It certainly doesn’t just hit the one manufacturer that I have to name today using a specific example, and even then not always with the same severity. However, if the pad has a weak point in its composition right from the start, hot GDDR6X memory and intensive use come together, then things get tight. Very tight, because you don’t even have to do mining, because rendering or folding do it just as well. Now look at the first picture, then we see very photogenic puddles on this MSI GeForce RTX 3080 SUPRIM 10 GB, almost as perfect as in NVIDIA’s most beautiful RTX demos. It shines and reflects in competition. Except that it is not water, but pure silicone and in huge quantities.
What actually happens to the pads?
Most very soft pads contain a lot of silicone as a base material, which is then mixed with special fillers that ensure the specific heat conduction and shape adaptation properties, as well as flame retardants. The consistency of course depends on many factors and, in addition to the content of the pad, it also depends on its manufacturing process, how high the degree of hardness and silicone content will be in the end. In addition, there are also silicone-free pads, those made from a polymer with a low modulus of elasticity, with a glass fiber or rubber carrier (see Lairds or Ziiteks “Crumbs”) or pads as unreinforced products that are more like a very viscous paste and almost look like Handle putty and let it deform.
Since the memory modules do not have an underfill, too much pressure is extremely harmful and, in the worst case, leads to the solder pills being torn off. We don’t like to remember the Space Invaders and NVIDIA’s GeForce RTX 2080 Ti in this regard. Same reason and identical consequences. You are welcome to read that again, because it still applies.
And the fact that you have to use such soft pads is due to the high tolerance ranges of the boards, especially the height of the package with the GPU. This is often higher (because it is curved) than it was intended, which is why the gap between memory and heatsink is very different from card to card. This is why manufacturers are now using these ultra-soft pads in a significantly greater thickness than the ideal case would actually require. If the bend is stronger, there is still thermal contact and, in the opposite case, everything is pushed away. In the truest sense of the word, because the resistance of the compound is not particularly stable with the cheaper pads and the base material (i.e. the silicone) is almost squeezed out. What remains are the filler particles, which can then harden and also tear.
- 1 – thermal pads and silicone?
- 2 – Insidious error with overheating of the RAM