I took my evga 1070 sc card out of my computer and looked down the gap from the side, and fortunately it looked like my vram thermal pads (at least the first ones anyway) were touching the midplate. Then I thought, well since I have it out of the computer I might as well return it to frys hehe. So I did. Seriously, I went back and forth over what to do. It seems most of the aftermarket versions of this card do not have good vram and/or vrm heatsinking. Maybe the best I have seen is the Zotac. Ideally want the generous conduction path between the vram and main heatsink fins, which Zotac offers. My second favorite is the MSI gaming x while has a dedicated VRAM plate and dedicated VRM finned heatsink, but even that VRAM plate doesn't appear to touch the main heatsink fins in anyway. Still, MSI gaming x is probably what I would get if I had to choose. I would've bought when I returned the evga but it was out of stock. using my old asus r9 280x for now, pleasantly suprised it can handle BF1 on high settings now since cpu/ram upgrade and some more deligent OC. Funny enough r9 280x has no heatsink of VRAM whatsoever!