Nvidia RTX 3080FE Thermal Pad Mod - Reduce Memory Temps!

Upgrade your 3080 FE thermal pads with the far superior Gelid Solutions GP-Extreme Thermal Pads which should bring your memory temps down buy a hefty margin!

I used 2mm thick pads for the side with the GPU and 3mm thick pads for the side with the backplate (the plate with the RTX 3080 marking).

There is one exception to 3mm pads on the backplate side: there is one fairly large pad on the backplate side, pointed out in the video where I've used a 2mm pad. The original Nvidia pad was very compressed and with the 3mm Gelid pad, the backplate bulged quite a bit and so I replaced it with the 2mm pad.

At stock using Nicehash, memory temps were around 106-108c with peaks of 110c at around 23c ambient room temp. After the mod, temps dropped into the mid to high 80s generally 86 to 88 Celsius at 23 Celsius room temperature.
When sunlight hit the PC in the mornings and the room warmed up to around 26-27c the card hasn't gone beyond 90c with these pads. After replacing the pads I was also able to crank the memory up +1300 and still hover around 88c

Stock was in short supply at the time of filming but managed to get hold of some pads from a seller on Aliexpress after a 2 week wait, ensure you check seller ratings. My seller offered to swap out for some Thermalright pads, which were in stock, but declined and was happy to wait for the Gelid pads to come in.

Credit to microwavedballs over on Reddit for this post and their feedback to everyone's queries and for including images of their pad layout!

[ArchangelHornet]

Thnx this is super high quality shots. Shame youtube algo not promoting this high enough, should be at least on top 3 sheeesh

[icawn]

On the front, factory is a smidge over 1.5mm, so ideally you should use 1.5mm+thermal paste or squishy 2mm. On the back, factory is 2mm and the thin piece is 0.5mm, so I'd recommend squishy 3mm+1mm or 2mm+0.5mm. I have 8 3080FEs and have measured the thicknesses of indentations of the factory pads using a caliper.

I can't speak for the latter 2021 revision cooler revision requiring thinner pads that people are talking about.

[etxblue]

My memory junction temperature dropped by 25C from this, thanks man !

[mdkamal]

I got had the same problem and I SLOVED it.
Only applicable to FE Founder Edition.
On the front (Core) side use 2 mm or 1.5mm ONLY!!!. If you use 2mm make sure its a soft pad, not a hard one. Hard pad will create a bigger gap between the processor and the plate. Not recommended Gelid pads.
The most important part if high VRAM Temp.
Put some thermal paste on the metal side of the cooling block. Between the pad and the metal side of the cooling plate is rough and the paste will help a lot. Put a little more if using 1.5mm pads.
On the bask side use 2mm pad only not more then that.

It solves it all you high temp.

[dinosaurd]

! WARNING ! 2mm pads on the GPU side are not the correct size. The hot spot on the GPU goes through the roof (104c). Also there's still a noticeable bulge on the back. The correct pads to use on the GPU side are 1.5mm. On the back you can use 1mm (for the place where the video says use 2mm) and use 3mm for the rest.

[sidbiker_off]

Best video to explain how change 3080 thermal pad 👌🏽

[dentalpraxis]

Use 1.5 mm instead of 2 mm. Otherwise your GPU will make little to no contact with the heat sink.

[techluvin]

As opposed to “not sticky” tape 🤣 Sorry………couldn’t help myself. Good video.

[MRshrir]

ive heard people use 1.5mm pads on the vram and 2 mm on the back

[fawzisandouqah]

Why didn't remove plastic film from the pads?

[TacticalN]

You didnt notice that the pad over the caps on the backside is closer to .5mm? You put 2mm there?!!! Why is noone measuring the original pads? I can not find the original pad thicknesses anywhere.

[haies]

Since the original pads were stuck on the cooler, will it be better to place the newer pads on the cooler side, also looks like it’s easier to measure or does it matter?

[oneillam]

I followed this video to the letter, 2mm Ultimate on the core side, 3mm Ultimate on the back except the one pad. The core makes such poor contact to the cooler the GPU overheats before the PC even boots into Windows.

[swipyduck]

Do you have enough pad surface from one pack to cover all the 2mm pads, including the one on the backplate to reduce bulge? Or do I have to buy an extra pack just for the backplate one?
thanks for the vid !

[wenfenghuang]

my top fan stop spinning after replacing the thermal pad, any idea how to fix it?

[antoniomontana]

Front gpu vram is gelid ultimate 1.5mn for FE édition ?

[AC_Milan]

How many 2mm pad sets do you need to just do the gpu side? I don't think the other side will make much difference so you can probably leave the stock pads on the back.

[CryslerGPU]

Can you tell me, after changing the thermal pads, did the temperatures of the GPU and Hotspot increase under graphic load, for example, in FurMark? I tried to use Iceberg thermal pads (2 mm), I got a 16 degree decrease in the VRAM temperature, but at Furmark I got a sharp jump in temperature due to poor contact between the cooler and the GPU. I tried to compress the pads, but I ended up with memory throttling. I have not been able to find a balance. Now I am waiting for Gelid pads, but I am still worried about a repetition of this problem.

[amortalbeing]

Seems like your thermal paste was not good enough, as your GPU temps went up nearly 3 degrees.
You used quality thermal pads, and your memory junction temp drastically decreased.
Did you face any issues later down the lane becasue of thermal paste?

[fanor]

Will changing thermal pad void my warranty? Even if I preserve the old stock one and replace when I need to RMA the card