RTX 3090 temperature concerns

[newbieclocker]

I recently changed the thermal pads out on my RTX 3090 FE as it would heat up to 104 degrees on my memory while mining for a short while. But my card runs at 102 degrees on the memory now so it didn’t make much of a difference.

Could it be because my gpu is so close to my cpu cooler that there isn’t enough airflow to cool the memory chips? The only other thing I can think of is that I used my fingers to place the thermal pads and apparently that effects performance.

The idle temperatures seem to have improved 31 degrees on the core and 40 on the memory.

 

[newbieclocker]

I used the thermalright ones as they used it in the video guides. But it hasn’t made any difference for me

 

[newbieclocker]

Ok I’ve taken the side panel off the case and it’s now sitting at 98 degrees at 50% fan speed so I didn’t mess up the thermal pads. I’ll have to get an aio to free up some space between the gpu and cpu cooler.

 

[newbieclocker]

I've installed an AIO to help with airflow and again it had made no difference, the back of the card has plenty of room to breathe now, but it still sounds like a jet engine when playing quake 2 RTX. I've set a custom fan curve so it only ever reaches 80% but it feels to me that the card might be defective. I've seen lots of reports online of people RMAing cards that are too hot. Is it worth trying? At this point I'm tempted to sell it and wait for the 3080ti and 3080 to come into stock again.

 

[newbieclocker]

The card runs perfectly fine for gaming, no throttling at all, youcan even overclock the card and get good thermals! Core never passes 80c and VRAM sits at 96c in a 32c room, just leave the fan on auto or set your desired fan curve.

It's all those trying to mine on in that causes it to fry the memory chips. Go and buy a miner.

But it sounds like a jet engine doing it, 100% fan speed in quake 2 RTX. I shouldn't have to make a custom fan curve after repadding and undervolting.

 

[newbieclocker]

You need to have airflow in your case, that's very important. Buy a proper case from below and it will solve the issue:

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/cases-and-modding/pc-cases/full-towers

I own a fractal design meshify c, it's not a full tower but should have plenty of airflow. 2X 140mm fans at the front, 2X 120mm for CPU rad and 1X 120mm for exhaust.

 

[newbieclocker]

It's a use case for a graphics card, it's nothing magic, it just does calculations really fast. If you aren't mining on your GPU you are literally losing money just having it sit there. I do primarily game on it but when I'm at work or asleep it mines.

 

[newbieclocker]

3090s certainly vary temperature-wise. Both me and my son have a 3090FE, my Vram temps never go above 96, his temps are always well above 100. Tried the card in my case and get the same result. Shame Nvidia uses such poor quality thermal pads, I'm not willing to open it up and lose the warranty.

This is good to hear, I know this kind of thing happens with cpus but didn’t know if GPU memory would be the same.

 

[newbieclocker]

You didn't apply the thermal pads properly, or used the wrong ones, if your still reaching 102DC on the VRAM.

Out of the box, my 3090FE reached 110DC in games at 4k, after long enough. After replacing thermal pads (1.5mm Gelid Extreme on front GPU side, 1.5mm Thermalright Odyssey Extreme on backplate side) my temps reach a maximum of 96DC at 4k full load workloads.

But the idle temperature is better, close to room temp so I feel it's moving the heat good enough.

 

[newbieclocker]

I took it apart again to take photos of the thermal pads, I can’t see that I’m missing anything. I used 1.5mm thermalright odyssey thermal pads for the front and back.

 

[newbieclocker]

Does anyone see any problems with my pad placement?

 

[newbieclocker]

Managed to get myself a 3080ti, just got to get rid of the 3090 now

 

[newbieclocker]

I saw this thread late.
Yes I see a few problems already.

First, TM Odyssey pads are not the correct pads to use. The VRAM FRONT pad measurement is "technically correct", although scientifically, it's 1.5mm left side, and 1.6mm right side (with the V shape to the right), but the original Nvidia pads are both 1.5mm. The problem is the compression. The TR pads do not compress very well. This isn't as much of a problem on the backplate side as on the core side, but if you look at your picture, you can see that the compression of the pads is VERY low. Yes there is contact but this will slowly compromise GPU Core contact with the heatsink. I should know--I used these pads back when we were discussing the original shunt mod on overclock.net and another user suggested these pads, after a second user posted measurements with a caliper. But I was able to test with pressure paper that core contact is VERY seriously compromised by lack of compression. Using Ultra Low Prescale FujiFilm pressure paper, there was literally NO mark on the pressure paper with the TM pads!

Here is your pad compression:

https://i.imgur.com/o33KJfx.jpg

Here is Gelid Extreme 1.5mm, which are much softer. First, right side.

https://i.imgur.com/QvbiKD4.jpg
While the right (V shape closest) VRAM pads aren't quite as good as the left, they're still better than yours, and the left pads are so good, you can read the chip writings on them!

Left side:
https://i.imgur.com/FswbeCK.jpg

For comparison, these are my really old TM Odyssey 1.5mm VRAM front pads I removed when deciding to change pads long ago (the first of many changes when switching to Gelid and TFX vs SYY-157 vs Thermagic ZF-EX thermal paste).

https://i.imgur.com/1YfXsHk.jpg

Another issue is the VRM pad strips. While the first modder on overclock.net in the shunt mod thread saw the original measurements of the VRM pads, which was only given as "1.8-2.0mm" without any direct specifics here:
https://www.overclock.net/threads/o...90-owners-club.1753930/page-213#post-28666890

I determined just by looking at the 1.5mm Gelid extreme pads in the two above screenshots that I also used on the VRM's, that the left and right pads are different--the left pads have decent contact but the right pad contact is very weak, which also explains the "melt" marks due to only a small section of the pad getting all the heat. Those pads that look like that, all but one is related to NVVDD, if you superimpose Igor's picture (have to flip it around backwards). So 1.5mm Gelid Extreme pads are BARELY sufficient and 1.5mm Thermalright Odyssey pads are actually very bad if you're heavily stressing the card. My solution was to use 2.0m Gelid Extremes on the two VRM strips together, and the small solo VRM pad.

This makes logical sense since if you look at the original Nvidia pads, you can see a slightly higher compression on the right VRM strip than the left VRM strip, just slightly. Which implies the left pad is 1.8mm and the right one is 2.0mm, with the right side "gap" difference maybe 0.1mm more than the left (which compensates for the "Extra" compression of the missing 0.1mm after!).

https://i.imgur.com/oVrb1EE.jpg (not my picture!)

Your own layout is a concern for thermal paste longevity and GPU hotspot degrading (I found out that VRM temp sensors ALSO report to the hotspot!! But the delta cannot be lower than +10C above GPU Core, if it's lower than 10C in "reality", it gets pushed up to 10C), as well as if you ever push the card hard (might only happen if you're shunt modding).

However the cause of the VRAM temps being high in YOUR case is not the core side--it's the backplate side.
If you look at your picture, you can see a serious problem with the bottom left of the card. The bottom left area starts 'degrading' in contact pressure, which you can see by a slow reduction in compression. This looks bizarre because one pattern of reduction is towards the bottom left of the GPU Core area (moving upwards) on the backplate, which is "Top left" of the core on the PCB itself, since it's flipped orientation. While the second pattern is bottom left away from the core going outward (towards the SLI / NVlink connector), which is top left no the PCB, but could in fact be the entire general area! I had similar issues myself (with uneven balance) when I used TM Odyssey on the backplate side (1.5mm) and to this day I could not figure out why. I suspect some sort of warping. I tried TM Odyssey 2.0mm pads on the backplate instead and temps were 2C better, but I then tried Gelid Extreme 2.0mm and Gelid Ultimate 2.0mm and had even better results.

So I think that is the direct culprit for your temp issues.

There is a complete fix to this.

First, switch to Gelid Extreme pads. You will need one pack of 1.5mm 80mm * 40mm Gelid Extreme pads, for the GPU Core side (if you want to be safe and are worried about cutting mistakes, buy two packs just for the core--for mistake reasons--if you had money for a 3090 FE, you have money or can get money for pads), *AND* one pack of Gelid Extreme 2.0mm pads. This will do the GPU VRM's, left and right strips, then you can use the leftovers for PART Of the backplate.

Then you need a second pack of Gelid Extreme 2.0mm pads for the backplate, and you can use the remaining of the first 2.0mm and then the rest of the second one, for VRAM, and PCB hotspots if necessary. I personally use "Gelid Ultimate 2.0mm" for the backplate side ONLY (due to extremes getting gooey and sticky over time on the hot backplate side) but as long as you remember to PRE-HEAT the card for future removals--you're fine with Extremes.

So: Total Tally:
1x 85mm * 45mm Gelid Extreme 1.5mm (2 if you want to be safe): GPU Front VRAM
2x 85mm * 45mm Gelid Extreme 2.0mm for VRM Strips /single small VRM chip front side, Backplate VRAM, PCB hotspots.

Note: you can substitute Gelid Extreme 2.0mm on the backplate for Gelid Ultimate 2.0mm. Gelid is officially selling 120mm * 120mm Gelid Ultimate pads now on their own direct website. (As well as a seller on USA Amazon). Do NOT buy the Gelid Extreme 'darker grey' 120mm * 120mm pads from China however, Gelid told us that they have quality issues.

Thermal Paste: Thermalright TFX, SYY-157, FuzeIce Plus, Alseye T9+ Platinum, Zezzio thermal paste 14.3 w/mk (same exact paste as SYY-157), Kryonaut Extreme, Arctic MX-5, GD007 (only buy this from GD's official website links which point to their aliexpress certified resellers: http://www.ourgd.net/about/?6.html ).

Picture of pad layout :

Wow thanks for the extensive guide, I wish I found this when I first did the mod. This makes a lot of sense as I can see my pads are barely compressed at all.

 

[newbieclocker]

Temperature wise you can expect the 3080ti to be worse, it's pretty much the same GPU but with a cooler half the size.

Yeah it does seem a little worse but it doesn’t sound like a jet engine and haven’t voided the warranty.