Cool article, nice to see how GPUs are made, but I have one question regarding this part:
In the next stage, a worker uses a stencil to apply a precise amount of thermal paste onto the GPU ASIC die. Previously, PowerColor would use a blob of TIM that's spread under pressure from the cooler, but has since changed it to a stencil-based application method that ensures uniform amounts of TIM. PowerColor intends to upgrade this stage to a fully mechanized TIM application in the near future, using a machine that's essentially similar to the one that applies solder paste in the earlier stages of the automated assembly.
The same statement can be found pretty much in every article about that tour (der8auer also talks about that in his video). Few weeks before people visited PowerColor fab, there was an article about completely borked thermal paste application on PowerColors 7900 XTX cards published by Igors Lab (not sure if linking to competition is allowed, so I am not gonna do it). A lot of users had issues with their PowerColor cards getting ridicolous delta between edge and hot spot temps (+30K), the reports were all over the net even before Igor's article. However, no major media picked up that story, yet all comment on how great new method of application thermal paste as PowerColor lab is gonna be.....
To be completely transparent I bought PowerColor 7900 XTX, my delta between GPU temp and hot spot is around 32 degrees. Hotspot temp reaches 100 C on default settings, PowerColor is not willing to help me, pretty much standard in the business. I will repaste the card myself, lose the warranty, never again buy anything from them, end of story (if card survives
![Smile :) :)](https://tpucdn.com/forums/data/assets/smilies/smile-v1.gif)
).
What boggles my mind is that all big HW sites ignore the fact that dude, who is pretty well known in the community publishes a piece showing how PowerColor failed pretty hard. 2 weeks later everyone is so pumped about how open about their manufacturing PowerColor is. I can't believe you guys missed the article Igor made, so what's the reason of keeping it quiet?