I have the pads, but reading stuff like this makes me not want to mess with what's currently working just fine.  Sigh.... whatever happened to products shipping in perfect working order?

cyberdimensions
I have the pads, but reading stuff like this makes me not want to mess with what's currently working just fine.  Sigh.... whatever happened to products shipping in perfect working order?

I hear ya man. Though I'm beginning to wonder if my card was always kind of like this.

Do you mind taking a photo of the end of your card before you do the thermal pads?

cyberdimensions
Sigh.... whatever happened to products shipping in perfect working order?

When has that ever been true?  Products always have defects, problems, failures, design issues, whatever.  Nothing has ever been made "perfect."

darkkterror

cyberdimensions
Sigh.... whatever happened to products shipping in perfect working order?

When has that ever been true?  Products always have defects, problems, failures, design issues, whatever.  Nothing has ever been made "perfect."

Just to be clear man, I happen to love EVGA. And have for years. Each company does end up having a serious lemon every once in a while.

All I care about is whether or not the pads on the end of my card are important enough to worry about an RMA.

Please keep the fighting about QC out of this thread if possible, as I have a serious question. :P

I can confirm that I now have a gap as well after completing the thermal mod.

I didn't notice if the smaller pads touched the heat sink before I did the mod, but my gut feeling tells me they didn't.

Well, while I wait to hear back from EVGA on this... I have done the following.  It's not tight, just enough to bring the card into contact with the foam pads.
 
As I do not wish to damage my card, and can't stop gaming. :P
 

With everything making contact, after a bit of gaming.  I'm hitting ~62c maximum, with a custom fan curve.  That's more aggressive than the new bios one.

EVGA response is that it should be fine.  So I'm going with that.