If you wish to check the thermal pad contact on the mosfets and VRam...

Scarlet-Tech
Apply slightly thicker thermal pads. The thermal pads they are sending are extremely large, so you may be able to use a piece of the excess to apply to the VRM or VRAM if they do not have contact.

Mine were smashed.. You could see that the thermal pad on the VRAM was so smashed that it had slightly pushed over the edges of the VRAM lol. I am jot sure what is causing the small gap on some of the VRam's that have been shown on the forum. I would guess the stand offs are slightly taller than intended, but again, I do not know for sure.

Scarlet-Tech
Let's begin this properly.. This is the guide on how to install the thermal pads for the 1070/1080 FTW.  These thermal pads were not sent to me from EVGA.  These are my spare thermal pads from my watercooling kits, and they are .5mm each.
 
What you need:
 
Phillips screwdriver
Thermal Material (NONCONDUCTIVE/NONCAPACITIVE:  Thermal Grizzly Kryonaut, thermal grizzly hydronaut, Artic MX-4, and many others.)
2 pieces of Thermal Tape.  should be 1mm for the backplate and .5mm for the front, or slightly larger
Rubbing alcohol or Articlean 2 part TIM remover
lint free clothes or coffee filters
about 45 minutes worth of time
music in the background.  I suggest classical for those that are susceptible to relaxing with music.  
A workspace the size of a GPU.  
 
 
Step one, Remove all screws from the backplate.  (they have silver rings around them, go for those):

 
Remove the 4 spring screws.  
(Do NOT remove the four screws in the PCB unless you are taking the heat spreader off to check the thermal tape on the VRM and Vram from the factory. If you wish to check the thermal pad contact on the mosfets and VRam, remove the three on the PCb and one on the SLI finger side of the I/O bracket)

 
Turn the card over:

 
Gently twist the ACX slightly to free the TIM on the core, and lift up slightly, then slide it back from the I/O bracket slightly or it will not clear the bracket.

 
Lift the front of the cooler to expose the Fan and LED plugs, and disconnect them (I suggest fan first, since it is easier to reach at this time):

 
Clean the TIM off of the GPU core using Rubbing alcohol or Articlean 2 part TIM cleaner, and apply the thermal pad just behind the chokes, directly above the mosfets: (do NOT reapply thermal paste to the core just yet)

 
Place the cooler on the core, and make sure it fully seats.  Do not connect the fans or LEDs just yet. 

 
Remove the ACX once again, and check for Fin impressions on the thermal pad over the mosfets: (Hard to see in this picture, sorry about that)

 
Reapply Thermal paste with your desired method of application.  I prefer spreading because i KNOW it is on the entire GPU Core.  if you do the pea method or rice method, it may form an air bubble.  Air bubble will cause the GPU to shut down even when temps are low.  the thermal sensor on the core is only in one spot.. If that spot has thermal paste, it will read low temps.  If it read low temps and you get hard locks or black screens that are unrecoverable, simply repeat this step and try a new TIM method.  Again, I prefer spreading. 

 
Reattach the LED plug, then the Fan plug.  

 
Lower the front of the cooler slightly past the lip of the I/O bracket and then into place over the core making sure it seats evenly and properly.

 
Turn the card over, and reinstall the 4 spring screws.  Install them using a cross tightening pattern until they all bottom out properly.  Do not tighten one all the way down, and then the next.

 
Apply the thermal strip (I used two to make a 1mm strip, as I did not have a single 1mm strip) directly over the back of the PCB where the Mosfets are. You can see the resistors or capacitors in a perfect line.. cover them all: 

 
Should look like this:

 
Install the backplate and retighten all of the screws making sure none are missing. You should see a screw in every silver hole and 4 spring screws exposed:

 
*Update 1: Something that every user should keep in mind.  The 700 and 900 series FTW and classifieds utilized the same heat spreader and ACX style design.  They also used louder and faster fans that moved more air through the cooler and across the heat spreader under the cooler.  To get optimal temperatures, you will need to turn the fans up a little more than stock, or use a more aggressive fan profile.  A fan running at 30% is not going to dissipate heat from an air cooler like a fan running at 50%.  On the FTW, Master bios starts the fans at 60c around 35% and on the slave bios, my card runs at max 60c with 50% fan speeds.  My max observed temperature to date is 65c on the slave bios.  Turn your fans up a little and let the air cool you card off.  These thermal pads are NOT going to remove heat if air isn't moving across them.
 
**Update 2: http://www.evga.com/thermalmod/ EVGA just announced they are posting a vBIOS update for the fan speed soon. The thermal pads that EVGA is going to send out are much large than then ones I had available, and will cover the VRM as well as the chokes on the front side of the PCB, and a much larger ares on the back of the card. the EVGA guide is available here: http://www.evga.com/therm...installation_guide.pdf

shannonjpower
Ofcourse that's fine, just remove the back plate screws and leave the 4 GPU screws alone. When did you purchase your card? Surprised it already contains the VRM pad.

Chloestick
What is the thermal conductivity rating on the thermal pads that are being sent out? Is a 1mm thick pad with a 6.0 W/mK rating good enough?

whitezero

Scarlet-Tech
 
Clean the TIM off of the GPU core using Rubbing alcohol or Articlean 2 part TIM cleaner, and apply the thermal pad just behind the chokes, directly above the mosfets: (do NOT reapply thermal paste to the core just yet)
 
 

 
Is this part just way off? The PDF shows the pad as being over the chokes, not behind them? 

WickedMONK3Y
Thanks for the thread. There is one thing concerning me when I look at the EVGA Guide to do this, and then look at yours, and then look at other disassembled coolers. Usually the VRM's on the front of the PCB should have the thermal pads physically on them and not over them on the base plate. As far as I am aware there is actually a thermal strip on the baseplate itself but its the gap between the fins on the cooler and the baseplate (and the dead zone underneath the fan by the VRM's) so there is little transfer from the plate to the fins.
 
Sorry for the long into but my question now comes in. EVGA's guide shows that you have to COVER the PWM's and VRMS while yours shows to still leave the PWM's open and put the pad over the VRM area of the base plate. Which method is actually correct because I am quite loath to disassemble 2 cards that cost well over $ 700 (our local exchange rate in South Africa at time of writing is almost 14 to 1 to the Dollar) unless I am 200% certain that I know what I am doing. We don't have the luxury of Cross shipping here and have to rely on standard RMA...
 
The reason I ask is when I look at the ASUS Strix Cooler, the Thermal pad makes contact with the VRMs only and the PWM's are left exposed. while EVGA wants us to put the pad over the PWMs...

WickedMONK3Y
Thanks for the thread. There is one thing concerning me when I look at the EVGA Guide to do this, and then look at yours, and then look at other disassembled coolers. Usually the VRM's on the front of the PCB should have the thermal pads physically on them and not over them on the base plate. As far as I am aware there is actually a thermal strip on the baseplate itself but its the gap between the fins on the cooler and the baseplate (and the dead zone underneath the fan by the VRM's) so there is little transfer from the plate to the fins.
 
Sorry for the long into but my question now comes in. EVGA's guide shows that you have to COVER the PWM's and VRMS while yours shows to still leave the PWM's open and put the pad over the VRM area of the base plate. Which method is actually correct because I am quite loath to disassemble 2 cards that cost well over $ 700 (our local exchange rate in South Africa at time of writing is almost 14 to 1 to the Dollar) unless I am 200% certain that I know what I am doing. We don't have the luxury of Cross shipping here and have to rely on standard RMA...
 
The reason I ask is when I look at the ASUS Strix Cooler, the Thermal pad makes contact with the VRMs only and the PWM's are left exposed. while EVGA wants us to put the pad over the PWMs...