# Gigabyte Aorus GTX 1080Ti thermal pad question



## Verbatim (Oct 18, 2018)

I need to change thermal pads.

How thick thermal pads do i need for Gigabyte Aorus GTX 1080 Ti cooler ?

0.5mm to 2mm ? 

And which thermal pads are the best overall ?

Thanks!


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## jormungand (Oct 18, 2018)

I know is a gigabyte but check on evga gtx 1070 and 1080 ftw editions videos of thermal pads, maybe it says the thickness measures. I applied mine long time ago. Gamers nexus have that vid with most of details. Maybe says even where to get them


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## delshay (Oct 18, 2018)

The best thermal pads are 17W/mk.

I have the Fujipoly & Alphacool, but I have only tested the Alphacool on R9 Nano, which set the highest benchmark in Superposition for a R9 Nano.
Sometimes it's best to have the pads thicker than too thin as it will flatten out anyway, but if it's too thick it can damage the pad. Download Fujipoly datasheet to understand this.

Alphacool Docs https://www.alphacool.com/download/AC-Eisschicht-XR-m.pdf

Fujipoly Docs (EDIT) https://www.fujipoly.com/usa/products/sarcon-thermal-management-components/


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## MrGenius (Oct 18, 2018)

Use a good metric steel ruler to measure the uncompressed edge of a used pad. You might find several different sizes/thicknesses used on the same card(my reference Vega 64 uses 0.5mm, 1mm and 1.5mm). 

The best thermal pads are Fujipoly Ultra Extreme SARCON XR-m(17.0W/m-K). But they cost a pretty penny.

EDIT: I just now realized that those Alphacool Eisschicht pads are rebranded SARCON XR-m. So get those if they're cheaper. Or if that's all that's available.


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## delshay (Oct 18, 2018)

MrGenius said:


> Use a good metric steel ruler to measure the uncompressed edge of a used pad. You might find several different sizes/thicknesses used on the same card(my reference Vega 64 uses 0.5mm, 1mm and 1.5mm).
> 
> The best thermal pads are Fujipoly Ultra Extreme SARCON XR-m(17.0W/m-K). But they cost a pretty penny.
> 
> EDIT: I just now realized that those Alphacool Eisschicht pads are rebranded SARCON XR-m. So get those if they're cheaper. Or if that's all that's available.



Fujipoly is cheaper than the Alphacool, got mine from amazon, & Alphacool from https://www.aquatuning.co.uk/thermal-pads-paste/thermal-pads/?p=2


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## eidairaman1 (Oct 18, 2018)

Your safest bet is going to be 1MM.

However is a steel ruler or a caliper style micrometer.

Thermal pads for memory are typically fairly thick


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## dgianstefani (Oct 18, 2018)

The best ones from Fujipoly can be very hard to find and order. I'd go with Gelid GC-Extreme pads as they're readily available and pretty good, definitely better than the stock ones.


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## Verbatim (Oct 18, 2018)

These thermal pads will be good enough ? Better than stock ones ?
https://www.ekwb.com/shop/thermal-pad-g-2-0mm-120x24mm


Thermal conductivity: 3.5 W/mK (+/-0.35) 
General dimensions: Type G (120 x 24 mm)
Thickness: 2.0 mm 
Working Temperature: -55 ~ +200°C
Hardness: 5 (Shore A)
Elongation: 100% 
Specific Gravity: 2.6 g/cm3 (+/- 0.2)
Flame Rating: V-0
Dielectric Breakdown Voltage: >4kV
Volume Resistance: > 10^11 Ohm-m
Main ingredient: Aluminum oxide (Al2O3) 85-95%


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## dgianstefani (Oct 18, 2018)

3.5W/mK is shit, use the Gelid GC Extreme 12W/mK https://www.quietpc.com/gelid-gp-pads


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## Verbatim (Oct 18, 2018)

dgianstefani said:


> 3.5W/mK is shit,


And how much has stock ones ?


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## delshay (Oct 18, 2018)

I'm not 100% sure of this information, but I think high end GFX cards have around 7W/mk thermal pads as standard, but take this info as a pinch of salt.

Plus the 17W/mk thermal pads I pointed out in this thread is for the VRM, not so sure if you need such high end pads on memory, even thou it will still work on memory.

Whatever the case, I would not go lower than 7W/mk thermal pads on a high end card. If you can afford a high end GFX card, then high end thermal pads should not be a problem. There are users out there that say 12-14W/mk is just as good.


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## dgianstefani (Oct 18, 2018)

After a point it the importance shifts to how quickly the heatsink can get rid of the heat, rather than how fast the thermal pad can shift from the chip to the heatsink. I'd say anything above 8W/mK is good.


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## John Naylor (Oct 20, 2018)

I have always used FujiPoly 17 W/mK  .... there's better available but waaaay too expensive.

Check EK Waterblocks site .... see if they make a waterblock kit and if so what the pad thickness is ... don't forget the backplate

I tied to look up the water block but EK configurator requires registration and then you have no name case and every other component and look at radiators and pumps before getting to the block 

the 17 W/mK stuff should run about $17 for a MOFSET pad... $11 for 11 W/mK  and $8 for 5W/mK


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## delshay (Oct 20, 2018)

John Naylor said:


> I have always used FujiPoly 17 W/mK  .... there's better available but waaaay too expensive.



I'v not seen anything higher than 17W/mk other than moving to Graphite sheet or Graphite pads which I use internally to transfer heat around inside a R9 Nano. Do you have a link to this product?

All this thermal talk, I will bring forward my latest experiment, "real silver sheet".


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## Verbatim (Oct 21, 2018)

At the end i bought arctic thermal pads 6.0 W/mk at 0.5mm, 1.0mm and 1.5mm thickness. As i can understand they are the same as stock ones or even better in terms of cooling performance. These with 8.0 W/mk and 12 W/mk costs insane amount of money for what they are just not worth that money.


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## delshay (Oct 24, 2018)

If you have a high end GFX card, you want to protect it at all cost because it very expensive. The last thing you want to do is reduce it's performance & put the card at risk.


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## Verbatim (Oct 24, 2018)

delshay said:


> If you have a high end GFX card, you want to protect it at all cost because it very expensive. The last thing you want to do is reduce it's performance & put the card at risk.


That gpu is not that expensive is you compare it to these expensive thermal pads.


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## delshay (Oct 24, 2018)

Would not call this expensive compared to the card

https://www.amazon.com/Fujipoly-mod..._rd_t=40701&psc=1&refRID=1VBV65NPVT7H5QQVR6AC

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00ZSJQLME/ref=psdc_2998409011_t2_B00MPZXYQK

Scroll to bottom of page & click on other options including thickness, above both are 1.0 thickness & in some cases you cut to fit.

EDIT: The first link their had ten, now their only have eight, I just bought two.

& here is a link to my R9 Nano. I'm still working on beating the HWbot Fury X card record, all thanks to excellent thermal solutions, very stable when overclocked..

https://www.techpowerup.com/forums/threads/the-fury-x-owners-club.214557/page-4

Just found links to 1.5 thickness.

https://www.amazon.com/Fujipoly-mod...1CRH7FNGC0DV#HLCXComparisonWidget_feature_div

https://www.amazon.com/Fujipoly-mod..._rd_t=40701&psc=1&refRID=8ZCKR9PXVHD9RZGZQ5NX


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## Verbatim (Oct 24, 2018)

I need different lengths and sizes in thickness. GTX 1080 Ti needs a lot of them and in my country they are expensive and not always available in all sizes that's a problem without a doubt.

I rather buy arctic thermal pads in all needed sizes for 32 eur. Not for 80 eur or more that's just ridiculous it's actually 1/6 price of actual video card.

Spending 80 or more eur for thermal pads definitely is not worth it!


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## delshay (Oct 24, 2018)

Verbatim said:


> I need different lengths and sizes in thickness. GTX 1080 Ti needs a lot of them and in my country they are expensive and not always available in all sizes that's a problem without a doubt.
> 
> I rather buy arctic thermal pads in all needed sizes for 32 eur. Not for 80 eur or more that's just ridiculous it's actually 1/6 price of actual video card.
> 
> Spending 80 or more eur for thermal pads definitely is not worth it!



I have already pointed out you cut the pads to fit.

FITTING THE PADS

This is how I fitted the pads, you have to cut them. Also try not to touch the pads with your fingers when you remove the protection on both sides of the pads, you don't want to contaminate it.

I did not manually compress the pads, I allowed the base plate to do this when you screw base plate & PCB together, but you must never take it apart again, it has something to do with the way the pads compress & hardened overtime. So to check you have the right thickness you may want to apply a small sample on just one VRM or one memory chip just to check you have the right compression. You can still use the sample pad again as it is still fresh. Of course, do not power up the card with just one thermal pad on VRM or memory.

When you have fitted pads to all VRM/Memory you must not take the card apart again, as you may not have the same compression, this is all down to the type of thermal pad. Not all thermal pads are like this, it's all down to what type of thermal pad user(s) have installed.

17W/mk pads is what I use on my R9 Nano VRM (1.5 thickness), I don't think such high level pads is needed on memory chips.

Also I did play around with stacking the pads, as I have a lot of it & I did not detect drop-off in performance, but I used a lot of thermal pad as it does break-up under excessive pressure. This was just a experiment in stacking thermal pads.



Verbatim said:


> About stacking thermal pads will it be fine to stack them 1.5mm + 0.5mm or 1.5mm + 1.5mm ?
> 
> When thermal pad is placed on the video card does it holds in place when pcb is upside down without cooler ?



You can stack them if you have the wrong thickness, but you have to be careful of cracks/break-up of this type of thermal pads. I would not go higher than 1.5, but if you want to experiment, do it on something you don't care about & not on your main computer.

This type of pads do stick to the R9 Nano "metal" MOSFET with a gentle push, but I also cleaned both surface with Isopropyl.


Compression must be done when PCB & MOSFET cooler come together, this is key. Too much movement under pressure will do too much unnecessary spreading of the pads, in other words, use the screws hole & screws to align PCB & MOSFET cooler, & when you screw the two together, compression will be done. You don't have to follow this route, it depends on "what type of pads you are fitting" & you can mount it as normal if you have the other type of pads, but i'm getting absolute maximum heat transfer as i'm allowing the cooler & PCB to do the compression for me. Also it looks like 1.0 thickness is the correct one for my card, but I got away with 1.5 without it breaking-up.

Do a sample test, then take it apart to give you an idea what's happening when you put the two together, but you don't have to do this, if you are using another type of thermal pad.

EDIT UPDATE @OP

Download Docs for your type of thermal Pads. It looks like your arctic type of thermal pads is straight forward, so you fit them as normal & skip what I have said in this thread.


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