Pad replacement... Do I replace all pads?? or just Mem and Ram

[PolishBaldEagle]

Hello all,

These 15w pads are expensive and kinda hard to cut and make use of this super small sheet (90mm x 60mm) in a way which i have zero waste from this expensive pad. Assuming I have to replace all pads on the entire card, i went ahead and purchased a few of these in a few different sizes. All cost me around $50 and a WHOLE lot of time to replace the pads.


So, all pads seemed to be oily but there were certain pads that I think didnt really need replacing, like on the SMD resistors/inverters, let alone with a 15w pad. Is it common practice to replace ALL pads with the same pads? or would I be better off replacing just the mem and ram with these 15w pads?

[S3300]

You don't have to replace the pads on those resistors they are always in good shape, all you have to do is make sure the one you replace sit very comfy and test it out, you don't have to ask this question just do it and test it.

[batsonxl]

you need replace only memory.

[rdluffy]

I know thermal pads are expensive, and hard to replace perfectly, even more difficulty if you need to replace for more than 1 card

So you can only replace memory thermal pad, this is where most of problems are
Only replace another thermals if you damage one in process of disassembling the card

This oil leaking is not rare, and most of times will only occur in memory thermals

[FP91G]

Hello all,

These 15w pads are expensive and kinda hard to cut and make use of this super small sheet (90mm x 60mm) in a way which i have zero waste from this expensive pad. Assuming I have to replace all pads on the entire card, i went ahead and purchased a few of these in a few different sizes. All cost me around $50 and a WHOLE lot of time to replace the pads.


So, all pads seemed to be oily but there were certain pads that I think didnt really need replacing, like on the SMD resistors/inverters, let alone with a 15w pad. Is it common practice to replace ALL pads with the same pads? or would I be better off replacing just the mem and ram with these 15w pads?

Use 15w pads for memory only, and for SMD resistors/inverters, use inexpensive 3-7 watt pads.
Look at the quality of SMD resistors thermal pads. If they are in good condition and do not leak liquid, do not replace them.

[Zotak337]

Video cards memory are the main reason we change thermal pad, most pow algorithms are memory user when hashing away, change the thermal pad on memory only.

[PolishBaldEagle]

Thanks for all the advice! All the pads were oily so I replaced all of them with the 15w pads… what a waste as I didn’t have time to wait for the 7w pass to come in. But it’s good to know that I don’t have to replace ALL the pads as I probably have to replace the 3080 TUF pads since my mem temps seem to be reaching 100* C while mining (power at 80% mem at 1200 core 250)

[adaseb]

Generally I reuse them unless I know that I can get the right size and shape from a supplier. Because sometimes you get some which are too thin or too thick and you run into issues.

Depending on how old the card is, you can usually reuse all of the pads except the main thermal paste on the GPU. It’s too bad the memory chips weren’t made of a similar material like the GPU chip where all it needed was some thin layer of thermal paste. Would of been much easier for maintainance.

[Bitbtc8]

It's hard to get the perfect thermal pad size for your GPU, if I want to do this I always order three types of thermal pads from different stores, some will be thin and some will be too fat and since you got to replace the pad with the exact size there will be issues.