If you can find ultra soft pads, slightly thicker shouldn’t be too bad, but I wouldn’t use hard pads because they will not allow the center of the cold plate to seat properly against the GPU die.

Never put thermal putty between a component and a thermal pad.

Thermal putty is only for the top of the inductors, and should only be put on top of the inductors with no other materials between the inductor and cooler, except for the putty.

If you add putty between the thermal pads and any other component, you are just making more medians for the thermal transfer which will not help.

You may be able to rectilinear those pads as long as they haven’t stretched during removal. If they stretched, the contact will not be optimal as the pad will be thinner than designed.

I too wish EVGA would sell replacement pads. Hopefully they can in the future.

These are your inductor rows:

EVGATech_DanielM
Please note that if you ever need to RMA the card - we will need the factory thermal pads installed. We can assist in the stock pads prior to RMA. 

 
How is one supposed to remove the factory thermal pads without breaking them?
It's impossible.
 
This decision from EVGA seems quite bad 

outrage

Pro4tlzz

EVGATech_DanielM
Please note that if you ever need to RMA the card - we will need the factory thermal pads installed. We can assist in the stock pads prior to RMA. 

 
How is one supposed to remove the factory thermal pads without breaking them?
It's impossible.
 
This decision from EVGA seems quite bad 

Dude just stated they would assist you in getting new stock pads if need be.
 
Come on guy.

Apologies these thermal pads are just stressing me out atm

thanks everyone for your help, i have bought some putty and pads which i can install early next month.
 
 
hopefully they take me back to my stock cooler levels

Gotspeed_2000

EVGATech_DanielM
Please note that if you ever need to RMA the card - we will need the factory thermal pads installed. We can assist in the stock pads prior to RMA. 

Is it possible to have EVGA have kits listed on the website to purchase which would include the thermal pads of the proper thickness and sizes cut, thermal paste for the die, along with the putty available for sale?  This would help ensure that users have access to the proper sizes and materials to meet the manufacturers specifications.  Making this available would also make sure they use the proper pads and materials when they are having thermal issues and for those who convert their gpus either to hybrids or water blocks if they need rma service.  

This would absolutely help and I’ve often wondered why these aren’t being sold as kits or sheets/strips for the user to cut. I’ve also often wondered why with how many people either replace the stock cooler or repad/repaste, or want to do that, why aren’t the pad specs listed on each card’s spec sheet? My only conclusion is that EVGA doesn’t want a boatload of RMAs on account of people messing something up in the process.

the_Scarlet_one
If you can find ultra soft pads, slightly thicker shouldn’t be too bad, but I wouldn’t use hard pads because they will not allow the center of the cold plate to seat properly against the GPU die.

Never put thermal putty between a component and a thermal pad.

Thermal putty is only for the top of the inductors, and should only be put on top of the inductors with no other materials between the inductor and cooler, except for the putty.

If you add putty between the thermal pads and any other component, you are just making more medians for the thermal transfer which will not help.

It's been discovered that 3rd party pads do not provide proper performance due to several variables. Compressions can alter thermal conductivity for example. If you compress a pad not meant to be compressed it can compromise the thermal conductivity.

Also with it being mentioned that you need stock pads for an RMA it seems insane EVGA is not selling us replacement thermal pad sets. It seems unfair to require stock thermal pads, tell us it's fine to use 3rd party ones, then also tell us we need stock thermals pads to have a successful RMA.

I've asked for a full set of replacement pads and have been sent and incomplete set I can not use twice in a row.
When I emailed about the 2nd useless set I did not get a reply.
I emailed Jaeson about it again today.

Bottom line is this: If you require stock thermal pads for an RMA they need to be more readily available than they are currently. It's not cool to say the least to have such a requirement while doing hybrid DIY kits in which it's easy to have a thermal pad stretch or tear as one half will stick to the die(s) and the other half to the cooler. Which you can't even see is happening until it's too late too often.

Truly EVGA should include a full replacement set with every Hybrid Kit. That would avoid these issues and save support costs in the long run for what's likely a minimal upfront cost.
If people have the thermal pads EVGA requires, are fully informed about the RMA requirements, and can access replacement pads very easily, then it's a lot less support calls and people hours which saves EVGA money overall.