Installed the Bykski block today, it's my fourth Bykski block along the time.
The card is a zotac 4080 trinity OC flashed with AIRO bios, so PL is near 400W (I think I read somewhere that it 450W, but I can't verify this, max power draw ever was around 425W).
Contents of the box
Block, backplate, argb lead, 18mm (measured with the protective tape, so I'd say around 16-17mm, no thermal paste, which it also did not come with the block for the 6900xt.
Closeup block
Original in/out-lets removed to install the one bykski has with a display, it works in any block
Leak testing after changing the ports pictured above
Included pad thickness
Display in place
Simple to take it apart, just the fans plug was a bit too stiff to come out
Interesting detail in the backplate, there are few pieces of 2.6mm in there, in the oposite side where the vram chips are
Thickness of the thermal pads used in the chokes, vrm and vram chips
Thickness of the thermal pad located in the backplate
vram in focus
nude
assebled
I decided using the same thermal pads the card came with, the were not really compressed, and after putting the block in I could see from the sides the thermal pads are even more squeezed than before. Yes, most of the thermals pads can be seen when looking closely.
I will have to order another case, which I already wanted for quite a while, a o11d xl (currently have a o11d) the ports of the block are in the way of the side panel, even if the ports had clearance, the 12VHPWR stay in the way of the panel too, and at least this one from nvidia does not seem to like any bending. I will try the corsair soon.
Originally Zotac placed thermal pads everywhere, vrm, chokes, three mosfets that are around the gpu chip, and the vram, which I used them all again, and as mentioned above I will open the card again to see if thermals can be improved, because in bykiks' "instructions" I can see they don't tell you to put any thermal pad in the chokes (and usually you should not because they are not supposed to get hot). I will also use TPM7590 in the core.
Thermals:
idling
gpu temp 24C
vram jt 24c
gpu jt 31c
after running timespy extreme with the card stock
gpu temp 57c
vram jt 40c
gpu jt 69.8c (it would reach 83c with air cooler)
max gpu clock 2880
mas power draw 344w
after running timespy extreme stress stress test test with the card at 1.1v, pl 140%, core at 3015 and vram at 3150
gpu temp 67c
vram jt 42
gpu jt 83 - here I believe putting thermals pads in the chokes was a mistake, the jt was jumping from 78 to 83 all the time by the end of the test
max power draw 411w
I'd say, WC is not that necessary unless you already have a loop. Zotac's cooler is enough and in the end of the day we don't spend all day long running benchmarks to reach the limit of the temperature the card supports.
EDIT
I was not happy with the fact the bykski's "instructions" indicate the chokes should not be padded, but I padded them probably making the die to have less contact with the cold plate.
So I opened again, removed the pads which by the way were of good quality, the pattern, weight, texture remembers me gelid extreme, and then installed the ones provided by bykski, and added TPM7590 to the core, results:
same config as above, 1.1v, 140% core at 3015 and vram at 3150
gpu temp 59.2c (from 67c)
vram jt 56c (from 42c, that is, bykski pads are ****, nothing new then.. I just didn't know how bad they actually are)
gpu jt 73.5c (from 83c)
So I can state few things:
1 - don't add pads to the chokes if you are using a bykski block
2 - bykski pads are awful
3 - it does not fit the regular o11d