Rate my liquid metal job...

[ThrashZone]

Hi,
The green ones will definately stop the cooler from going down
Maybe 2mm would be better.

 

[delshay]

I have the Vega 56 Nano which is the same PCB as OP.

The thermal pads are fitted incorrectly on the MOSFETS correct name "DirectFET". You are loosing mounting pressure directly across the FET as the thermal pads are too long. Your suppose to cut the thermal pads so that it covers just a "pair of FETS" at a time. So there should be a gap in-between each pair of FETS. With those long thermal pads the PCB is soaking up some of the mounting pressure.

Be very careful of LM, you don't want to blow-up those FETS as i don't think there are many experienced repair technician that can replace those. My card is also using LM.

You can see my card in link here, copy at your own risk post #499 Vega owners club | Page 20 | TechPowerUp Forums

 

[Morgoth]

I have the Vega 56 Nano which is the same PCB as OP.

The thermal pads are fitted incorrectly on the MOSFETS correct name "DirectFET". You are loosing mounting pressure directly across the FET as the thermal pads are too long. Your suppose to cut the thermal pads so that it covers just a "pair of FETS" at a time. So there should be a gap in-between each pair of FETS. With those long thermal pads the PCB is soaking up some of the mounting pressure.

Be very careful of LM, you don't want to blow-up those FETS as i don't think there are many experienced repair technician that can replace those. My card is also using LM.

You can see my card in link here, copy at your own risk post #499 Vega owners club | Page 20 | TechPowerUp Forums

thx i fix that tomorow. another qeustion. these red squared parts do they need thermalpads on it??

 

[delshay]

@Morgoth
Perhaps your thermal pads are too thick, or you didn't fasten the waterblock tightly enough

There is a possibility the thermal pads are too thick. My thermal pads are also too thick on the inductor only, The mounting force when you screw the mounting plate all the way down will crush my pads to fit.
In reality I should use thinner pads, but what i can do is cut the pads smaller for the inductors, this will increase the mounting pressure on the FETS which is more important to cool than the inductors.

Because I understand how my type pads work I can get away with using thicker than normal pads. Note that the more mounting force you put on the pads, the better the heat transfer, so thicker than normal pads is sometimes the better way forward. ...Look at it as particle to particle or atom to atom. The more you crush the pads the more you bring each particle closer tightly bonded together making it more dense so it will transfer more heat. But there is a rule. The gap between PCB & coldplate must not increase, it must remain the same without bending the PCB. Look at the PDF Docs on thermal pads, it's showing you the more you increase the mounting force the better the heat transfer.

thx i fix that tomorow. another qeustion. these red squared parts do they need thermalpads on it??

My coldplate is different to yours so the short answer is no. It does however have thermal pad on the black MOSFET on the right just below the DirectFet.

**EDIT**: If you leave the card till the next day you may want to try the card again without taking it apart. The thermal pads may have settle down a little by then. You also have too much LM. A user suggested moving it to the middle of the GPU/coldplate. No this will not work. The LM has to go somewhere. So when the coldplate is added back it will come out of the side. Be super extra careful if you take the card apart again.
LM is a danger & can kill your card. Just watch your hands do not come into contact with it & brush it somewhere it should not be.

 

[Zach_01]

i allready did on the second time how mutch more do i need to add? entire 1 gram?? i readed thats enough for 10 aplications??? just yolo it??

Thermal pad thickness maybe an issue here but… you almost used it all the 1gr LM???

I’m using LM the last 2.5years, applied around 7 times on a CPU IHS (AM4) plus 1 time on 2 laptops (CPU+GPU) and still that 1gr hasn’t finished…

My initial thought when I saw your pics from OP was that it may be too much

EDIT:
PS.

That’s a nickel plated coldplate on the water block right?

 

[Lei]

That’s a nickel plated coldplate on the water block right?

Yes, that's a Bykski nickel electroplated pure copper with military grade O-Rings, he removed the RGB strip (or purchased without them)
Also looks like it's unsealed, so he has never washed the inside of the block, can't clearly see though (first image, bottom right corner of the block )

 

[delshay]

Thermal pad thickness maybe an issue here but… you almost used it all the 1gr LM???

I’m using LM the last 2.5years, applied around 7 times on a CPU IHS (AM4) plus 1 time on 2 laptops (CPU+GPU) and still that 1gr hasn’t finished…

My initial thought when I saw your pics from OP was that it may be too much

EDIT:
PS.

That’s a nickel plated coldplate on the water block right?

You can tell if the thermal pads are too thick. The PCB will look warped when looking from the side of the card. If the thermal pads are too thick there is a way around it. You simply cut the thermal pads into smaller squares & place on each individual inductor.

 

[Morgoth]

i get on it today

 

[delshay]

i get on it today

Be very, very careful you have LM on your card. I don't want to hear you have blown it up by silly mistakes. I strongly suggest you try the card again before taking it apart.

 

[Morgoth]

Be very, very careful you have LM on your card. I don't want to hear you have blown it up by silly mistakes. I strongly suggest you try the card again before taking it apart.

i did. it did last a minute in war thunder before shutting down

 

[delshay]

i did. it did last a minute in war thunder before shutting down

Stop, stop, stop. I'v looked at your thermal pads again. Who makes those pads.

 

[Morgoth]

grey 1mm pad are from gilet
green ones are from kritical

so i did what you told me to do... i also found out that the screws i orginaly used are not threaded all the way (first 3 mm) so i could't screw them more in so the pcb didt touch the standoffs on some places so i did this for a fix to see if it works...
and after all that. nothing changed.. stil hot spot 105c and shuts off
i also used a flash light to look between the cold plate and the pcb the pads are toughing the 2 sufraces. and the GPU die also seems to be toughing the cold plate

also kinda starting to think to put back the air cooler on it...

 

[xtreemchaos]

what was the temps hotspot/die with the aircooler a about will do.

 

[delshay]

grey 1mm pad are from gilet
green ones are from kritical

Have you check/look at the documentation of your cooler? 3mm thickness pads, seems like it's too thick. This does mean it's not usable, it's all down to how compressible the pads are, mounting force requirement & what type of pads we are dealing with.

Aren't kritical pads recommend for GPU with original standard cooler. Your using a custom water cooler or am I missing something?.

 

[Morgoth]

what was the temps hotspot/die with the aircooler a about will do.

i never realy shecked it....

 

[Good Guru]

I think too much LM you are supposed to like brush it on like a painting very thin.

 

[Morgoth]

Have you check/look at the documentation of your cooler? 3mm thickness pads, seems like it's too thick. This does mean it's not usable, it's all down to how compressible the pads are, mounting force requirement & what type of pads we are dealing with.

Aren't kritical pads recommend for GPU with original standard cooler. Your adding a custom water cooler or am I missing something?.

no there was a issue with the thermalpads that came with the block... and the manual is badly translated chinese to english....
i also did allot of googling before hand and afterwards... tough there old articals missing pictures
some say put thick layer of thermal paste on it.. like mx-5 some say liquid metal is the best way to go to beat the hotspot
so far mx-5 did the best for me but still in the end it thermal trotels...
would be fun if it all just worked...

 

[xtreemchaos]

ive just remember something dont know if its any use but i remember a guy some years ago having a problem with his hotspot being 110c in games and he fixed it with a copper plate inbetween die and cooler i think the size was (30 x 30 x 1 mm) as i say i dont know if its any use but i thought id mention it.

 

[delshay]

no there was a issue with the thermalpads that came with the block... and the manual is badly translated chinese to english....

Right ok.

But you are using thermal pads from kritical. This website claim 20W m/k thermal pads. I've no doubt the thermal pads work, but suspension lay with they claimed 20W m/k. I'm also not so sure if those pads will work very well with Vega FETS. Remember VEGA FETS are different to most GFX cards out there & those pads are cut to fit specific cards with original heatsink & different type of MOSFET.
This is not to say the pads will not work with your card, it may still perform very well.

 

[Morgoth]

what realy troubles me that there is no offical mention from amd or sapphire where the hotspot is mesured. is it the mosfets? is it the hbm? the gpu die??? where??? drives me crazy

 

[delshay]

ive just remember something dont know if its any use but i remember a guy some years ago having a problem with his hotspot being 110c in games and he fixed it with a copper plate inbetween die and cooler i think the size was (30 x 30 x 1 mm) as i say i dont know if its any use but i thought id mention it.

I see, but the extra layer copper shimm is another barrier to the coldplate. It's better to fix the issue where the die has direct contact with the coldplate other than go though an extra layer with thermal paste on both sides of the shimm.

If you solder the shimm to the coldplate then this will cut the losses in heat transfer like what i'm using right now, IHS soldered direct to heatsink.

what realy troubles me that there is no offical mention from amd or sapphire where the hotspot is mesured. is it the mosfets? is it the hbm? the gpu die??? where??? drives me crazy

Nobody knows where it is other than AMD..

Lets get back on track. What are you doing right now to the card?

 

[Ruru]

IMO looks fine, I'm just commenting the GPU and HBM and I didn't read the thread.

 

[xtreemchaos]

i did say i dont know if its any use but it is something to keep in the back of the mind . id be tempted to take a 1mm off the legs myself like thrashzone was saying.

 

[Morgoth]

for my next one im planing to buy waterblock from wel know brand like alphacool.. not touching those chinese brands any more..
im also wondering if im beter of getting a prefit waterblock with gpu from sapphire instead and if i can use my existing tubes on it
if there not press fit on the block...

 

[ThrashZone]

Hi,
I only said it's the only way to lower the contact area, I didn't recommend doing it.

But after that the op said what size pads he was using which 3mm is way bigger than any nvidia card I seen use that close to the die
I've only installed water blocks on gpu's and nvidia at that

Memory chips are the closest to the die on nvidia cards and I believe they only use 1mm pads
Mosfets/ vrm's are the thickest and I believe 1.5mm and these are the farthest away from the die.
So I'd verify which excact size pads are supposed to be used and use them then see what happens.