2080ti bad water block mount?

[NotSoEpicMods]

So I finally got around to putting the full cover EK block on my asus 2080 ti turbo. Followed the instructions to the letter and everything seemed to go smoothly. Everything at first looked fine and the core was good at 1800MHz, however after about 10 minutes in a game I noticed my fps dropping and frame times increased and was actually getting worse performance than when it was on air. When I checked MSI afterburner my core clock is fluctuating wildly between 1400MHz and 1600MHz. When I had the card running on air the core would typically lock into a solid 1600MHz and just be very noisy. If I exit out of a game and wait a few mins for the gpu to cool down then enter a game again the same thing will happen.

 

I suspect it's a bad mount with the thermal pads or something but the core temp of the gpu under load is at about 68c vs 80c on air. Just wondering what other's thoughts are, I'm going to be redoing the loop routing for the gpu so I will peel off the block anyways and see if anything was going on. Just wondering if anyone with more gpu water cooling experience has come across something like this.

 

P.S. I also have a full cover back plate from EK if that matters and the CPU and GPU are running together on the same loop with a D5 and more than enough radiator surface area and airflow. I was also keeping an eye on my cpu and it seemed to be acting normally even if it was a few degrees higher with the gpu heat.

[RobFRaschke]

Are you sure you got all the VRM thermal pads in place? Sounds like it might be the vrm overheating forcing it to throttle to reduce power draw and cool them off.

[NotSoEpicMods]

1 minute ago, RobFRaschke said:

Are you sure you got all the VRM thermal pads in place? Sounds like it might be the vrm overheating forcing it to throttle to reduce power draw and cool them off.

I did follow the instructions exactly and made sure to cover everything indicated and even used the stock cooler pad placement to make sure everything was covered. Not sure if any of them shifted when I flipped the card to screw down the block. I will be trying a reseat when I reroute my loop tonight. I may also use different thermal paste than the EK supplied one might try my tube of MX-4 which I find works great and isn't so runny. 

[RobFRaschke]

A re-seat is a good plan. Based on the GPU core temps, I doubt it's the thermal paste on the core, but it sure won't hurt to change out to something you're more comfortable with. So long as it's non-conducting and non-capacitive. I don't know personally if the MX-4 is or not.

[NotSoEpicMods]

So def looks like could've been a bad mount. The GPU is vertical and it looks like the thermal paste kinda just ran down the die so the top corners weren't fully covered. The missing mem chip pads are on the block. I'm sure I'm using the right screws since there are only 3 sizes in the supplied kit the others are too big and too long. Gonna retry with the slightly thicker mx4 paste. 

[NotSoEpicMods]

Ok so just got the system back together and wow what a night and day difference after the remount. The card is holding nice and solid at 1875MHz+ with temps at 55C. Not sure if there was something about my original mount or if it was the included EK thermal paste that was so thin but I'm glad it's working now.