# RTX 3090 FE - Maximum Junction Temperature (TJ Max or Tjunction Max) @ 106C Too much?



## erek (Oct 3, 2021)

Noticed (without overclocks) that my Memory Temperature hits 106C while randomly gaming, is this enough to be concerned with on a FE - RTX 3090 card?

"104C is still crazy, crazy hot. This article from September sheds some light on what an acceptable/safe temperature might be:"



> For reference, Micron rates its GDDR5, GDDR5X and GDDR6 memory chips with a Maximum Junction Temperature (TJ Max or Tjunction Max) of 100C (degrees Celsius). The typical recommended operating temperatures ranges between 0C to 95C. The reading materials on Micron's GDDR6X don't reveal the TJ Max for the new memory chips so there's still a bit of mystery to the topic. According to Igor, the general consent is around 120C before the GDDR6X chips suffer damage. This would mean that the Tjunction value should be set at 105C or up to 110C.



---

put a noctua fan ont he back of the card and the memory still hot:


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## ThaiTaffy (Oct 3, 2021)

Many of the rtx cards were pumped out of production at such speeds that QC was almost non existent so many issues with thermal pads and such have come to light if your ok with doing so below is a link to jayztwocents recent video on fixing the issue.


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## trog100 (Oct 3, 2021)

the card will throttle at 110 C... i think high memory temps are pretty normal..

trog


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## eidairaman1 (Oct 3, 2021)

ThaiTaffy said:


> Many of the rtx cards were pumped out of production at such speeds that QC was almost non existent so many issues with thermal pads and such have come to light if your ok with doing so below is a link to jayztwocents recent video on fixing the issue.


Thanks for posting this, I was going to post the same video.

@erek, watch the video


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## erek (Oct 3, 2021)

eidairaman1 said:


> Thanks for posting this, I was going to post the same video.
> 
> @erek, watch the video


i understand those and seen the video before, but i want to know if the temp is actually typical and expected for FE cards or if my card is way outside the range?


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## ThaiTaffy (Oct 3, 2021)

erek said:


> i understand those and seen the video before, but i want to know if the temp is actually typical and expected for FE cards or if my card is way outside the range?


As jay stated in the video nvidia's use of their sub standard white thermal pads is a joke your card is overheating like the majority of all the 3080ti's and 3090's with ram chips on the rear of the card. No consumer electronics should run over 100°c.


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## Vya Domus (Oct 3, 2021)

erek said:


> i understand those and seen the video before, but i want to know if the temp is actually typical and expected for FE cards or if my card is way outside the range?


Every 3000 series FE model is absolute rubbish as far as VRAM cooling goes. So yes, it's within the expected range of being terrible.


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## ThaiTaffy (Oct 3, 2021)

Vya Domus said:


> Every 3000 series FE model is absolute rubbish as far as VRAM cooling goes. So yes, it's within the expected range of being terrible.


That's why ekwb seems to have focused all their new blocks on Fe cards I guess.


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## eidairaman1 (Oct 3, 2021)

erek said:


> i understand those and seen the video before, but i want to know if the temp is actually typical and expected for FE cards or if my card is way outside the range?


Yes it's too hot.

You readily vaporize water over 100°C (212°F)

Do the mods in the video and press on


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## Falkentyne (Oct 3, 2021)

erek said:


> Noticed (without overclocks) that my Memory Temperature hits 106C while randomly gaming, is this enough to be concerned with on a FE - RTX 3090 card?
> 
> "104C is still crazy, crazy hot. This article from September sheds some light on what an acceptable/safe temperature might be:"
> 
> ...



You need to repad to fix that.

Thermalright TFX (full spread) on the core.
Follow this template for Gelid extremes for the front side. (one pack 1.5mm, one pack 2mm)

Backside, use Gelid Extreme OR Gelid ultimate 1.5mm (you'll need two packs).



http://imgur.com/8jR7hfP


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## erek (Oct 3, 2021)

sad


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## thesmokingman (Oct 4, 2021)

Here's an ideal use case for justifying a waterblock. Any decent waterblock with a standard backplate will keep junction temps below 90c.


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## Simpleris (Oct 7, 2021)

My Gigabyte 3090, stays easily at 70-80 °C on gaming, barely using 4GB of VRAM. But on deep learning with all VRAM employed and it becomes an oven getting near 90-110 °C after 30-90 minutes of training c: I've read some post on s1 reducing the temps by using fans and heatsinks on the backplate... I should try this.

Edit: My VRAM temps are usally about 10 to 20 °C higher than the GPU temp itself, according to OHM.


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## ir_cow (Oct 8, 2021)

I believe the actually rating is up to 105 °C for GDDR6X You can find it on Micron website. Personally over a 100 °C is a real concern for longevity as I noted in my RTX 3070 Ti, RTX 3080 and RTX 3080 Ti in the review coverage I have done.

Slap a waterblock on it, or fix the thermal pads yourself. Who knows how long it will last. GDDR6X has built in ECC so small errors will not pop up or crash the system, but it will give you a performance dip. if the game is memory bandwidth hungry.


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## nguyen (Oct 8, 2021)

ir_cow said:


> I believe the actually rating is up to 105 °C for GDDR6X You can find it on Micron website. Personally over a 100 °C is a real concern for longevity as I noted in my RTX 3070 Ti, RTX 3080 and RTX 3080 Ti in the review coverage I have done.



The temp rating for GDDR6X is Tcase, while the sensor is reporting Tjunction. Tjunction is around 15C hotter, that means GDDR6X can operate at full speed up to 110C Tjunction (correspond to 95C Tcase), passing 110C Tjunction it will thermal throttle and risk of degradation at 120C (Tjunction)


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## ir_cow (Oct 8, 2021)

nguyen said:


> The temp rating for GDDR6X is Tcase, while the sensor is reporting Tjunction. Tjunction is around 15C hotter, that means GDDR6X can operate at full speed up to 110C Tjunction (correspond to 95C Tcase), passing 110C Tjunction it will thermal throttle and risk of degradation at 120C (Tjunction)


Hmm the date sheet suggests 95°C Tcase and 105 °C for the Tj. That would be 10°C not 15°C above.


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## delshay (Oct 8, 2021)

If I had these expensive card, I should be able to afford the best Thermal pads.  That's Fujipoly 17W m/k as used on both my Nano cards. Be aware once the pads are fitted never take it apart, It's forever & permanent. Taking the card apart will damage the pads..


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## nguyen (Oct 8, 2021)

ir_cow said:


> Hmm the date sheet suggests 95°C Tcase and 105 °C for the Tj. That would be 10°C not 15°C above.



Data sheet is quoting Tcase for both temp, 95C before thermal throttle and 105C before degradation (110C/120C for Tjunction)

Nvidia set 110C Tjunction as the thermal throttling point in BIOS, at 104C Tjunction the fans are commanded to max speed I think.

But yeah I would rather not see VRAM reach boiling temp at all, who knows the BGA on VRAM might just fail due to high thermal swing (happened to Turing already)


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## Simpleris (Oct 8, 2021)

Could it be possible to underclock(/undervolt?) GPU memory so it reduces temps on it? has anybody tried ever?


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## nguyen (Oct 8, 2021)

Simpleris said:


> Could it be possible to underclock(/undervolt?) GPU memory so it reduces temps on it? has anybody tried ever?



Yes under intensive workload that stress the memory (DL or mining), it's better to underclock the memory, reducing the power limit and increasing fan speeds as much as you can handle help too.


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## erek (Jan 18, 2022)

ThaiTaffy said:


> As jay stated in the video nvidia's use of their sub standard white thermal pads is a joke your card is overheating like the majority of all the 3080ti's and 3090's with ram chips on the rear of the card. No consumer electronics should run over 100°c.


@ThaiTaffy

so if i just replace the pads on the back that will be a big help?


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## ThaiTaffy (Jan 18, 2022)

erek said:


> @ThaiTaffy
> 
> so if i just replace the pads on the back that will be a big help?


It's become such a problem with these cards there has been an influx of aftermarket backplates now, personally I would take a look, Many can be had extremely cheap compared to the cost of the cards. 

Replace the junk Nvidia pads for gelid or some other quality product and slap some form of cooling backplate on it should cost you less than $60 for the lot which is nothing if you had to replace the whole card if it went up in smoke.


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## erek (Feb 16, 2022)

ThaiTaffy said:


> It's become such a problem with these cards there has been an influx of aftermarket backplates now, personally I would take a look, Many can be had extremely cheap compared to the cost of the cards.
> 
> Replace the junk Nvidia pads for gelid or some other quality product and slap some form of cooling backplate on it should cost you less than $60 for the lot which is nothing if you had to replace the whole card if it went up in smoke.


i got it down to a max of 100C so far just be repadding the back VRAM only, re-used all the other thermal pads.






still way too hot, or within acceptable operating parameters at least? (dead of winter though)


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## nguyen (Feb 16, 2022)

erek said:


> i got it down to a max of 100C so far just be repadding the back VRAM only, re-used all the other thermal pads.
> 
> View attachment 236856
> 
> ...



Been 17 months since 3090 launched and I haven't heard of any large scale VRAM related failure despite many many people mine on their 3090, so i assume you would be fine with VRAM running at 100C.

Though if you want your 3090 to live 5+ years then maybe try to keep VRAM temp below 90C.


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## erek (Feb 16, 2022)

nguyen said:


> Been 17 months since 3090 launched and I haven't heard of any large scale VRAM related failure despite many many people mine on their 3090, so i assume you would be fine with VRAM running at 100C.
> 
> Though if you want your 3090 to live 5+ years then maybe try to keep VRAM temp below 90C.


5 years would be real extreme, I usually upgrade within 3, so we’ll see.  Was incredibly hard to acquire this FE.  Lucked out at MSRP via another forum


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## Space Lynx (Feb 16, 2022)

ThaiTaffy said:


> That's why ekwb seems to have focused all their new blocks on Fe cards I guess.



yeah if i had a one of those FE's, i'd finally make the plunge to do water cooling.  thats a little too warm for comfort, even if it is normal.


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## MentalAcetylide (Mar 15, 2022)

Stupid question. I have an EVGA Kingpin 3090 and notice during gaming that on the small display on the card reports VRM 1 through 5 temps average around 45C with the highest(usually VRM 4) at 56C. The temps seem to be good for now, but is this something that I should be concerned about later on down the road? This thing does have a 360mm radiator(liquid cooling), so I'm guessing this is some kind of cooling for the backplate?


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## Dr. Dro (Mar 15, 2022)

MentalAcetylide said:


> Stupid question. I have an EVGA Kingpin 3090 and notice during gaming that on the small display on the card reports VRM 1 through 5 temps average around 45C with the highest(usually VRM 4) at 56C. The temps seem to be good for now, but is this something that I should be concerned about later on down the road? This thing does have a 360mm radiator(liquid cooling), so I'm guessing this is some kind of cooling for the backplate?



Is your card showing those temperatures while it's powered off?  

Those temps are fantastic and beyond any air-cooled 3090. Don't sweat it.


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## MentalAcetylide (Mar 15, 2022)

Dr. Dro said:


> Is your card showing those temperatures while it's powered off?
> 
> Those temps are fantastic and beyond any air-cooled 3090. Don't sweat it.


lol, if its in sleep mode, I don't see any temps. The only thing that stays on is the cpu cooler RGB(Asus Ryujin) and sometimes the G.Skill RAM RGB(Trident Royal). Everything else is off. 

There's also an RTX A6000 in a slot below it with about 0.75 inches of open space between the two cards. When rendering, that thing gets up to 80C and heats the little room up to 81+ Fahrenheit if I don't open the window and use a fan to suck out the heat building up in the room. I had the window open and was blowing 44 F air into the room the one night because the ambient temp got so warm when I was rendering. I still have to get a new AC unit for the room or else its going to get toasty in here when spring comes(and its right around the corner, too). Right now we're in the tail end of winter, and ambient temps in the room can still get up to 75 F just with gaming, and up to 81+ F if I'm rendering. I haven't tried rendering yet with both cards and probably won't until I get an AC unit to keep ambient temps down. Its a real hassle using a window fan because while I'm able to prevent a lot of the heat build-up, I'm still sucking 72 F warm air from downstairs and most of the cooler air is just going to stay downstairs.  

This desktop is literally a freakin space heater! Component temps are good, but holy sh** does it heat a small room up!


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## Nike_486DX (Mar 15, 2022)

liquid metal on the die, and some high end thermal pads on the memory. High end cards require high end solutions. Just choose the correct thickness of thermal pads and ideally you should see 80-85C after the procedure.


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## Lagmaster (Apr 2, 2022)

Recently got my hands on a 3090FE and saw memory junction temps break 100°C  at full fan speed (stopped testing at 104°C). I planned on mining to offset the price during downtime and as I'm also taking a swing at machine learning higher temps were to be expected.
Gelid GP Ultimate pads, 3 Noctua fans in front of the card and a piggyback active copper cooler on the back got me down below 80°C at the sweetspot for mining ETH with 123MH/s. Power target is at 87% resulting in 304W draw, memory OC +1350, core -200. Gaming VRAM temps peak in the low 70s with 100% power target and same memory OC at much lower noise level (cards fans are idle then).
The pads are much stiffer than the Extremes, had to pre-press them for proper coldplate contact but they work. The copper cooler is a chungus, weighs over 600g. I just added a low profile fan yesterday and now I'm happy with the result.
Wondering how much lower a proper waterblock sandwich would get me, it's first time I'm really tempted.


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## 1100R (Apr 2, 2022)

I get this waterblock. Tjuntion 60ºC mining 128 MH/s, 86 power limit -200 core clock +1660 memory clock. Also replaced thermal  pads whith Thermal Right 1,5 mm thick


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## GerKNG (Apr 2, 2022)

the temps are "fine" (fine in the card won't destroy itself imediately)

but i wouldn't be surprised if it's dead in a year or two.


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## Lagmaster (Apr 2, 2022)

GerKNG said:


> the temps are "fine" (fine in the card won't destroy itself imediately)
> 
> but i wouldn't be surprised if it's dead in a year or two.


Which temps? Mine?


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## GerKNG (Apr 2, 2022)

Lagmaster said:


> Which temps? Mine?


memory temps above 100°C


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## Lagmaster (Apr 2, 2022)

GerKNG said:


> I get this waterblock. Tjuntion 60ºC mining 128 MH/s, 86 power limit -200 core clock +1660 memory clock. Also replaced thermal  pads whith Thermal Right 1,5 mm thick


Is the build quality good? Every other active backlate combo is so damn expensive, except for Alphacool maybe.



GerKNG said:


> memory temps above 100°C


Oh yeah I'm not comfortable with that at all. I bet it survives 105-110°C with a 95% chance for 2 years with ECC kicking in so it passes the warranty period. They will have checked for that at least. I was surprised only MSI used a prober heatpipe design for the back although the heatsink contact is kind of bad.


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## 1100R (Apr 2, 2022)

Lagmaster said:


> Is the build quality good? Every other active backlate combo is so damn expensive, except for Alphacool maybe.
> 
> 
> Oh yeah I'm not comfortable with that at all. I bet it survives 105-110°C with a 95% chance for 2 years with ECC kicking in so it passes the warranty period. They will have checked for that at least. I was surprised only MSI used a prober heatpipe design for the back although the heatsink contact is kind of bad.


Very good quality. It’s well made and seems durable.
I would not be confortable with those temperatures either.


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## Lagmaster (Apr 2, 2022)

1100R said:


> Very good quality. It’s well made and seems durable.
> I would not be confortable with those temperatures either.


Nice, I'll keep that in mind. I guess you had luck with your memory/controller as well hitting that OC!


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## erek (Apr 2, 2022)

Lagmaster said:


> Recently got my hands on a 3090FE and saw memory junction temps break 100°C  at full fan speed (stopped testing at 104°C). I planned on mining to offset the price during downtime and as I'm also taking a swing at machine learning higher temps were to be expected.
> Gelid GP Ultimate pads, 3 Noctua fans in front of the card and a piggyback active copper cooler on the back got me down below 80°C at the sweetspot for mining ETH with 123MH/s. Power target is at 87% resulting in 304W draw, memory OC +1350, core -200. Gaming VRAM temps peak in the low 70s with 100% power target and same memory OC at much lower noise level (cards fans are idle then).
> The pads are much stiffer than the Extremes, had to pre-press them for proper coldplate contact but they work. The copper cooler is a chungus, weighs over 600g. I just added a low profile fan yesterday and now I'm happy with the result.
> Wondering how much lower a proper waterblock sandwich would get me, it's first time I'm really tempted.











						Copper plate mod for GeForce RTX 30 GPUs lowers memory temperature by 20% - VideoCardz.com
					

Lowering Ampere’s memory temperature has never been simplier Last month, we reported on an interesting modification made by DandyWorks. He replaced the thermal pads for the memory for the RTX 3070 Ti graphics card with copper shims, which resulted in 46°C lower memory temperature. As it turned...




					videocardz.com


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## Lagmaster (Apr 2, 2022)

erek said:


> Copper plate mod for GeForce RTX 30 GPUs lowers memory temperature by 20% - VideoCardz.com
> 
> 
> Lowering Ampere’s memory temperature has never been simplier Last month, we reported on an interesting modification made by DandyWorks. He replaced the thermal pads for the memory for the RTX 3070 Ti graphics card with copper shims, which resulted in 46°C lower memory temperature. As it turned...
> ...


That looks neat. Kind of expensive, I guess they take a lot for shipping to Europe as well. But I guess shims would do the job. I wonder how much of a difference it would make in my setup, I already get 10K more gains compared to their example. Looks like the next step up for me would be a custom loop. This is the only part I ever really considered water cooling. I'm fine for now, maybe when I got too much time and money at hand.


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## phanbuey (Apr 2, 2022)

try the k5 pro paste -- works wonders

(1) More FPS for just $10 - K5 Pro Viscous Thermal Paste - YouTube


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## Lagmaster (Apr 2, 2022)

phanbuey said:


> try the k5 pro paste -- works wonders
> 
> (1) More FPS for just $10 - K5 Pro Viscous Thermal Paste - YouTube


Oh yeah that is good stuff. Kind of a mess but not too bad. I guess the Gelid Ultimate pads are better for what they cover but the putty can cover bigger not flat areas around. I just wanted to keep it clean during warranty.
This is what a lot of testing resulted in, 7 slot chungus  I exchanged the backside fan with a 10mm low profile one though.


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## Why_Me (Apr 2, 2022)

Copper Plate Mod Reduces RTX 3080 GDDR6X Memory Temps by 25 Degrees
					

A great solution for badly cooled graphics cards




					www.tomshardware.com


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## Braegnok (Apr 2, 2022)

Replacing your pads would help. 

However running custom loop with active backplate on 3090 FE solves the issue.


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## Shrek (Apr 2, 2022)

Why_Me said:


> Copper Plate Mod Reduces RTX 3080 GDDR6X Memory Temps by 25 Degrees
> 
> 
> A great solution for badly cooled graphics cards
> ...



That is a very nice mod, although I'm not sure how aligned the memory chips are.

CoolMyGPU Copper Thermal Pads for Unparalleled RTX 30 Series | RTX GPU Memory Cooling Solutions


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## eswaisy (May 4, 2022)

i put 12.8w/mk thermal pads on my 3090FE, went down from 108c to 92-94c fans 68%.
how much does switching to 15w/mk or 17w/mk pads make a difference?


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## eidairaman1 (May 4, 2022)

eswaisy said:


> i put 12.8w/mk thermal pads on my 3090FE, went down from 108c to 92-94c fans 68%.
> how much does switching to 15w/mk or 17w/mk pads make a difference?


15 wont do as much when going from 12, 17 will though


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