Gigabyte graphic card - TIM GEL application failure?

[BoggledBeagle]

After inspecting a Gigabyte RTX 5070 Ti Gaming OC card with unusually strong smell, about which I reported here:

Smelly brand new graphic cards? Remanufactured?

Recently I purchased and tested some graphic cards, all brand new, sealed and without any signs of anybody handling the cards before me. ASUS 5080 TUF Inno3D 5080 X3 OC MSI 5070 Ti Gaming Trio Gigabyte 5070 Ti Windforce OC SFF Gigabyte 5070 Ti Gaming OC Sapphire RX 9070 XT Pulse Sapphire RX...

www.techpowerup.com

I discovered, that my particular sample (SN 250641092344) seems to have pretty large gaps between the cooler and components, with quite large parts of the RAM chips not covered with the thermal gel at all. This does not seem OK to me.






I believe that the Gaming OC 5070 Ti card has the same PCB and body as the 5080 card, which has been reviewed and disassembled on this site, and the RAM chips seem to be covered a bit better on this card:



How does the gel application look on your Gigabyte card?

Is my card manufactured correctly? It looks a bit shoddy to me. On the other hand, it seems to work normally.

 

[_roman_]

I had the impression there is always a silicium die and just bonding outside. Why do you want to cool the unnecessary package?
Has something changed in manufacturing ICs in past 10 years?

Only gigglebyte knows why to cool the chokes

 

[BoggledBeagle]

I had the impression there is always a silicium die and just bonding outside. Why do you want to cool the unnecessary package?

Good point, I would expect you to bring the information how large is the silicon part that needs cooling in this particular RAM type???

 

[DirtyDingusMcgee]

It looks a bit shoddy to me.

The Gigabyte company slogan

 

[anonuser57]

That can't possibly be factory condition. There are supposed to be thermal pads on those components. Thermal putty is unusual in that sort of application. Especially on the memory, there should be pads not putty.

 

[OolongGoat]

That’s a head scratcher for sure. I guess some manufacturers are using the putty now.

I’d replace those with pads myself. Especially given that shoddy application of TIM.

 

[eidairaman1]

That can't possibly be factory condition. There are supposed to be thermal pads on those components. Thermal putty is unusual in that sort of application. Especially on the memory, there should be pads not putty.

Poor ga qa

 

[LabRat 891]

It's machine-applied. I'd bet money that whoever is in charge, felt like they could save on overheads by reducing the volume applied, slightly.

I've gotten a Gigabyte card BNIB w/ 'machine tightened screws' that had completely fallen out, and others w/ nearly no torque at all. Clearly, whoever runs their assembly facilities, is most-concerned with cost-cutting, wherever (seemingly) possible.

That can't possibly be factory condition. There are supposed to be thermal pads on those components. Thermal putty is unusual in that sort of application. Especially on the memory, there should be pads not putty.

This generation of cards, AIBs have latched onto the popularity of Honeywell PTM, and thermal putty instead of pads (as most AIBs outright refuse to provide the specification for pads, mounting pitch, etc.)
Gb (and others, IIRC) actively advertise Gel/Putty VRAM, VRM, etc. TIM as a feature.

 

[eidairaman1]

It's machine-applied. I'd bet money that whoever is in charge, felt like they could save on overheads by reducing the volume applied, slightly.

I've gotten a Gigabyte card BNIB w/ 'machine tightened screws' that had completely fallen out, and others w/ nearly no torque at all. Clearly, whoever runs their assembly facilities, is most-concerned with cost-cutting, wherever (seemingly) possible.


This generation of cards, AIBs have latched onto the popularity of Honeywell PTM, and thermal putty instead of pads (as most AIBs outright refuse to provide the specification for pads, mounting pitch, etc.)
Gb (and others, IIRC) actively advertise Gel/Putty VRAM, VRM, etc. TIM as a feature.

Hence my comment above yours, there aint any there it seems

 

[BoggledBeagle]

The thermal gel thickness above the RAM chip seems to be roughly twice of the package thickness, is this something like 2mm of gel? How thick are the usual pads you find on the ram chips, are they this thick?

 

[W1zzard]

Is my card manufactured correctly? It looks a bit shoddy to me. On the other hand, it seems to work normally.

Have you tried contacting Gigabyte support with this? What's their response?

 

[BoggledBeagle]

I managed to photograph a different 5070 Ti card from the same manufacturer, the Windforce model:



You can see that the gel layer is much thinner and properly spread on the RAM packages. This looks OK to me.

I believe there is some design or manufacturing problem with the Gaming OC cooler, which leads to this cooler not being close enough to the components.

Have you tried contacting Gigabyte support with this? What's their response?

I have not, I got the Windforce and Gaming OC models and I intended to return the Gaming model to the retailer due to its smell.

Now when I see the difference in the gap between the cards, I believe that there is something wrong with the Gaming OC model, some faulty batch of coolers???

EDIT:

Side by side, the difference in gaps between Windforce and Gaming models is quite apparent!

 

[BoggledBeagle]

I examined another Gigabyte 5070 Ti Gaming OC card, this time probably earlier production SN 250341060231. This card has the gap between the cooler and RAM also large and the packages are even more bare.



Not only that, but this card has also deformed PCB in the PCIE slot area. I am not sure you should attempt to insert the card so much bent in the PCIE slot?

The newer card has just 5-10% of this deformation, it is significantly more straight.



Given that these cards have the same PCBs and bodies as 5080 cards, these problems probably exist on these cards too.

EDIT:

I checked, that the picture is not distorted - the brochure edge perfectly corresponds to a straight line in MS Paint. You can then illustrate the bend in the PCIE slot area this way:



The whole PCB appears to be bent by more than 5 mm in its whole lenght.

 

[Knight47]

5070 Ti Eagle

 

[R-T-B]

It's machine-applied. I'd bet money that whoever is in charge, felt like they could save on overheads by reducing the volume applied, slightly.

I've gotten a Gigabyte card BNIB w/ 'machine tightened screws' that had completely fallen out, and others w/ nearly no torque at all. Clearly, whoever runs their assembly facilities, is most-concerned with cost-cutting, wherever (seemingly) possible.


This generation of cards, AIBs have latched onto the popularity of Honeywell PTM, and thermal putty instead of pads (as most AIBs outright refuse to provide the specification for pads, mounting pitch, etc.)
Gb (and others, IIRC) actively advertise Gel/Putty VRAM, VRM, etc. TIM as a feature.

I've heard similar horror stories around their video cards, but had decent luck with their mobos personally, interesting design aesthetics of some of their stuff aside. It makes me wonder if the video/mobo lines are completely seperate management or whatever.

One thing is for sure though, GIGABYTE RMAs are all pretty horrid, down there with the likes of none-ROG ASUS.

 

[BoggledBeagle]

5070 Ti Eagle

View attachment 393160

Thanks for the picture, the RAM packages on your card seem to be covered pretty well, I indicated bare spots on the cards I examined with orange.

I see some partially bare power chips (red), which does not look good at all.

What was with the power chips in yellow, were covered with the gel?

I am not sure that partial coverage on almost all the chokes is a problem?

Please what is the serial number of your card - the first four digits, it should indicate year and the week of the production.

 

[BoggledBeagle]

I see some gel on the move here:

User reports concerning thermal gel leakage on vertically mounted Gigabyte RTX 5080 AORUS Master - VideoCardz.com

Thermal gel problem on vertically mounted GeForce RTX 5080 A member of the Quasar Zone community reports that his Gigabyte RTX 5080 graphics card appears to be ‘melting.’ However, this time the issue is not related to the power connector, but rather the thermal paste—specifically, the thermal...

videocardz.com

As long it is just an extra gel squeezing out, that should not be a disaster, a little extra gel cannot harm anything, as long it does not get into the PCIE slot.

Much worse would be, if the gel is just flowing downwards leaving dry spots on the upper part of the PCB/components.

 

[BoggledBeagle]

Much worse would be, if the gel is just flowing downwards leaving dry spots on the upper part of the PCB/components.

The gel is REALLY on the move, leaving the components bare. See the post here:

R

Post in thread 'GIGABYTE AORUS RTX 5080 MASTER Starts Leaking Thermal Gel After Four Weeks of Light MMO Gaming'

May 2, 2025

Can confirm it happens:

I have mine mounted in Lian Li SUP01 case, so GPU is basically standing that's why it drips into the direction of ports. So far it does not overheat on memory modules. I will hold off sending it to Gigabyte service as I don't have good memories of them, so until it overheats or stops working I will use it. But if you have a vertical case or stand then be aware.

• remekra

• 
• 
• 

Original picture by remekra in the above linked post:

 

[remekra]

Yeah, that card is mine.

Like I stated in a post, for now I will do nothing. But will report back if it gets worse.

 

[BoggledBeagle]

I just posted this here for the reference and to draw attention to your post... I think I ran out of the ideas what to write under your post, so I just hope other people will try to draw attention to what you posted too.

 

[Kwadratowicz]

I've got gigabyte gaming oc 9070 xt, and for now I'm just checking it, I've even hanged it to see if it is affected by flowing "SERVER-GRADE THERMAL CONDUCTIVE GEL" but it was only around week as I've hanged it.
I've added Yours post to watch, as well I will add post by remekra. Cause I don't think that gigabyte is using different things on amd or nvidia.

It's my test sample, after weekend I will check if it has started to flow.

 

[BoggledBeagle]

I've got gigabyte gaming oc 9070 xt, and for now I'm just checking it, I've even hanged it to see if it is affected by flowing

I think that without the heat of the card in operation it will not flow much.

 

[remekra]

If it will leak out completely from VRAM it will be easy to notice, but if it will happen at VRM then I don't think there is any monitoring there, card will just fry itself.

 

[Kwadratowicz]

Ok I forgot to add second picture, here is i think from vram. I've got downside of card photographed so I will check here and there

I think that without the heat of the card in operation it will not flow much.

That's why I'm going to check it from time to time, it's "fun" project to check if I've got bad gpu (I've got a lot of more fun tinkering with my pc than with playing lately -.- )
Edit1 memory temps are always over 60C cause of the stopfan function, and while gaming it's 70-84C .

 

[remekra]

I have created a ticket in Gigabyte esupport portal, describing the situation and with pictures, to get an official response on the matter. Will post it, once I have the answer from them.