Evening fellow PC enthusiasts.
 
I thought I would share with you all my experience on "modding" my "EVGA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti FTW3 ULTRA GAMING, 08G-P5" cooling-wise. I saw some older forum posts about this as well, so this is in no way a "How-To", just my 2 cents on the topic. Maybe I save someone from a headache.
 
As soon as I got my 3060Ti I decided to replace thermal paste and pads as I read on the iNteRneT that its a good idea if you want to do some occasional mining when you don't use your system.
Spoiler alert: It's not.
 
I took my card to someone who supposedly knew what he was doing. While disassembling my card, we found that the paste on the GPU itself was rock hard already. Since this was like this from the factory, I suppose it's normal? GPU had good temps before this so not sure but it was completely dry.
After cleaing the card from the putty he used some cheap ass blue thermal pads, and since he did not have the proper sizes, he stacked a few. Without pusing the air out from between the 2 layers. Needless to say, temps went FUBAR and he was obviously not on top of his game. So I decided to fix it myself.
 
It took me a week to do proper research, ask around in local discord groups and ordering good quality materials before I tried again.
EVGA was seemingly using good quality thermal Putty that is impossible to get your hands on in Europe. After some research, I found a compound named "TG-PP10". Supposedly it's what factories use as well but I couldn't find any confirmation on this.
Since Putty was not an option due to lack of resellers I bought Thermal Grizzly minus pads(0,5;2;3mm)and kryonaut paste to start over and I barely managed to get back factory temps. Maybe a couple degrees lower on the GPU itself. Unfortunately, there are no VRM temp meters, so I have no clue if it's worse or better during mining, but it's stable again on the same OC settings it was on with factory pads.
 
I'll attach a picture of the finished product. Definitely not clean, but it works. I applied pressure to the pads so they can cover more surface, moving more heat. Then added a second layer where it was needed.
Unfortunately, I did not take pictures of the back of the card. EVGA only puts thermal pads behind the GPU, I extended it for the back of the VRMs and VCores plus the 2 Vmem-s as well.(Its reeeeaally hot) I basically covered the back whereever it had any sort of chip on the other side. :)

All in all, I had fun with this project, but would not recommend to anyone.
 

EVGA does not void your waranity if you mess with the cooling. Unless its physical or water damage, waranity still stands.

Sticker is only there to let the engineer know that the card was tampered with right at the start.
This was on this forum somewhere, written by an EVGA staff member. Don't take my word for it, have a quick search.

Burning up phisical components on the card counts as physical damage i guess. But thats pretty hard to do with all the failsafes. :D

After having replaced stock air coolers with water blocks and vice versa on several generations of Cards, I can assure you there is no drama if you prepare yourself:
1. Use the proper rated thermal pads, preferably stock. In most cases if you're careful disassembling you can re-use the same pads or order a set direct from Evga.
2. Never stack thermal pads, this is wrong in all ways.
3. Never use thermal grease on top of thermal pads, again wrong in all ways.
4. Order the thermal putty from Evga
5. Watch some you tube videos of the procedure, in all honesty all you're doing is removing the backplate then the pcb from the air cooler, quite simple.

rjbarker
After having replaced stock air coolers with water blocks and vice versa on several generations of Cards, I can assure you there is no drama if you prepare yourself:
1. Use the proper rated thermal pads, preferably stock. In most cases if you're careful disassembling you can re-use the same pads or order a set direct from Evga.
2. Never stack thermal pads, this is wrong in all ways.
3. Never use thermal grease on top of thermal pads, again wrong in all ways.
4. Order the thermal putty from Evga
5. Watch some you tube videos of the procedure, in all honesty all you're doing is removing the backplate then the pcb from the air cooler, quite simple.

I wish i had the stock pads, but the dude who I brought the card to disposed them.
I simply had to use paste on top of the pads, otherwise i had terrible contact. Would you happen to have the size specs for this cards pads?
Also, where can you get putty from EVGA store in EU? Never seen it listed. :O

georgeasch
 
Thanks for the datapoint but i really don´t know how to use it because i never received one before.  Could this be helpful for my 3070 in queue?

Since when are you in queue? EU/US?

zokeszt

rjbarker
After having replaced stock air coolers with water blocks and vice versa on several generations of Cards, I can assure you there is no drama if you prepare yourself:
1. Use the proper rated thermal pads, preferably stock. In most cases if you're careful disassembling you can re-use the same pads or order a set direct from Evga.
2. Never stack thermal pads, this is wrong in all ways.
3. Never use thermal grease on top of thermal pads, again wrong in all ways.
4. Order the thermal putty from Evga
5. Watch some you tube videos of the procedure, in all honesty all you're doing is removing the backplate then the pcb from the air cooler, quite simple.

I wish i had the stock pads, but the dude who I brought the card to disposed them.
I simply had to use paste on top of the pads, otherwise i had terrible contact. Would you happen to have the size specs for this cards pads?
Also, where can you get putty from EVGA store in EU? Never seen it listed. :O

Google it....works well ;)
Stock pads can be found from Evga direct (Email Customer Service, Im sure they can get you putty as well)......
There are a ton of threads regarding pad size for alll sku's....if Google doesnt work email Evga Customer Service and ask em.

zokeszt

rjbarker
After having replaced stock air coolers with water blocks and vice versa on several generations of Cards, I can assure you there is no drama if you prepare yourself:
1. Use the proper rated thermal pads, preferably stock. In most cases if you're careful disassembling you can re-use the same pads or order a set direct from Evga.
2. Never stack thermal pads, this is wrong in all ways.
3. Never use thermal grease on top of thermal pads, again wrong in all ways.
4. Order the thermal putty from Evga
5. Watch some you tube videos of the procedure, in all honesty all you're doing is removing the backplate then the pcb from the air cooler, quite simple.

I wish i had the stock pads, but the dude who I brought the card to disposed them.
I simply had to use paste on top of the pads, otherwise i had terrible contact. Would you happen to have the size specs for this cards pads?
Also, where can you get putty from EVGA store in EU? Never seen it listed. :O

Pads need to be compressed somewhat to work well. To make up bad contact with thermal paste means the pad is not compressed at all and will not perform at rated spec.
 
If you don't mind my asking, what led you down this path with a 3060 Ti? I don't have experience with these cards but do they have problems keeping below the temp limit? I guess you mentioned part time mining but unless your VRAM, usually the junction, is bouncing off the temp limit you aren't going to improve mining performance by lowering temps. It's not like the boost feature of the GPU in gaming.
 
My suggestion would be to contact EVGA support and try to get the OEM setup of pads and putty and you'll be better off.

zokeszt

georgeasch
 
Thanks for the datapoint but i really don´t know how to use it because i never received one before.  Could this be helpful for my 3070 in queue?

Since when are you in queue? EU/US?

Since 7 month in the EU.

zokeszt
 
Evening fellow PC enthusiasts.
 
I thought I would share with you all my experience on "modding" my "EVGA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti FTW3 ULTRA GAMING, 08G-P5" cooling-wise. I saw some older forum posts about this as well, so this is in no way a "How-To", just my 2 cents on the topic. Maybe I save someone from a headache.
 
As soon as I got my 3060Ti I decided to replace thermal paste and pads as I read on the iNteRneT that its a good idea if you want to do some occasional mining when you don't use your system.
Spoiler alert: It's not.
 
I took my card to someone who supposedly knew what he was doing. While disassembling my card, we found that the paste on the GPU itself was rock hard already. Since this was like this from the factory, I suppose it's normal? GPU had good temps before this so not sure but it was completely dry.
After cleaing the card from the putty he used some cheap ass blue thermal pads, and since he did not have the proper sizes, he stacked a few. Without pusing the air out from between the 2 layers. Needless to say, temps went FUBAR and he was obviously not on top of his game. So I decided to fix it myself.
 
It took me a week to do proper research, ask around in local discord groups and ordering good quality materials before I tried again.
EVGA was seemingly using good quality thermal Putty that is impossible to get your hands on in Europe. After some research, I found a compound named "TG-PP10". Supposedly it's what factories use as well but I couldn't find any confirmation on this.
Since Putty was not an option due to lack of resellers I bought Thermal Grizzly minus pads(0,5;2;3mm)and kryonaut paste to start over and I barely managed to get back factory temps. Maybe a couple degrees lower on the GPU itself. Unfortunately, there are no VRM temp meters, so I have no clue if it's worse or better during mining, but it's stable again on the same OC settings it was on with factory pads.
 
I'll attach a picture of the finished product. Definitely not clean, but it works. I applied pressure to the pads so they can cover more surface, moving more heat. Then added a second layer where it was needed.
Unfortunately, I did not take pictures of the back of the card. EVGA only puts thermal pads behind the GPU, I extended it for the back of the VRMs and VCores plus the 2 Vmem-s as well.(Its reeeeaally hot) I basically covered the back whereever it had any sort of chip on the other side. :)

All in all, I had fun with this project, but would not recommend to anyone.
 

 
Do you happen to remember which ones were 0.5mm, 2mm, and 3mm? I'm considering doing a thermal pad replacement as well and would like to know which parts of the board need which thickness.