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Thermal pad thickness

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Hello! I have a MSI GTX 980Ti 6G graphics card and I would like to take it apart for changing the thermal paste and pads. The problem is, the pads are 5 years old and I'm afraid they will act like chewing gum if taken apart, leaving me stranded with no GPU for until the new pads reach me. If anybody knows the thickness, please tell me.
 

Rei

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I think there is only one measure of thickness for thermal pads. I'm not sure though so correct me if I'm wrong. You should also not change the paste/pads if you don't have thermal issue. And if you are gonna take it apart anyway, why not wait until the new pads arrive before dismantling the GPU.
 

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I think there is only one measure of thickness for thermal pads. I'm not sure though so correct me if I'm wrong. You should also not change the paste/pads if you don't have thermal issue. And if you are gonna take it apart anyway, why not wait until the new pads arrive before dismantling the GPU.
Absolutely there are different thicknesses. But rather too thick than too thin. They would compress if thicker. But I agree not worth tearing apart unless there are obvious thermal issues
 
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I think there is only one measure of thickness for thermal pads.

There are different sizes, 0.5, 1, 1.5mm and maybe even 2mm
 
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I've bought thermal pads up to 6mm thick.
 
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Hello! I have a MSI GTX 980Ti 6G graphics card and I would like to take it apart for changing the thermal paste and pads. The problem is, the pads are 5 years old and I'm afraid they will act like chewing gum if taken apart, leaving me stranded with no GPU for until the new pads reach me. If anybody knows the thickness, please tell me.
Most GPU use 05-1mm for memory and 1-1.5mm for vrms as they sit lower than memory , Amazon do a reasonable multi size pack upto 1.5 mm.
I've used when unsure before.
 
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I think there is only one measure of thickness for thermal pads. I'm not sure though so correct me if I'm wrong. You should also not change the paste/pads if you don't have thermal issue. And if you are gonna take it apart anyway, why not wait until the new pads arrive before dismantling the GPU.
I need to know what to order before I order. i tried contacting MSI trough their live support with no help. I was hoping someone who has/had the card to tell me. As for the thermal issue, I don't really have one, but the card has started to hit 80c with an aggressive fan curve, throttling my overclock a bit.

Most GPU use 05-1mm for memory and 1-1.5mm for vrms as they sit lower than memory , Amazon do a reasonable multi size pack upto 1.5 mm.
I've used when unsure before.
I don't live in a country where Amazon is available, plus I'm planning to order from https://gelidstore.com/. They have quality products at a reasonable price and ship worldwide, but don't offer "kits" with multiple sizes. So I have to order the right size. Maybe I will try to contact them via email and hope for someone more capable/interested to help me out, as their live support is quite shit. Or at least someone named Alberto. Never trust live support Albertos.
 

Rei

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I need to know what to order before I order. i tried contacting MSI trough their live support with no help. I was hoping someone who has/had the card to tell me. As for the thermal issue, I don't really have one, but the card has started to hit 80c with an aggressive fan curve, throttling my overclock a bit.
80C is an OK temp for your 980 Ti. Modern GPU can handle a lot more than that. My CPU & GPU top out around high 70C. But if the fan noise does bother you, then maybe you should change up your GPU paste/pads.
 
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The MSI 980 Ti Gaming X tested out at 75C w. Load + OC .... well below the 84C throttling point.


One of the ways to check the pad thickness is look at the pads that come with water blocks. EK's model number for this card is: EK-FC980 GTX Ti TF5


Thermal Pad D –0.5mm (RAM 8x)
Thermal Pad A –1.0mm (100x16mm)

I would recommend Fujipoly pads which come in 6.0 watts / mk, 11.0 watts / mk and 17.0 watts / mk I expect the original pads are cheapo things... probably the 1.5 watts / mk variety

You could likely also source the pads from EKWB (Slovenia) or even here in US from FrozenCPU which ship internationally if ya can't find local sources. Like TIM, I can't recommend reusing thermal pads once the card is disassembled ... and may times when installing water blocks, have seen bad mountings on factory products.

Might also try thermal Grizzly which has a distribution point in Romania, Their minus pad 8 has a thermal rating of 8.0 W/mK


That points to ...

 
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The MSI 980 Ti Gaming X tested out at 75C w. Load + OC .... well below the 84C throttling point.


One of the ways to check the pad thickness is look at the pads that come with water blocks. EK's model number for this card is: EK-FC980 GTX Ti TF5


Thermal Pad D –0.5mm (RAM 8x)
Thermal Pad A –1.0mm (100x16mm)

I would recommend Fujipoly pads which come in 6.0 watts / mk, 11.0 watts / mk and 17.0 watts / mk I expect the original pads are cheapo things... probably the 1.5 watts / mk variety

You could likely also source the pads from EKWB (Slovenia) or even here in US from FrozenCPU which ship internationally if ya can't find local sources. Like TIM, I can't recommend reusing thermal pads once the card is disassembled ... and may times when installing water blocks, have seen bad mountings on factory products.

Might also try thermal Grizzly which has a distribution point in Romania, Their minus pad 8 has a thermal rating of 8.0 W/mK


That points to ...

I own a 980ti in late 2020 so I can't afford thermal grizzly :) but I emailed msi yesterday and they have told me the pads are 2mm thick.

Also to clarify the throttling situation, my gpu has a reported boost clock in gpu-z of 1350mhz. Beyond that to the 1468mhz frequency my card currently runs at is due to nvidia's gpu boost. And for every 5-7c the card clocks 13mhz higher or lower. If it hits or is near 80c it drops down a step. I know 13mhz don't matter but still, it's been 5 years.
 

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Below is a thread on thermal pads compression TL,DR because I already have all the answers for my cards.

Currently there is a thread on TPU about SPPT (second link). When you increase the power your going to increase the heat from the MOSFETS. I hope most user(s) can now put the two threads together & work it out.

EDIT: I don't know if the first thread covers this, but when it comes to compression, you want the thermal pad(s) as small as possible but must fully cover the MOSFET with little to no contact with the PCB or excessive overlap on the coldplate.

(2) PSA: Thermal pads need compression to get their "rated" thermal conductivity rating : Amd (reddit.com)

do you think AMD will restrict SPPTs even more in the future? | TechPowerUp Forums
 
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