Weird Stain on Backplate

[DrBob]

Do you know what this dark "stain" is on the back of my 1080 Ti?  It does look like the sticker is oily, but hard to tell.  I can't believe it's from heat or something like that, but any ideas?

 

The card works perfectly.  Took it out of a pre-built Power Spec, so no idea how long it's looked like that.  It had an air cooler on the CPU.

 

Picture of front and back attached.

 

Thanks!

[Bombastinator]

29 minutes ago, DrBob said:

Do you know what this dark "stain" is on the back of my 1080 Ti?  It does look like the sticker is oily, but hard to tell.  I can't believe it's from heat or something like that, but any ideas?

 

The card works perfectly.  Took it out of a pre-built Power Spec, so no idea how long it's looked like that.  It had an air cooler on the CPU.

 

Picture of front and back attached.

 

Thanks!

With a used card you don’t know the history of there’s little way to know.  Does look like some sort of oil but it could also be red bull or something else.  Maybe something from the former user spilling some one late night.  If it works it works.

[Spotty]

It looks like it's oil from the thermal pads. It's non conductive so it's not an issue.

[Blue4130]

I agree with @Spotty. This topic comes up so frequently that I am surprised when people speculate on other reasons. In the past, even board manufacturers have confirmed this. 

[Bitter]

A third for @Spotty. Sometimes that can be an indication of high heat or low quality pads or both. A re-paste and some fresh pads would probably be a good idea, and thorough cleaning of the fan and fins as well. Blower cards need all the help they can get, they're working with very little surface area so it's critical that they have clean fins, clean fans, and high thermal conductivity between the GPU and fins.