Tear-Down: NVIDIA RTX 3070 Founders Edition Disassembly

We're taking apart the NVIDIA RTX 3070 Founders Edition GPU for full disassembly of the cooling solution, die shots, and a look at thermal paste and fan replacement. Only some glue involved!

The NVIDIA RTX 3070 FE had some of the best pressure contact we've seen with our new pressure testing yet, benefiting also from a relatively flat coldplate. This tear-down takes a closer look at why the pressure distribution was so even and shows the step-by-step disassembly process / how-to for taking apart an NVIDIA RTX 3070 Founders Edition GPU. We'll also show hole spacing for water cooling efforts, the safest way to remove the glue from the ribbon cables, a GPU die shot and die sizing, and more.



TIMESTAMPS

00:00 - Flashbacks to the 3080 Tear-Down
01:02 - External Walkthrough of RTX 3070 Founders Edition
03:23 - Fan Measurements & Airflow Focusing
04:09 - Removing the 3070 Backplate
04:59 - ... Seriously? Plastic to the Thermal Pad?
06:57 - Rear Pad Looks Like an After-Thought
07:39 - Removing the Ribbon Cables & Slot Shunt Resistor
08:47 - Removing the Retention Bracket
10:22 - IO Plate Removal
11:14 - PCB & Cooler Separation
11:54 - 12-Pin Placement is Better in Center
13:27 - Coldplate & Heatpipe Convergence
17:11 - Lockpicking the Shroud & Fin Stack
18:57 - Unibody Shroud Design & Flow Blocking Plates
22:59 - GLUE!
25:19 - Looking at the RTX 3070 PCB & Memory
26:32 - RTX 3070 Hole Spacing, GPU Die Shot
28:23 - Conclusion

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Host: Steve Burke
Video: Keegan Gallick, Andrew Coleman

[LeoNyeDis]

Still in disbelief this channel is only now surpassing 1 million subs.
I have been subbed for years, guess I never looked, always assumed you guys were up there.
Much deserved.
Much love.

"BEFORE THAT"

[ryanriddell]

You have saved my sanity. I bought a 3070 and one fan was on 200% when the system powered on. I watched this video and saw the fan headers latch, and thought... hmm what if someone didnt seat it properly. Removed the backplate and low and behold.. the locking latch was up on my problematic fan, re-seated and re-installed and my god it's fixed! Without this video I would have probably tried to RMA it and not had a card till next year.

Thank you!

[MarcoGPUtuber]

Ah. It's time for Open Heart Surgery with Steve once again.

[zashbot]

Hey fun fact about phillips screws: The design was bought by henry ford for use in his factories by people with non torque limited screw guns. The bit is actually designed to cam out of the screw when the proper torque is reached, so people with limited skill can use the gun to assemble components without stripping the holes.

[cheesefries]

I'm so glad they do these videos.
I work on server hardware every day and at least once a shift go "why did they make it like this, looks like the engineers realized they didn't have to work on the finished product" and I get those vibes from tear downs.

[hi_tech_reptilezz]

Rubbing alcohol may have helped get that glue off if a heat gun isn't around. Just an alternative. Great vid, looking forward to the PCB analysis!

[miles]

Legend has it one day Tech Jesus will find the ark of the covenant soldered on a PCB

[jondonnelly]

If Nvidia made a matching CPU cooler it would definitly sell. The engineering and design of this is impeccable. Aesthetically matching the two would look freaking awesome.

[Pegaroo_]

When measuring hole spacing its much easier to measure from edge of the hole to the edge of the hole rather than guessing where the middle of the hole is. The hole pitch (aka centre to centre) is the same no matter where you measure it as long as you use the same point on both holes

[Olivier-C]

This "thermal pad on plastic" looks more like a support/spacer, maybe it was found the unsupported plate is vibrating because of the fans and makes some noise...

[rushnerd]

What an elegant design. They really knocked it out of the park with this gen's FE engineering.

[vyrthir]

For some reason I find the teardowns extremely relaxing to watch, I usually sit down with a cup of coffee or tea in the morning and watch a teardown so when I woke up to this video being published I was very happy as I'm looking to buy an FE 3070 as soon as I'm able to. Thanks GN!

[Continus]

The 'S' shape reminds me of that S drawing we all made back in jr high in the late 90's... Ish.

[racerex]

Time for another Nvidia FE teardown. "Beve Sturke grabs his MSI branded extreme OC drill and AMD shill superglue".

[soapa]

RTX 3070: I’m beautifully designed, and well built. Like a work of art.
GN: I’m bout to disassemble this whole GPU’s career.

[mryukazi]

Should have known. Got wondering what it looked like under there, a quick "3070 teardown" search later, and my boy already has me covered.

[rubendiaz]

Gamer nexus mi bro I am Chilean and I can assure you that your video could not have come in a better moment, this video was a notification on my phone just 1 minute next to an earthquake at 5, 4 at 10 km from my house (that's not very much for chileans but it's an earthquake anyways), very good video always counting on you for entertainment and news

[qlum]

Looking at the thermal pad on the back, to me it looks like it's mostly there for rigidity.
It's in the middle of the open area of the backplate, by adding a thermal pad there the backplate will probably bend in less.
My guess is that's also why they did not bother removing the plastic underneath.

[TheOriginalSvT]

I appreciate the very detailed videos Gamers Nexus puts out 💙💛

[dante]

This teardown was a pleasure to watch. Now that is what I call a beautifully designed GPU.