Sapphire R9 390 Nitro - Thermal pad replacement (recommended pads??)

[demonic186]

So, the folks over at Sapphire tech were kind enough to provide me with a diagram of what thermal pad sizes + thickness were used for my graphics card but not entirely sure which ones on the market would be best to buy.

The diagram is:

(Click to make larger)

Ideally want to get them changed ASAP I noticed during routine maintenance and thermal paste change that a few of them were very fragile and starting to break.

Any recommendations for which pads to buy and opt for? all I can find so far is 10x10mm squares about 3mm thick

 

[Armageus]

My basket at Overclockers UK:

• 1 x EK Water Blocks Thermal PAD F 2,0mm - (120x16mm)= £2.45
• 2 x EK Water Blocks Thermal PAD E 1,0mm - (RAM 8X)= £1.75
• 1 x EK Water Blocks Thermal PAD G 1,0mm - (120x24mm)= £2.09

Total: £16.74
(includes shipping: £8.70)



​

Should about cover it I think - 1x 2mm pad for the 1 place that needs it, 2 packs of the type E 1mm pads (which is actually 100 x 16 mm precut to 8 pieces) for the 16x Ram chips, and then the 120mmx24mm should cover the long VRM strip with some left over to cover the remaining 1mm parts.

 

[demonic186]

My basket at Overclockers UK:

• 1 x EK Water Blocks Thermal PAD F 2,0mm - (120x16mm)= £2.45
• 2 x EK Water Blocks Thermal PAD E 1,0mm - (RAM 8X)= £1.75
• 1 x EK Water Blocks Thermal PAD G 1,0mm - (120x24mm)= £2.09

Total: £16.74
(includes shipping: £8.70)



​

Should about cover it I think - 1x 2mm pad for the 1 place that needs it, 2 packs of the type E 1mm pads (which is actually 100 x 16 mm precut to 8 pieces) for the 16x Ram chips, and then the 120mmx24mm should cover the long VRM strip with some left over to cover the remaining 1mm parts.

Thanks a bunch! will get these ordered pronto, have noticed though that these appear to be a different colour to the ones pre-applied and have seen various colours/styles does it make a difference at all? (silly question perhaps) + will these be OK with the aircooler?? states for use with a waterblock

 

[Armageus]

The colour and the fact they are for a waterblock makes no difference. Even between brands there will be very little difference in thermal performance.

Just out of interest, how often are you replacing the thermal paste? - the 390 is at worst 2 years old, would be surprised if it had needed to be replaced more than once by now.

 

[demonic186]

The colour and the fact they are for a waterblock makes no difference. Even between brands there will be very little difference in thermal performance.

Just out of interest, how often are you replacing the thermal paste? - the 390 is at worst 2 years old, would be surprised if it had needed to be replaced more than once by now.

I bought the card second hand and replaced the paste when I bought it a little over year and a half ago, I've since replaced it again after taking it apart to get all the dust out from between the heatsink blades, fans + under the backplate and such, I try to do so atleast once a year with the odd compressed air can every few months, might seem excessive but even the slightest bit of dust just urks me.

 

[demonic186]

So, I hate to bump an old post - but as per the help from armageus I've ordered some replacement pads now that pay-day came around however I opted for the thermal grizzly pads instead as the current pads on the GPU use a cooling rating of W / mK 5.0 and the EKWB ones were rated between 3 and 3.5 which wouldn't help to improve cooling much - the thermal grizzly use a slightly higher cooling rating of W / mK 8.0 and come in at around the same price with the standard shipping just got to wait and then fit them to see if they help

 

[rinoushi]

Found this topic on Google while searching for more info on thermal pads.
How are the Thermal Grizzly pads compared to stock thermal pads? Especially VRM temps etc.

I have the same card 390 Nitro. Recently retrofitted it with three 92mm Noctuas instead factory fans yes, thats right a project I planned for some time already. Three Noctua fans, pwm adapter, a few Y splitters and some zip ties currently reused stock thermal pads, but thinking about applying new ones. Currently applied NT-H1 TIM.
If you are interested about temps - they are a few degrees higher now with default fan profile, but card is much more silent which was the original goal. Thinking about Kryonaut TIM and new thermal pads.

 

[Bonjour]

I’ve found the JunPus pads to work well. Comes as one big square, then you can cut off the segments you need.