I'd like to know 2 things:
1. if you RMA your card, do you get the full Thermalmod? In Germany, too? I'm asking because the EVGA page only states that they will install the bios update for you.
2. even with full Thermalmod in a RMA'd card, you still might get faulty Ram pads?
 
So basically EVGA has no quality control in production and is missing 2 important thermal pads (backplate and power) and 1 doesn't fit (ram). And when you RMA your card you get the 2 missing pads, but since there is still no quality control, the Ram pad still doesn't get fixed.
 
Is this a nightmare or is this actually happening?

 
 
I can confirm with the OP & the reddit post ..
Done 3 cards all ready for clients

All three varied from the memory that where not in contact with the T pads to the pcb plate this is a serious issue more so the memory near the VRM's.

The band aid from evga does not address this.

So its 2 things either the t pads are too thin ..as i have had to replace all 3 cards using thicker ones or could be the whole design of the pcb plate not fitting / clamping as intended.
 
I use Thermal strips and cut to size...

So you want good quality thermal pads or strips

On the evga card there 1mm thickness on the Memory and most are not touching the plate so you can use 1.5mm thick but i went for 2mm thickness yes the thicker they are there is a cost of being less efficient but its far better than an air gap.. so 1.5 or 2mm if you want

The Vrm strip is about 7mm wide and 110mm long 1.5 mm thick
As these are touching the pads mainly due the the vrms being slightly higher and the pad is thicker.. so no need to replace i used what was there already...

I also did what EVGA have advised to do too a strip above the chokes and above the vrms above the pcb base plate and the pad on the rear of the pcb behind the back plate ...


TAKE NOTE

When using Thermal pads make sure you take the thin plastic protective film off before applying otherwise you will run into issues...if i remember right recently didn't one manufacture forget to do this on a line of cards ...
 
So all in all its not nice having to finish off the manufacturers design and not being paid doing this as i have to keep my clients happy rather than them messing around with RMA...
 
TBH and as stated in another post

If it was me

As i am sure consumer laws extend further for a product that as design defects being badly designed so forth which this is mainly the pcb plate not clamping down enough or the wrong thickness of t pads used either way its a poor design.

So surly there must be some law emplace for such things regardless of the shop 30 day window ..at the end of the day the resale value of a EVGA 1000 series cards are sure going to be effected which is not good is it ....

So

1. return for full refund with no questions asked ...which i think one is entitled too on the grounds of poor / bad design faulty product even after the 30 day period

Or

2.return card rma at no cost and receive a brand new card with pads and new bios basically as the card should have been released in the 1st place unused with the fixes made (I will be disgraced to find out there sending back used refurbishing cards back unacceptable)

Or

3. apply the fixes yourself but again the money paid for these cards its crazy peeps are having to complete the design for them to work as they should ...again reminds me of this


 

luckyirishlad
 
 
I can confirm with the OP & the reddit post ..
Done 3 cards all ready for clients

All three varied from the memory that where not in contact with the T pads to the pcb plate this is a serious issue more so the memory near the VRM's.

The band aid from evga does not address this.

So its 2 things either the t pads are too thin ..as i have had to replace all 3 cards using thicker ones or could be the whole design of the pcb plate not fitting / clamping as intended.
 
I use Thermal strips and cut to size...

So you want good quality thermal pads or strips

On the evga card there 1mm thickness on the Memory and most are not touching the plate so you can use 1.5mm thick but i went for 2mm thickness yes the thicker they are there is a cost of being less efficient but its far better than an air gap.. so 1.5 or 2mm if you want

The Vrm strip is about 7mm wide and 110mm long 1.5 mm thick
As these are touching the pads mainly due the the vrms being slightly higher and the pad is thicker.. so no need to replace i used what was there already...

I also did what EVGA have advised to do too a strip above the chokes and above the vrms above the pcb base plate and the pad on the rear of the pcb behind the back plate ...


TAKE NOTE

When using Thermal pads make sure you take the thin plastic protective film off before applying otherwise you will run into issues...if i remember right recently didn't one manufacture forget to do this on a line of cards ...
 
So all in all its not nice having to finish off the manufacturers design and not being paid doing this as i have to keep my clients happy rather than them messing around with RMA...
 
TBH and as stated in another post

If it was me

As i am sure consumer laws extend further for a product that as design defects being badly designed so forth which this is mainly the pcb plate not clamping down enough or the wrong thickness of t pads used either way its a poor design.

So surly there must be some law emplace for such things regardless of the shop 30 day window ..at the end of the day the resale value of a EVGA 1000 series cards are sure going to be effected which is not good is it ....

So

1. return for full refund with no questions asked ...which i think one is entitled too on the grounds of poor / bad design faulty product even after the 30 day period

Or

2.return card rma at no cost and receive a brand new card with pads and new bios basically as the card should have been released in the 1st place unused with the fixes made (I will be disgraced to find out there sending back used refurbishing cards back unacceptable)

Or

3. apply the fixes yourself but again the money paid for these cards its crazy peeps are having to complete the design for them to work as they should ...again reminds me of this


 

Thanks for the detailed post.
 
To be clear, what do I need to do to have these cards fixed? I already ordered the free thermal pads, but now I might need to buy more thermal pads that are 2mm thick because it's likely the memory thermal pads are not touching?

evgacustomer01
@ HungryHamster
Yes, you need to fix the RAM pads yourself and buy the correct pads yourself too. As of right now, EVGA has not issued any press release concerning the faulty RAM pads and people who received the Thermalmod from EVGA only got 2 pads for the backplate and the frontplate. No replacement for faulty RAM pads are included. It seems they need to redo the entire Thermalmod, because they somehow screwed up their fix too.  :(

Yes, I agree. EVGA screwed up AGAIN by not acknowledging how widespread of an issue the RAM pad gaps is.
 
My question is about what size/brand of thermal pads I need to buy to fix the RAM pads not touching and how many are needed? 

well, while installing the thermal pad that EVGA provided, I decided to check the VRAM contact on thermal pads with mid-plate. and all VRAMs are firmly marking indentation on each pads so I'm happy with it. also updated the bios for more aggressive fan control, now fans seem to be ON the whole time @ minimum of 30%. good news is my core temp went from 42C to 34C. I couldn't really tell the noise differences. overall I'm very happy with the mod. just waiting for hydro copper kit for my FTW now..
 
 

Does anyone have the actual measurements of the memory chips themselves? I want to make sure I'm getting the correct amount of thermal pad if I end up needing to replace all of them.
 
 
14mm x 14mm x 9mm maybe?

fightinfilipino
wait hold on a sec.
 
OP modded the plate completely out of spec, and is now complaining that the pads don't work? and i thought i've seen it all. of course they don't work anymore, you ground out new holes in the plate and likely changed the way the plate secures to the PCB! you likely warped the plate as well! 
 
and i entirely suspect the other two posters dogpiling on the OP are not real either.
 
ffs EVGA has a warranty and exchange process. and a good one. 
 
i swear, no wonder JayTwoCentz was pissed, so much baseless whining.

 This Alone Killed the Warranty.

like i said before, i could have hidden my mod and post the gap photo only. 
not just me saying there are gaps between stock pads and vram chips. and i am not the first one at this forums to report this with photo.
 
this photo is interesting. the middle one has a gap. but the rest seems contacted. but this type of contact is not enough. it is marginal contact. without seriously downward pressure from the pad to the vram chip, i highly doubt there is perfect contact and the cooling performance. unless evga is using some kind of new and unique pads which are much more powerful than other pads that have remarkable indentation to show pads are perfectly contacted with vram and vrm.
 
http://forums.evga.com/Up...date-m2573491-p14.aspx
 
 
 
if this problem affects only few ppl, evga should have offered a brand new card for rma.
because this problem is 100% evga qc fault.
of course i have modded the plate, you can blame this problem to me, and evga can simply cancel my warranty.  evga, just please take a good look to other's report and pics to this bad contact problem, find the root cause and fix this whole mess, with little respect to these victims.
 
 
 
i am already tired to this contact problem.
 

Enosoma
I'm sure it doesn't help that your GPU is smashed up against your PSU ventilation

Where is this Photo at?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bHemB3_thFc
here is a video of jayztwocents showing his card about few ppl and my claim to the contact probem, started from 8:24 and you can jump to 15:00 to see the result.
 
 
one thing i want to point out, according to micron data sheet about the gddr5 vram chip, temp of vram up to 95c is fine. so passive cooling for vram is fine. but if there is a gap between the vram and the stock pad, this mean most of the airflow are blocked by the cooling plate and it is even harder for vram to be passively cooled. if serious overclocking on vram, during gaming or even benchmarking once the vrams reach 95c then it will fail.

Just checked a GTX1070. Same issue gaps between the thermal pad and VRAM chips. They clearly used the wrong pad thickness.

Scott_W
It is odd that some people have "gaps" and others don't with the same model card. I can only conclude that there is some variation in the parts.... Either different thickness thermal pads, or different thickness VRAMs, or different length standoffs resulting in a "mixed" part supply at the factories, so some cards are fine and others have gaps.

I just took a photo of my 1080FTW. This card is about 6 weeks old, and has never been disassembled. There are clearly gaps between the VRAM and the thermal pads. No problems so far, but obviously those thermal pads aren't doing their job when they aren't touching the VRAMs.

In the Master Thread about this issue users were told that they Should RMA their cards if they have a gap or two on their card.

bcavnaugh

Scott_W
It is odd that some people have "gaps" and others don't with the same model card. I can only conclude that there is some variation in the parts.... Either different thickness thermal pads, or different thickness VRAMs, or different length standoffs resulting in a "mixed" part supply at the factories, so some cards are fine and others have gaps.

I just took a photo of my 1080FTW. This card is about 6 weeks old, and has never been disassembled. There are clearly gaps between the VRAM and the thermal pads. No problems so far, but obviously those thermal pads aren't doing their job when they aren't touching the VRAMs.

In the Master Thread about this issue users were told that they Should RMA their cards if they have a gap or two on their card.

Well, an RMA is certainly one option.  Or, I could just replace the pads myself, which (to me) is less hassle than an RMA.  Or I could install a Hybrid kit. 
 
Or....  I could just ignore it.   I have had the card about 7 weeks, pushed it pretty hard, and it has performed flawlessly.  No lockups, no artifacts, no reboots, no black screens.  Those gaps -- at least with my usage, my fan curve, my case fans and my temps -- has not caused any failure yet.
 
It is certainly possible the chips may be getting hotter than desired, and that may reduce their lifespan.  If I was planning to keep the card beyond the 3-year warranty, that might worry me.  But I typically upgrade every 18-24 months, and I don't sell my old boards.  So why do a preemptive RMA now, when it is working perfectly?   If it eventually fails, I can always RMA it if and when that happens.
 
So for me, ignoring the gaps might be the best choice.  But that might not be my advice to someone who plans to use their card beyond the warranty expiration.  Since there is a question of "reduced life", it might be best to address the problem NOW, one way or another.

bcavnaugh

pawelblyskal
Just checked a GTX1070. Same issue gaps between the thermal pad and VRAM chips. They clearly used the wrong pad thickness.

Are you going to post images of the three cards or did you just return the cards or RMA the Cards?

Im providing information to the community on the unit. You can verify my ownership as I have registered the videocard. Seems like every mod on this forum is trying to down play multiple major issues with these new cards.