5700 XT replacement pads?

[Guest]

Thinking about giving replacing the thermal pads (and paste) on my MSI RX 5700 XT MECH OC a shot in hope to lower the temps a bit, but I've never done it before and am unsure on what thickness for the pads I should use. Has anyone done this before who could give me some tech tips?

[WkdPaul]

* thread cleaned *

[BTGbullseye]

16 hours ago, RonnyDouglas said:

Thinking about giving replacing the thermal pads (and paste) on my MSI RX 5700 XT MECH OC a shot in hope to lower the temps a bit, but I've never done it before and am unsure on what thickness for the pads I should use. Has anyone done this before who could give me some tech tips?

Really, you can just use thick globs of thermal paste. It's slightly more effective, but you need a thicker paste to do it. Prolimatech PK-3 is what I've used for my GPUs as a "total replacement" paste.

[Guest]

2 minutes ago, BTGbullseye said:

Really, you can just use thick globs of thermal paste. It's slightly more effective, but you need a thicker paste to do it. Prolimatech PK-3 is what I've used for my GPUs as a "total replacement" paste.

Isn't there a high risk of overflowing on the memory chips since they're so small, or do you just use a tiny amount?

[BTGbullseye]

Just now, RonnyDouglas said:

Isn't there a high risk of overflowing on the memory chips since they're so small, or do you just use a tiny amount?

The memory chips are about a half inch on the smallest size, and the contact points are underneath the chips. Use a full-on pea sized glob in the very center of the chip, and it'll both cool it sufficiently, and not overflow it. If you use a more liquid paste, or an electrically conductive/capacitive paste (like Arctic Silver) you will have significant risk however.

 

Thick paste, with low dryout, and not electrically conductive, is what you want. As long as you're not doing a vertical mount, any post-installation paste shifting will simply spread out along the heatsink, not drip against gravity up onto the GPU's PCB.

[Guest]

2 hours ago, BTGbullseye said:

The memory chips are about a half inch on the smallest size, and the contact points are underneath the chips. Use a full-on pea sized glob in the very center of the chip, and it'll both cool it sufficiently, and not overflow it. If you use a more liquid paste, or an electrically conductive/capacitive paste (like Arctic Silver) you will have significant risk however.

 

Thick paste, with low dryout, and not electrically conductive, is what you want. As long as you're not doing a vertical mount, any post-installation paste shifting will simply spread out along the heatsink, not drip against gravity up onto the GPU's PCB.

Do you use the same paste for the graphics processor itself or a more liquid-y one?

[airborne spoon]

I have an Asus 5700XT and my best suggestion is to watercool it. that thing runs hot and even after i pulled it apart and changed the thermal pads and paste it didn't do squat. i dropped about 25c when i switched it to a waterblock.

[BTGbullseye]

6 hours ago, RonnyDouglas said:

Do you use the same paste for the graphics processor itself or a more liquid-y one?

Same paste. PK-3 is the least expensive per-ounce I've found that can get within 1°c of the performance of Kryonaut. The liquidity of the paste has no effect on performance.

[BTGbullseye]

4 hours ago, airborne spoon said:

I have an Asus 5700XT and my best suggestion is to watercool it. that thing runs hot and even after i pulled it apart and changed the thermal pads and paste it didn't do squat. i dropped about 25c when i switched it to a waterblock.

A waste of money. Better to spend the extra on getting a newer better GPU than waste money on watercooling this GPU.

[Falkentyne]

On 10/22/2020 at 12:46 PM, RonnyDouglas said:

Thinking about giving replacing the thermal pads (and paste) on my MSI RX 5700 XT MECH OC a shot in hope to lower the temps a bit, but I've never done it before and am unsure on what thickness for the pads I should use. Has anyone done this before who could give me some tech tips?

I haven't seen any posts about thermal pad thickness on 5700 XT boards.  Did you check the teardown videos?

I know the reference Vega 64 used 1mm pads, with either 1.5 or 2mm for one of the VRM mosfets.

 

Your best bet is to buy a 145x145 sheet of 0.5mm, 1mm and 1.5mm Arctic pads, then compare them to the original, and stack whatever is thicker than 1.5mm.  The prices increased a lot compared to last year however.

[whn1985]

On 10/23/2020 at 8:52 AM, BTGbullseye said:

The memory chips are about a half inch on the smallest size, and the contact points are underneath the chips. Use a full-on pea sized glob in the very center of the chip, and it'll both cool it sufficiently, and not overflow it. If you use a more liquid paste, or an electrically conductive/capacitive paste (like Arctic Silver) you will have significant risk however.

 

Thick paste, with low dryout, and not electrically conductive, is what you want. As long as you're not doing a vertical mount, any post-installation paste shifting will simply spread out along the heatsink, not drip against gravity up onto the GPU's PCB.

I have a 3 5700xt raw II GPUs and I'm trying to replace the thermal pads. Does anyone know what the thickness is for those thermal pads that came with. I bought some thermal pads already but they are too thick. Any know, I'm dieing over here.

[BTGbullseye]

15 hours ago, whn1985 said:

I have a 3 5700xt raw II GPUs and I'm trying to replace the thermal pads. Does anyone know what the thickness is for those thermal pads that came with. I bought some thermal pads already but they are too thick. Any know, I'm dieing over here.

What thickness did you buy? Are they too thick to be able to squish them down when tightening down the cooler? (would provide the best contact if it's possible)

[JuanGovea09]

On 3/29/2021 at 5:37 AM, BTGbullseye said:

What thickness did you buy? Are they too thick to be able to squish them down when tightening down the cooler? (would provide the best contact if it's possible)

Hello, I have the same card mentioned. Did you ever find the correct thickness? Im estimating that they’re between 2mm and 1mm. Thank you in advance!

[BTGbullseye]

11 hours ago, JuanGovea09 said:

Hello, I have the same card mentioned. Did you ever find the correct thickness? Im estimating that they’re between 2mm and 1mm. Thank you in advance!

It depends on the pad type. The one that was originally used for the memory on the reference board was a clay-type pad, and was 2mm before compression, but slightly less than 1mm after. If you were to try it with the rubber style pads, 1.5mm would be a better idea.