So ive been monitoring my temps lately at just basic multitasking use, no gaming but say 20-30 some odd tabs of firefox/chrome open at a time with steam running in the background along with a few other low memory usage programs.
The things that strikes me as odd which makes me thing i may have either not broken the gpu in or not installed the adapter properly is that my evga gtx 780ti SC ACX edition card which is using the ACX heat spreader and even using heatsinks over each VRam and VRM attached to that heatspreader all while using thermal pads of the same size maybe slightly thicker than stock, with a thermal conductivity higher than that of my prolimatech pk-3 thermal compound used on my GPU and kraken x40 waterblock/heatsink.
The other card is just a 780ti classified kingpin edit card straight out of the box in the 2nd pciex16 slot for running 2 gpus.
 
The custom cooled card is reading at 2% usage and 64 degrees celsius vs the kingpin running at 2% and only 39 degrees celsius..... any ideas why theres such a huge temperature difference?
 
Thanks for your time.

Thanks sorry didnt realize there was a section i was just in the generic section and figured it fit there considering im using a g10 and im wondering about the temp difference in general. Hopefully ill get better advice or opinions overe here :)

Well i believe i removed 1 if not 2 of the 4 screw points and if it was just one i shaved 2 others down a bit so the gpu and heatsink would make contact. Im about to launch up diablo 3 on 3 monitors in nvidias surround mode at 120 hz so 5760x1080 in windowed mode and ill tell u the temps i see. Either way i didnt see a problem with the heatspreader having a peg or 2 around the gpu being lopped off. I did it very neatly, cleanly, and even left it to a polish without it having any contact to the pcb in case that could somehow short anything. I figure since without the heatspreader the backplate of the kraken g10 is holding the card steady between that backplate and the g10 mount on the other side thats hooked into the heatsink for the kraken x40. So i cant see how not having a screw or 2 there would make a difference if my options are to not have it at all or to have it as is. Especially when ive attached a backplate into the heatspreader for extra rigidity. I cant remember the exact thermal pads i used, but i replaced the vram and vrm thermal pads with the same thickness if not a fraction of a mm thicker at worst, and it has much higher thermal confuctivity than what was originally on there, not to mention i have it on the back side between the board and the backplate for extra heat dispersion, even if it is overkill. I believe the old pads i had or tape whatever you wanna call it, i consider them pads at that thickness, i believe they were rated at 11 whatever measurement is used for thermal conductivity and then i went even higher than that afterwards.
 
Heres the thermal paste i used on the gpu,
Its rated at 11.2 W/m, and i distinctly remember the pads being at 11.5 if not higher since that astonished me that the pads were higher than the paste.
I made sure to clean everything properly i was so careful i was even using recommended powder free latex gloves to prevent any oils from getting anywhere.
 
Thanks for taking the time to reply i really appreciate the input and look forward to reading your response/opinion on the subject, since i did all this back when the kraken g10s were only in their 3rd wave of being sent out and still being tweaked, with each shipment.
 
EDIT: Sorry yeah the kraken cooled 780 ti SC card with the modded heatspreader and backplate is the main card, 77 degrees atm with game paused, it was spiking to 90 and 92 but averaging about 88 as i ran through areas attacking dense clusters of monsters. Im running Spotify, chatting in skype, running the game like i said i would be, and have chome open with 5 other tabs alongside this one.

Ah that must be it then theres not even pressure, it makes complete sense since it was tight fit even with the fact that i shaved back the 2-3 nubs after hacking off the 1 or 2 that i took out. I thought i made enough contact but that makes complete sense that its not even.
I can take photos ive taken it apart several times there is no visual damage only slight discoloration like you would find on a cpu thats about 2 years old or so. The paste has a very even spread and looks just like as if i had used the stock cooler or like the spread on my cpus since i love my prolimatech thermal compound so much i use it on my CPUs as well.
 
My warranty is most likely void but they may repair it considering the heat spreader i used was from a fried card which had this issue. I was one of the first people to get one of those g10s, i got the first wave sent out, and it was so poorly designed that they stopped the shipments immediately to address the issues. I completely fried a beautiful 780 ti SC acx edition card i should have just left as is, the darn solder from under the gpu was leaking out the corner thats how bad it was.
 
Anyways having a spear heatspreader from that mess means i still have the stock cooler and heat spreader along with all the original thermal pads stored in pristine condition incase i ever felt the need to throw it back on and try sending it in to evga.
 
Given the circumstances and how easy it would be to lop off the other pegs and the fact that getting a shim scares me as its something i dont have experience with and dont wanna mess up, along with the fact that i dont really have the capability to go online and purchase a single thing until well a couple weeks or so from now. If i just got rid of the other pegs do you think i would be fine?
 
Also ive been told that the reason my PC didnt have an overheating protection and force shutdown to protect that other card that did get fried, was because it was the 2nd card in an SLI setup by default nvidia software/drivers doesnt force shut down the PC based on the temp readings from the 2nd card but only the 1st card, is that in any way true?
 
Thanks again youve been such a great help and i really appreciate the respect even if i did some bonehead stuff, im used to these volatile and toxic forums that just make me wanna huddle in a corner and never ask for advice again lmao

hest plate? does that mean heat spreader? yeah im not too worried, this is my 3rd or 4th kraken g10 as they kept improving with each wave they sent out until wave 3 or 4, and i have a backup kraken x41 to use in place of the current x40, i can easily take off the other posts, im very handy with a dremel, thats how i removed the other one(s). Ive actually used mostly a dremel and a drill press for tapping some threads to make my own autococker paintball marker, so taking off the nubs will be a breeze.
 
Thanks again so much for all the help. If youve got a sec id like to ask your opinion since it varies in my experience from each person to person that i ask.... whats your opinion on reusing thermal pads... ive been told once you remove the heatspreader the pressure that was settled into the pads somehow ruins its capability for lack of a better word, ive heard of people just removing them with their bare hands and throwing them back on the spreader. I personally like using fresh ones if possible but dont see a problem in removing the heat spreader and reapplying it so long as i dont actually make contact with the pads so i dont get any skin oils or flakes or w/e possibly could get in contact with the pads. But i always like to clean the surface if im having to completely remove pads, before placing them back on especially if im gonna be taking off more posts on the spreader.
 
 
Oh heres the thermal pads i used, i cant remember what thickness i went with if it was 1 or 1.5mm possibly .5mm? i looked up what was used by default and i think went with that thickness or up one level of thickness

I figured they had higher thermal conductivity but theyre still pretty crazy compared to the stock ones.

All good, thanks for the input, and thanks for everything, im really looking forward to rebuilding this card, using the newer kraken x41 and actually getting this thing running at lower temps than my kingpin im runnning with it :P