Thermal Pads Question for MSI RTX3080 Ventus x3

[Vicious]

Been reading up on replacing the thermal pads for this model of MSI, Ventus x3, its hot spot sits at 97 when playing DOTA, or Battlefield.

Recently, had to remove my motherboard, so cleaned everything, closer inspection of my gpu, I realized oil over the PCB, seems to be the thermal pads? Time to swap them out then. The question is, what size? I see so many options out there and I have no idea what sheet size to go for, 2mm seems to be a good thickness, as far as the overall sheet size, well I need your insight fellow Carbies

That in mind, cost is considered, which brand should I consider?

 

[Switch]

Don't be overly concerned about a specific brand, just pick a known brand like coolermaster, etc, as long as the pad makes contact smoothly between the pcb/chips and the heatsink plate, more importantly you need to have the correct thickness.

 

[Vicious]

Don't be overly concerned about a specific brand, just pick a known brand like coolermaster, etc, as long as the pad makes contact smoothly between the pcb/chips and the heatsink plate, more importantly you need to have the correct thickness.

Checked a few sites, 2mm seems to be the size for this model.

Seeing a few Cooler Master 95x45 sheets around - Heck, seeing Takealot with 100x100

 

[Vicious]

Seems i'll need two sets of 95x45

 

[Vicious]

Ordered 2x Cooler Master thermal pad Pro's - 95*45 x2 should be enough to cover the majority of the cards replacements

With 15.3 (W/m.K), it hits higher than most of the others I could find. Got some Thermal Grizzly paste as well, which should bring my GPU's temps down again.

Currently, the hotspot is idling on 78, the Core sitting at 61, and memory at 76

 

[heinreich]

@Bornman88
Ask him to assist
Those temps seem a tad high

 

[Vicious]

@Bornman88
Ask him to assist
Those temps seem a tad high

Indeed they are, that's why I ordered Cooler Master's Thermal Pads to remove the stock thermal pads, I'm seeing oil residue leak onto the PCB, it's a common thing with these 3000 series. So the internet says.

 

[Vicious]

I'd say there's a noticeable difference.

The room temp is 23 degrees Celsius at, the before was at a room temp of 24, 2 hours earlier before starting the GPU journey of repasting and thermal pad replacements

https://imgur.com/a/8zE5xf4

 

[Vicious]

Right stress test on Heaven DX11, at 1440p, 5min run, did the same run before.

Before hot spot hit 104 in the benchmark, with 88 at the gpu core, fan went full blast at 100% 10 seconds in

After, hot spot max is 83c, and the gpu core hit 73c, the fan was slowly ramping up to 66% and stayed there for the rest of the benchmark

I'd say this is a massive win!

What does bother me, and I forgot to take a snippet, the memory is idling at 76, and hit 102 in the benchmark. So I have nothing to compare it to

 

[PsychoticKing]

Right stress test on Heaven DX11, at 1440p, 5min run, did the same run before.

Before hot spot hit 104 in the benchmark, with 88 at the gpu core, fan went full blast at 100% 10 seconds in

After, hot spot max is 83c, and the gpu core hit 73c, the fan was slowly ramping up to 66% and stayed there for the rest of the benchmark

I'd say this is a massive win!

What does bother me, and I forgot to take a snippet, the memory is idling at 76, and hit 102 in the benchmark. So I have nothing to compare it to

Might need to check pad placement on the memory then. One of the pads might have shifted when mounting the cooler. There should not be a big difference between memory and hotspot temps.

 

[Vicious]

Sir, that's exactly what's in the back of my head and I don't want to believe or hear it haha.

Ai, alright, let's do this again

 

[DiceAir]

Did my palit 3080 ti. gamerock Although I only did the core as The thermal poads they use is a weird thickness but anyway a massive win. on a 440w load it only goes to core 63C and hotspot 74C. Thats crazy good for a 3080 ti @ 440w load. Was testing with cyberpunk with path tracing on and everything else max on 1440p.

I used cooler master mastergel maker. Very good paste Hotspot was going 105C and fans at 100% 3600rpm so a missive win for me and now my card can boost without thermal throttle so I get better performace.

Oh my memory tops out at 80C max. After adding small heatsink that I had laying around at the back where the memory is and a small old intel cooler fan that exhaust it runs about 2-5C cooler

 

[Vicious]

Might need to check pad placement on the memory then. One of the pads might have shifted when mounting the cooler. There should not be a big difference between memory and hotspot temps.

Alright, GPU removed, and paste applied over memory modules, gpu back in 20mins, getting good at this! Haha

Right, the pads were seated correctly, however, I added some Arctic MX-6 on top of the memory modules with the pads seating on top of the(Stuck to the cooler)

Here are the new results - Thanks @PsychoticKing for pushing me, I was about to leave it as is.

Running the benchmark GPU test

- GPU Core max hit 73c
- Memory Max hit 86c (Wow, what a drop in temps!!)
- Hotspot hit 83.1c

Idling temps currently after the run
- GPU 54
- Memory 68
- Hotspot 67

In short, how did I get this massive drop in temps. Removing important cooling pads and adding Arctic MX-6 to the caps and Core, as well as memory modules. Not a lot, very very small touch of paste and lightly spread the paste over the area.

The best thing I can take away from this, the GPU barely spins up the fans! This, this makes me want to cry haha. In any game, or benchmark, the 5-10seconds in it would spin up to 100%, even with a relaxed fan curve.

What a massive impact and overall win! So glad I did this. In my scenario, I used 1x CoolerMaster thermal pad, there's 1x3cm piece left.

Here's an image of the before (Don't get a scare ) And after

https://imgur.com/a/tQwn6iM

 

[PsychoticKing]

I am guessing the first pic of the core as dry as the sarah is when you first removed it? I am surprised the card is still working.

 

[Vicious]

I am guessing the first pic of the core as dry as the sarah is when you first removed it? I am surprised the card is still working.

You are correct kind sir, there was no more paste, only some oil residue - Strange enough, the max was 90 the one day (extremely hot day few weeks ago) So the fans did their job in spiking to 100% straight away in keeping the card running

 

[Vicious]

Just note, my GPU has to run 3x 1440p panels, so it does get 'pulled'
Will run HW Monitor while I play something later and see how it does

Overall, what a gain, this bad boy is good for a few years again

I'll share my thermal pad cutout and sizing, for whoever wants to replace their MSI Ventus OC x3 RTX 3080's paste and pads

 

[Vicious]

Right, 44 mins of Dota at 1440p, Dota loves a gpu

Core 72
Mem 82
Hot spot 82

Fan 68%

Before

- Core would hit 87
- Mem at 90
- Hotspot at 102

and 100% fan speed

 

[DiceAir]

Right, 44 mins of Dota at 1440p, Dota loves a gpu

Core 72
Mem 82
Hot spot 82

Fan 68%

Before

- Core would hit 87
- Mem at 90
- Hotspot at 102

and 100% fan speed

not to bad. Must remember that the ventus is the lowest end card from msi and cooler is not great. So temps is actually good

 

[Vicious]

Right, nice relaxed fan curve

50c @ 40% fan speed
60c @ 50% fan speed
75c @ 65% fan speed

90c @ 80% fan speed (Just as a precaution)

Ran Firestrike extreme and the gpu was silent, max fan speed was at 1419 rpm, and the core temp at 73c and mem/hotspot at 82/83

At idle with this fan curve, the idle temps are 51 core, 64/64 mem and hot spot - I think this is a safe and nice spot?

I don't hear the GPU when I run firestrike extreme, as well as idle, so let's leave it at that! A win on performance, thermals and db's

The dimensions of the thermal pads I cut out of the 1 sheet CoolerMaster Thermal pad 2mm are as follows

-- Around the core and heatsink
- Top, W 1cm x H 1.5 cm
- Right W 5cm x H 1.5 cm
- Left W 5cm x H 1.5 cm
- Buttom H 4cm x W 1.5cm

--Far left and far right thin thermal pads
- Right H 8.5cm x 1.25cm
- Left H 8cm x 1.25cm

I used a steel ruler to mark and cut them to the previous thermal pads size. Adding a touch of thermal paste on the pads as well, especially where they would seat over the respective module or chipset.

Again, 1x CoolerMaster thermal pad was enough to cover the important areas that I wanted to ensure are running cooler, they come in 95x45 sheets.

https://imgur.com/a/kXw9jvm