Thermal pad thickness: How much is too much??

[HOLLiiWOOD]

How thick is too thick?

I understand that not thick enough reduces mounting pressure; and that mounting pressure, generally, decreases the thermal resistance of the pad.

and too much thickness can cause problems with deflection.

but where does more become TOO much??


for my current situation:

GPU (ASUS TURBO1080TI-11G)

 

Gap is sub 2mm - (measured with crap caliper, by measuring down from the top of the metal plate, used to sink heat away from the VRM and memory chips, to the top of the VRM chips, then subtracting the thickness of the metal [metal thickness it more than 1mm, less than 1.5mm, probably 18 gauge])

2mm pads leave an indent, and would work.

would 2.5mm pads work better?

3mm pads were too big and caused deflection, BUT, would they squish down more after being heated and cooled?

 

would a sandwich of 1.0mm Fujipoly Xr-m (17w/mk) + 1.0mm copper shim + 0.2mm Carbonaut  be too thick ( < - my current desire) OR would this only give me that extra mounting pressure needed to reduce thermal resistance.

I realize that it is heavily dependant on many factors (pad hardness, pad properties, where pressure in being created, etc. . . )
 

but

 

I just want to know  ball park, is +1mm too much, or is +0.35mm too much

[VIVO-US]

If 2mm pads have an indent after being installed, then they're thick enough.  A thicker pad likely won't show any improvements.

[HOLLiiWOOD]

I realize this is a lot to do just to put the stock cooler back on, but I ripped the original pads upon opening it up, and i had originally planned to be able to find pads.

yes I could just buy the Gelid pads from quiet pc and wait the week or two for them to arrive.

but I want this card to be working in 10+ years (avoid needless electronic buying  and using precious metals for no reason, awesome uncle points for sweet hand me down when I do upgrade, etc, etc. . . )

and the Gelid pads would probably be fine for that too but maybe I want to soup up a card in the future, or spend money to enhance a motherboard VRM, or add some real thermal management to a PCI-e SSD

[For Science!]

4 minutes ago, HOLLiiWOOD said:

-

Can you not just measure the previous pads and get the closest one? I did this recently with my 1080 Turbo. You also have other considerations like the cooler making good contact with the die as well, so just take the closest one to the pre-installed ones. Note you can get 1.0 mm and 1.5 mm too if they are thinner.

[HOLLiiWOOD]

@VIVO-US

It isn't a very deep indent, on the 2mm pads, and the original pads, I think the actual gap is 1.875mm - 1.768mm ish

I haven't opened it up to see how the 1mm cheap pads + 1mm copper shims + thermal paste compares indent wise.

[HOLLiiWOOD]

@For Science!

original pads are 2mm

but I can't find 17w/mk pads in 2mm for less than $400, 100mm x 100mm, when I only need about 60mm x 50mm

[For Science!]

Just now, HOLLiiWOOD said:

 

Honestly I do not think the pads are not the limiting factor with the turbo cooler since the blower design will intrinsically limit the cooling ability when compared to an open shroud cooler. Just buy something like minus8 pads from thermal grizzly and call it a day, those are very good pads anyway.

[HOLLiiWOOD]

I hope to increase the efficiency of the stock cooler with some extra surface area, and by either using a TIM between the plate that sinks heat from the VRM and memory and the vapour chamber cooler, or adding heat sinks to said plate.

But it does seem to be that the Gelid GP Extreme Thermal Pads will be everything I need.

But I still don't know how to figure out when to go +0.5mm or not

 

[Mick Naughty]

Well some pads are more malleable  than others. So I’d determine that first and go with the bigger size.