NVIDIA RTX 3080/3080Ti FE - uncovering hidden NVIDIA specs changes & thermal pads replacement

Walkthrough video with two purposes:
1. Shedding some light on the change of specifications and the VRAM pad thicknesses required.
2. Showing the process of opening a reference NVIDIA RTX 3080Ti FE to replace the thermal pads with custom-size, high conductivity, thermal pads.

Same process for the NVIDIA RTX 3080Ti FE, and similar process for the 3090 FE.

Note: pads were removed ahead of the video to make sure there was nothing else visibly wrong with it.

You can get the custom GPU thermal pad sets from there:

Material used:
- [prior to video recording] Cleaning: Paper towel + 99% isopropyl alcohol
- Thermal pads: pre-cut, custom set, 20 W/m-K.
- Thermal paste: SYY 15.7 W/m-K paste

Results:
- Included in the video at the very end
- Memory temperature drop of ~10°C under load
- GPU core temperature mostly unchanged

[RekikeTYUZ]

hello, today is July 4, 2024.
Do they still exist?
Are orders still being sent?
I would like to buy more than 35 custom kits, but I'm afraid to swipe my credit card and they won't send them to me.

Please revive on social networks to continue mining.

[dannywoodruffe]

Hi. I've recently upgraded the thermal pads on an MSI RTX 3080ti. Now I am unable to lock the core clock. It's not power as I can mine TON and use 350w, and he temps can go over 70c here. If I try to mine eth I can only get 43.xx mh/s, and Flux gets 77-80 sols/s. Many other people have experienced problems locking the cclock with the 3080ti, and at least one other after a thermal pad upgrade. Do you have any idea what might be the cause? PS I upgraded the pads on 7 other 3080tis without a hitch, except those with a smooth backplate get exceptional results, while those with a rough backplate are lucky to achieve the original temps.

[pinpoint_uk]

Ello mate could u tell me the size of the 8 screws that holds down the top plate I’ve rounded a few off the amount of times I’ve took it apart to get the right pads fitted 😂 ty all the best steve

[mickeybinas]

Can you supply us with those two little rubber bushings with the kit you know the two little tiny black rubber bushings that go missing when you open it up and don't realize they're there or even if you do realize they're there suddenly they're gone

[arkade-]

Your website doesn't work, also I bought pads awhile back 1/21/2022 are these pads no good now for my 3080ti I just haven't installed them yet.

[haies]

Better to place the pads on the cooler side or on the pcb?

[mast]

Just installed the pads I got from you guys...very disappointed to see hot gpu temps. I purchased my 3080ti on launch day, camped a best buy for it so I figured it had to be one of the older versions. No zv-3 marking or anything. So i stacked both pads and still ended up getting bad GPU temps. It goes over 83c and throttles. Not sure if my paste application was bad or what but I guess I gotta tear it down again...

[prtech]

Again and again no complete Mesurement data

[tyness]

I have one of the older cards... I tried to take both Gelid 1.5 add the 0.5 and while this did lower the Vram temps down to 84-86... The GPU got to hot within 2-3mins... I also tried the 2.0 and got the same results, to hot for the GPU 74-76. (i quickly shut it down) So as of today I ordered the kit from Kriticalpads. I have ordered from them before and are happy with the results. This card will run hot on the 1.5 and gets up to 106-108 on the vram for me it ran like this for months until i updated Hive and noticed my vram temps where to hot. Hope this saves you some time....