Overall, not a bad TIM job done by Sapphire.
The thermal tape over that area is totally F'd up which is why I've been having such high VRM temps.
As you can see, there has been some discoloration with the fact that the tape has not made contact with that part of the card for almost 2 months.
I've managed to take as much tape off on the double sandwiched RAM chip it was on to put on the one completely bare RAM contact space.
All this along with my AC-MX2, and here are my results:
Before (Core)
Idle: 38-40
Load: 78-80 (75% fan speed w/ BF4 for 2 hours 'Siege of Shanghai and Zavod 311')
After (Core)
Idle: 36-38
Load: 70-71 (75% fan speed w/ BF4 for 2 hours 'Siege of Shanghai and Zavod 311')
Before (VRM)
Idle: 40
Load: 90 (75% fan speed w/ BF4 for 2 hours 'Siege of Shanghai and Zavod 311')
After (VRM)
Idle: 35
Load: 70-72 (75% fan speed w/ BF4 for 2 hours 'Siege of Shanghai and Zavod 311')
The high GPU temps were also doing a number on my CPU and limiting my OC. Mind you, I have kept as many of the variables as I could the same; the ambient temp, all my fan speeds, PC hasn't been cleaned out or dust aired out. I'm just pretty shocked that QA could've missed such a big mistake on the application of the thermal tape. I always wondered if I got a bad batch of Tri-X cards, and then after I opened up the hood, low and behold the culprit flashed it's ass right in my face. In case some were also wondering, this card didn't have any "warranty sticker" on it anywhere. So don't be afraid to get a little handy and poke around to see how it looks for yourself. Maybe you could increase your card's efficiency just like I did! Thanks for reading