-rtx-3080-and-3090-reference-gpus/

mikehhhhhhh · 17 Mar 2021 at 11:28

Grim5 said:
Ek active backplates 135 euro

https://www.ekwb.com/news/a-new-cla...kplates-for-rtx-3080-and-3090-reference-gpus/

I just specced out a full cooling system for GPU and CPU on EK's configurator with this added on.

880 Euros before VAT on import!

varkanoid · 17 Mar 2021 at 11:39

Check this out too in a new thread.

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/forums/posts/34639753

Tiamat21 · 17 Mar 2021 at 19:38

Will drop my numbers here before I pad up on the backplate. May be a while before I can as may need to rma.

Temps: 104 - 108
PL: 70
Core: - 537 via undervolt
Mem: +700
Mh/s : 92-94

chrcoluk · 17 Mar 2021 at 19:41

Joxeon said:
when they go to the expense to build a cooler like the FE has you'd think they wouldn't cheap out on the pads.

Welcome to the world of manufacturing, I have seen manufacturers authorise glamorous spending one day, then do what they can to save 5 pence the next.

I expect with the pads, because they not "visible" forms of cooling, it may have been deemed to have little market value, especially when users typically dont monitor memory temps.

gpuerrilla · 17 Mar 2021 at 21:37

Surprisingly strange how some are very oily (which I hear is silicon so not conductive) but the temps seem to conclude that cheap pads have less transfer so the improvements people see when getting the odyssey packs is because they are rated 3x better. If we the consumers can pick them up for a reasonable price, why on earth can the factories not score a bulk order on this as I bet it wont work out to be much more expensive?

Other reason could be the temp concerns people have on memory is something they are not bothered about as their testing may have concluded it doesn't need it, or is well within thermal tolerances. If it was a high reason for RMA and failures it probably would have been prevalent in Turing gen. If the throttling can contain any silly extremes from being reached perhaps this is another trick they bank on so plump for the bog standard greasy poor pads..

projecthunder · 2 May 2021 at 09:36

It is interesting to read out there the various iterations of pad thickness but I seem to note that with thermalright odyssey pads, it is 1.5mm all round due to not much leeway in compression. However with gelid GP extreme it is 2mm front and 3mm on backplate as there is some compression to be had. Interesting to note that gelid have also come out with a higher mk/W version as the gelid ultimate but they only come as 0.5mm and 1mm.

Im just waiting for thermalright TFX paste to come before I do mine, but I'm going for gelid GP extreme with 2mm front and 3mm on back.

What thermal pastes have you guys used?

Joxeon · 2 May 2021 at 09:42

projecthunder said:
It is interesting to read out there the various iterations of pad thickness but I seem to note that with thermalright odyssey pads, it is 1.5mm all round due to not much leeway in compression. However with gelid GP extreme it is 2mm front and 3mm on backplate as there is some compression to be had. Interesting to note that gelid have also come out with a higher mk/W version as the gelid ultimate but they only come as 0.5mm and 1mm.

Im just waiting for thermalright TFX paste to come before I do mine, but I'm going for gelid GP extreme with 2mm front and 3mm on back.

What thermal pastes have you guys used?

The gelid ultimate is a harder pad so probably more similar to the odyssey than the gelid extreme.

Used kryonout paste on my 3080, not an FE model but stock stuff was rubbish and all watery. After replacing with kryonout the GPU die temp dropped around 6C and the VRAM around 30C using the ultimate pads.

projecthunder · 2 May 2021 at 10:19

Joxeon said:
The gelid ultimate is a harder pad so probably more similar to the odyssey than the gelid extreme.

Used kryonout paste on my 3080, not an FE model but stock stuff was rubbish and all watery. After replacing with kryonout the GPU die temp dropped around 6C and the VRAM around 30C using the ultimate pads.

Yeah the ultimate pads are harder but from reddit user reports in between the gelid extreme and the odyssey. Just wish they came in more than 0.5mm and 1mm sizes. Would be interesting to see the results given higher heat transfer abilities, but then also same time is the heat sink going to be able to cope with so much more heat saturation......