Thermal pad without heatsink on VRAM?

B1gdeano

B1gdeano

B1gdeano

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Ok,

Just after a bit of advice here - last night I replaced the stock cooler on my 1080ti FE with an Arctic Accelero Xtreme IV - Most impressed with the cooling on it!

As you are all aware standard FE blowers are crap for keeping card cool - I would regularly hit 82c and get throttling. Since the new cooler I barely go over 52c with the same usage and have seen boost speeds of 1840! Highest I saw before was 1720.

Anyhow - that isnt the question but just how much better the cooler is!

The question is should thermal pads be used without a heatsink attached? When I removed the stock blower I left the pads on the VRAM/VRMs and whatever else they were attached to. The cooler now does blow air all over the PCB so should be cooling them down but I was wondering if I should have took them off and just left them to be exposed to the airflow without the pads?

I initially thought it would help cool them as it draws the heat up and toward the fan? Or is it not making much odd either way now? As per design of the cooler the back of the PCB has pads on the back of where these hot items are and they are attached to a heatsink, so cooling is actually still better than stock

Just curious really.
 
No point in the thermal pads if they aren't interfacing with anything, they are now in essence just insulating the components, keeping them warmer.

I'd be more concerned that whilst your GPU is cooler, part of that "extra" cooling effect you are seeing is that the heatsink is no longer transferring heat from the VRMs into the heatsink.

If the VRMs were designed to be actively cooled then keeping your GPU cooler isn't going to help the card's longevity.
 
paradigm said:
No point in the thermal pads if they aren't interfacing with anything, they are now in essence just insulating the components, keeping them warmer.

I'd be more concerned that whilst your GPU is cooler, part of that "extra" cooling effect you are seeing is that the heatsink is no longer transferring heat from the VRMs into the heatsink.

If the VRMs were designed to be actively cooled then keeping your GPU cooler isn't going to help the card's longevity.
Click to expand...

I did wonder about the insulating factor, but with an active airflow over them they would still lose the heat?

I will probably take them off anyhow as airflow direct to the component must be better.

As for before - I would hazard a guess that they had them on in order to make contact with the heatsink in the original cooler due to how cramped and confined it would have been under it all sealed up, therefore needing the pads to take heat away - the new cooler is essentially open. You can see the PCB under the heatsink - the fans blow air directly onto the PCB through the heatsink the GPU is now connected to. This airflow should, to my mind, keep the other components cooler than they were before.

If the GPU was hitting 80c then the board around it was hitting that. So the components near to it was hitting that?

Cooler board all round with direct airflow onto the components, with thermal pads on the backside of said components dumping heat into a heatsink.

I still think all components are being kept cooler than they were at stock.
 
I can guarantee that the VRMs will now be hotter than they were.

Looking at the waterblock on my 1070, it was designed to transfer heat directly from all the same components as the stock cooler. I'd imagine there is a reason for this, otherwise, why bother going to the expense of designing and building it that way ;)
 
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It would have been interesting to know just how hot they were before and how hot they are now...

I may see if I can get one of those laser heat reader things to target the modules see what temp they are at

Just to mention however that stock coolers etc do not have any cooling on the rear of the card - apart from one tiny little heat pad on one component connecting it to the backplate. It now has loads of pads connected directly to a big heatsink. It has to be pulling more heat from the back than before.

Yours was a water block - so no airflow over the PCB. If they didnt cover all the components then they would overheat as they would be enclosed with no airflow at all ;)
 
mattyfez said:
You can buy cute little vrm passive heatsinks if you are concerned

www.overclockers.co.uk/watercool-passive-cooler-for-vga-ram-8-pack-hs-000-wc.html
Click to expand...


Those are for the VRAM not VRMs? I did consider them for the VRAM but I am still convinced they are cool enough as no artifacts after a good long stress test.

If anything it would be the VRM's I am more concerned about as there is no software temp sensor for them, and no artifacts to give it away.

I have actually ordered an IR Thermometer to take temps of the components in use. Im curious to what they hit.

Does anyone know what the operating temperature thresholds are for GDDR5 and VRM's in general?
 
I keep seeing this question appear a lot.

A thermal pad is a material used to remove gaps (Similar to thermal paste) and make sure parts are touching for conduction.

If it is NOT touching it is not doing anything.

airflow directly onto a component is always going to be better than "Something in the way" when that it isn't 100% efficient
 
I have looked about and seem to be getting a consensus that a VRM has a temp limit of 125c

I will use that tool tonight to find out what temp they are hitting - I am not sure there is a sensor for them but I will double check that too tonight.
 
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