howdy2u2
You are combining 2 separate issues:
1) Temperatures on the PCB because of a "torture test" using stress tests not recommended by nVidia on the Pascal GPU. EVGA also states their testing method and again states that the temperatures are with in tolerable limits of said hardware. EVGA is addressing those who are concerned with the temperatures by providing thermal pads to help dissipate the heat more evenly. (It's all in the 10xx forum section you'll have to dig for it)
2) VRM's giving up the ghost/ sparking/ letting the smoke out (what ever you want to say) Again EVGA posted a statement saying that some VRMs were not to spec (4% affected) and failing, they even identified the maker of said VRMs in a post (again, I am not going to dig it up in the 10xx forum section) EVGA has also stated (in a post in that section) that they have corrected this issue.
These 2 issues have been intertwined in almost every thread in the 10xx forum section.
That's all I have to say on the issue, take it for what it's worth.
ah, thanks for the clarification. i saw that they are giving away thermal pads and said 3rd party article made it sound a lot worse than it really is. i haven't had to time to dig up other threads and find the details behind it all and just posted this thread after reading it. but its good to know that not all said GPU's are effected by the failure, only a very small fraction, but they are offering the thermal pads to help elevate some concern of the issue.