3080 AIB cooling: unified vs separate GPU/VRAM heatsinks

[FaxedForward]

One of the things we have learned so far is that the RTX 3080 GDDR6X memory runs HOT. Igor's Lab measured temperatures inside the VRAM modules at 104*C during testing, which is massively hot.

 

While such extremes may end up being specific to the FE cooler (too early to tell) it is clear that managing high VRAM temperatures will be important on the 3080 cards.

 

This opens up a line of questioning about which heatsink design approach will be most effective for these cards. For example, EVGA uses a thick copper plate shared between the GPU and VRAM:

 

Meanwhile ASUS is giving the VRAM its own aluminum sub-heatsink to allow the VRAM and GPU to achieve some degree of differential cooling.

 

I'm not going to pick through every AIB card to determine which approach is used for each but I expect we will see examples of both approaches. Does anyone smarter than me want to start making some guesses about which approach will end up working best? 

[WereCat]

GN said on their LN2 OC stream that TJmax for the GDDR6X is 110°C so if IgorsLab measured 104°C it's still within spec. 

 

Honestly, both methods from EVGA or ASUS will do a better job than FE cooolers when it comes to VRAM cooling. 

[Stahlmann]

If you really want to avoid buying a card that's prone to overheating you won't be able to get around looking it up before buying a specific model. Basically both will work good enough if you have enough heatsink on the G6X and decent airflow.

[Jurrunio]

If the secondary heatsink (like thr TUF) is big enough, then it would be the better performing one. If it isnt (or for some reason the card design doesnt have enough space for that), big baseplate is better.

[linuxChips2600]

Look I know that there's the "This thread is quite old. Please consider starting a new thread rather than reviving this one." warning, but literally *just today* a tech channel did a video about basically this exact issue: