Do these thermal pads need a change?

[itsthestory]

Hey guys,

 

I'm in the process of rejuvenating my GTX 1060 (because shortage) and it basically needs a fan change since the old one stopped spinning (71°C idling was my cue).

But in the process of repairing, I started learning all kinds of new stuff like your GPU could die because this or that and it got me worrying about the thermal pads as well: 

So I'm asking for pairs of eyes to help me figure out if I need to change those pesky pads, I'll add pictures for you to see.

 

Cheers! 

 

PS #1: The model is a Gigabyte GTX 1060 3GB mini and I believe (I got it in a pre-builts (yeah never again I know)) the number is GV-N1060IXOC-3GD

PS #2: I found that the 1060 6GB mini has 1.5mm pads for VRMs and (possibly) 0.5mm pads for memory but I have no way at the moment of verifying this information... 

 

On the card :

 

On the heatsink:

[tishous]

You'll probably be okay without getting new thermal pads, but it can't hurt to change them just in case. I'd recommend looking into thermal grizzly thermal pads, if you do decide to change them.

[kelvinhall05]

They look fine, if you don't have any spares on hand and/or don't want to buy ones, these will be fine.

[CommanderAlex]

They should be able to do the job, but in the future if you do some maintenance again, I'd recommend changing them. 

 

The thicknesses of thermal pads that graphics card manufacturers use vary (i.e. VRM thermal pads might be thicker than those used on the VRAM). Kinda hard to judge which ones to buy; buy too thin and insufficient heat transfer will occur, buy too thick, you can apply too much pressure and bend the PCB/break the connections of SMDs. 

[itsthestory]

Big thanks guys, very informative and helpful. I'll leave them be for now and look for replacements for the next maintenance since I don't have any spare.