Asus 3080 TUF waterblock thermal pad issue

Question

Hi there,

I figure out there is a problem with the thermal pad of the Asus 3080 TUFwater block. The default thermal pad for VRAM does not fit well. They can not offer a good contact for the waterblock with VRAM, especially for the VRAM on right and left sides of the core. The suggested 1mm thick thermal pad does not work at all.

I use the ETH mining software to test the VRAM cooling. With the default thermal pad, the temperature hit 110 C in 2 mins and lead to a thermal limit (core at ~600mhz). The core is only 40 C. After I use a 1.5mm thick thermal pad, the thermal limit does not show up, and VRAM stable at ~ 90 C.

I just want to point out this problem. It's not easy to figure out what happens until the recent release of HWINFO to show the VRAM temp. Before I can read the VRAM temp, it's really confusing that a thermal cap happens when the core is only 40~50 C. Also, GDDR6x is intrinsically hot, which makes me feel this(110 C VRAM) is normal at the first. But clearly, it's not. The right thermal pad should make good contact between the block and VRAM.

 Interestingly, this issue does not affect the game experience. That's why I used the mining software to do the stress test for VRAM. I used the default pad for over a month and played a lot of games with no issue. But the poor contact of the VRAM potentially will reduce your card life and cause some stability issues.

I'm pretty disappointed with this issue on the BP waterblock. It's my first water loop building and I choose all big name brands. It takes me 2 days to test and figure out this problem.  I hope you can do more test and use the right thermal pad for all new waterblocks.

Answer 1

Dear Junior,

Sorry to hear that.
We are not sure whether the chip set highness of your VGA card is the same as the first version. Would you send us the photo of your VGA card? If there is obviously press trace on the thermal pad after installed with our water block, it means that the water block connects well with the VGA card. Do you have the thermal pad trace photo on your current card too? We will double check with the block and reply you.

Thank you for your information.

Please send the photo to shopservice@bitspower.com.tw

Answer 2

Hi Lily,

Thanks for your reply. I got my 3080 TUF almost for the first batch(around 2020.NOV) and the waterblock is around the same time. So I'm not sure what you mean by the version of the card or the waterblock.

I understand what you mean by press trace. However, I didn't take any photos during the disassemble process. I was focusing on solving the problem.  But I clearly remembered that the thermal pad(1.0 mm, suggested by your newest manual) covered the VRAM on the left and right side of the core is almost untouched. There is no press trace on those pads. I tried 1.0mm, 1.5mm, and 2.0mm on those VRAMs to see which works best. Both 1.5mm and 2.0m pads shows some trace after I assemble and disassemble them. I'm worried about the 2.0mm will cause some problem on the contact between the block and the core, so I finally go with the 1.5mm pad and it works flawlessly now. After a 2-day stress test(running the mining software), the average temp of core is 55C and VRAM is 95C.

BTW, the recent release GPU-Z also shows the VRAM temp and hot spot temp, which is really helpful for locating this kind of issue.