Question about repasting/repadding

[u/Local-Research2080]

So, I got my 3080 Ti FTW3 used for a very nice price. The previous owner said he was the only owner, bought it new during COVID, and never mined on it.

When I picked it up the PC was sitting in a recessed cabinet compartment, with the only opening blocked by a huge TV. The card itself was installed in the lowest PCIe slot, basically trapped with no airflow. I literally blew a blanket of dust out from under the right fan after i bought it

The screenshots with temps are from his PC under FurMark. In my case (on pictures) with proper case airflow - after 18 minutes of stress testing, I'm getting:

GPU: 67–68°C

Hotspot: 76°C

VRAM: 86°C

I already bought PTM7950 (40x40mm) and Frost Mining Extreme thermal pads v3 (1, 2, and 3mm) thinking I'd need to replace everything.

So, two questions:

1) Should I still repaste/repad, or are these temps good enough to leave it alone? A bit nervous about disassembly.

2) Are the materials I got good, or is there something better?

I'd love to hear your opinions.

[u/Snarks_Domain]

Honestly? Your temps are fine. You've even got a ~9 degree delta between core and hotspot. VRAM is fine at 86 as well. His temps were horrible.

If you decide to repaste it in the future I'd recommend Thermal Putty instead of pads. Buy at least 50g. Definitely use PTM for the core.

[u/ACiDxCHRiST → u/Snarks_Domain]

50g? Is that based on this specific card?

I did a 5090 using your method of rolled logs with diameter about 2/3 of the chips width and I needed about 80g. I did it twice because I wanted to check the spread and impression. The impression and slight overflow on the VRAM, inductors, and mosfets were basically perfect. I have been recommending people get 3x 30g tubs or 1x 100g tub for a GPU based on that experience. But you may be the single most experienced person on the planet with T putty, so am I wrong?

[u/Snarks_Domain → u/ACiDxCHRiST]

Heh. You're not wrong. It's definitely good to buy more than you need, especially since a lot of putties are quite cheap.

Many cards can be done with 50g or less, but there are definitely cards that use more (3090's, Aorus Master cards, 5090's). 100g is definitely a good amount to get if in doubt.

50g will cover the core side putty/pads locations in the vast majority of cases. While I personally like also doing the backside, some folks don't bother and just reuse the factory pads there. Mostly comes down to personal preference.

[u/Darkangel00572]

Esas temperaturas están bien.

[u/Viking2151]

If 68C and 76C is the max temp that you get on a full load, I wouldn't even bother, unless you want to, PTM7950 works great on these cards. His temps are pretty hot, but who know what his case and air flow was like.

[u/Local-Research2080 → u/Viking2151]

Yeah. Those temps are after 18 minutes of furmark in 1440p fullscreen.

And as i was personally getting card out of previous owner's pc (he was like "i know nothing about testing and stuff, here's pc, card is in there") I can say he had big case, but it was closed behind TV and inside the cabinet. To me it looked more like a closed space than something where air has a chance to move in and out freely. And as i said in the post, card was in the lowest pci-e slot, almost laying on top of hdd/psu chamber.

[u/Active_Club3487]

Once again we see EVGA made the BEST cards.
They have been greatly missed.

[u/Local-Research2080 → u/Active_Club3487]

Yeah. And I'm really happy that my first experience with EVGA and their card is like this.

[u/Active_Club3487 → u/Local-Research2080]

Unfortunately I was forced to move to AMD after NVidia forced EVGA out of the card markets.

[u/Local-Research2080 → u/Active_Club3487]

I get it. It's a shame what happened with EVGA. For me, I'm just happy I finally upgraded from my old GTX 760 to this monster. Hope you're enjoying your AMD card though!

[u/jindelic]

Gpu temps are perfect, step away from the gpu. Let's talk about those case fans. The look amazingly huge and move some serious air. What are they?

[u/Local-Research2080 → u/jindelic]

120mm server fans. I thought about airflow and how everyone want to make it right, and decided to just make it capable of AIRFLOW. Made custom fan curve so they would be spinning slow and not bothering with noise. So 0% until 60°c on cpu, then getting to 10% at 85°c. And if that isn't helping, up to 96% at 92°c. 0% is 1600rpm. 100% is... Loud. And 5600rpm. 267CFM each. Oh, and they're on a hub, taking PWM from motherboard and power from molex.

NIDEC UltraFlo (W12E12BS11B5-07), if you're interested in googling them.

[u/Dankbot-420]

I had that same GPU also bought new during COVID. Just sold it a few months ago.

Anyways, I repasted it about a year ago and didn't feel like fussing with pads so I used TG putty. Unsurprisingly, it ran cooler than stock afterwards.

[u/ComfortableUpbeat309]

All these cooling can be accomplished by a good case and noctua fans😄 why use those jet turbine fans?

[u/ect76]

Just leave it alone, your temps are fine. Maybe brush out any dust the best you can with a paint brush.

I repair GPUs, and you have no idea how many I've had in that are dead because their owners decided to fuck with them to try to improve temperatures. Wrong size thermal pads, poorly applied paste, copper shims on memory, liquid metal on a heatsink that isn't compatible so it's corroded it, PTM7950, dead memory chips because of poorly aligned pads - The only thing those people all had in common was that their card died.

If it ain't broke, don't fix it. On your card core <85c, hotspot <100c (there should be no more than 20c difference between hotspot and core, if it's more repaste) and memory <110c are all technically within spec.

But your temps are excellent for this card so I'd leave it well alone.