Oops, I did it again … Ok, I’m not blonde and I don’t hop through the universe like a ball of lightning on ecstasy, but sometimes you wonder what is stuffed together in the individual factories. Good for those who have enough pad reserves. Shall we try again? What does want mean, the card literally screams for it. But let’s do a little inventory beforehand and consider the IR measurement and the image of the backplate with the Foxconn pad attached:
In order to understand where the hotspots really are and where the waste heat is actually generated, one must of course also analyze the heat flow. Before the start of the warming up to the completely warmed up card. I once created a superprojection that projected the IR image of the rear in the heating phase mirrored horizontally onto the front and then marked the real thermal hotspots in yellow. The red frame shows the area that Foxconn has made happy with a pad:
The manufacturer places the pad under the area of four (out of 8) coils, which is quite inefficient and actually completely superfluous. Because it gets quite hot there, but only later, when the warmth as a thermal hiker has reached its destination at some point. You can also see very clearly that the ninth, single phase is right next to one of the memory modules, which seems borderline per se. I don’t really understand why the other, unused possibility of positioning was not used for the tenth phase that was left out.
It is really praiseworthy that the RAM has been rotated by 90 ° for the layout and arranged in such a way that the current-carrying tracks between voltage converters and GPU socket do not run under memory modules as they did with Turing. But then to destroy this advantage again through the seldom stupid positioning of the ninth phase is really questionable. But it is the reason to actively improve this (once again).
The hot card feels good – after scissors, a pad and alcohol
The inside of the backplate has been provided with a pretty nasty adhesive film in large areas. This not only insulates electrically, but also thermally, because the stuff is pretty thick. Foxconn only applied the pad here, but not left out the foil, which also shows that someone must have noticed after the first assembly that it would be better to touch up something again. Ok, with a very manageable result, but at least it shows that you should have noticed something.
But if you do, you do it right and don’t just put some pad in good faith and full of trust in God haphazardly somewhere. The film is first cut out with a ruler and craft knife and then the strip is pulled off if possible so that the adhesive layer remains on the film. Heating up is rather counterproductive here, on the contrary, I had even had the plate in the fridge before. If some glue should stick to the backplate (which is actually always the case), only isopropanol, a cloth and a lot of perseverance will help. So you can hardly reach your destination without alcohol.
The next picture shows the measured hotspots (yellow), the Nvidia pad (red) and the cut-out areas of the film. And if you throw your 2 cents into the ring and think it is just a plastic plate, you should try to loosen up your eyes in the direction of the drill holes. ABS injection molding looks different and cannot be coated as it is here. Everything ready? Then after the duty comes the freestyle!
My beloved breadcrumbs are used again, here from the large family pack. But all ultra-soft 3 mm pads work too. The main thing is that they disappear when the backplate comes in. Cut out, place on the exposed areas and the pad mod is ready.
When screwing the backplate, it pushes the soft pads further apart and together. Contact and take a deep breath!
In addition to the IR camera, I also used normal thermal sensors for checking, which were placed congruently at the neuralgic points. This even works with the backplate screwed on, if you simply remove some material from an invisible place in the recess for the air outlet. And yes, it really is metal! Hard like … no, not quite that.
Final measurement and an aha experience
The result is impressive! For comparison, I also added the IR measured values (gray). The sensor value is then purple without the mod (but with the backplate mounted), the lighter bar shows the temperatures after the mod. You gain a whopping 5 degrees below the memory module, a whopping 6 degrees for the ninth VRM and at least 5 degrees for the other voltage converters . In return, the entire backplate becomes up to 4 degrees hotter. This can even be felt without sensors.
Ergo, it is a nice benefit that two correctly placed pads can bring. The original pad could also be reused as a Swabian option for the stand-alone VRM, but you should only plan to buy a new one for the VRM block. The backplate is not protected with seals, so that it can be screwed on and off without risk. Torx 8 is a requirement. Operation succeeded patient freezes. That’s how it works 🙂