Is it hard to take apart a card and replace the thermal pads? What are some things to watch for?

Mscott0566
Is it hard to take apart a card and replace the thermal pads? What are some things to watch for?

It really isn't that hard.
 
If you're not experienced with removing and reinstalling phillips screws (aka cross tip) then I'd suggest watching a youtube or two on how to do that without damaging stuff.
 
If you are confident in working with relatively small screws without over torqueing them then it should be a breeze. Small bit of advice, you should never have to grunt to get small screws tight. Once you're using anything considered force to turn the screw you are most likely done tightening the screw. If concerned get a torque screwdriver and look up the torque specs for the size of screws you're working with.
 
Since you're talking about replacing the pads I'll skip my advice for not destroying the ones being replaced during the disassembly process.
 
The fan connectors can sometimes be a PITA to remove. Be patient. Don't tug on wires excessively or use destructive means to get the connector out. Usually a little finesse is more effective than force.

The "compressability" of the pads matters too.

I am actually doing this right now. I've taken the cooler off, cleaned and prepped it for the new pads and TIM. It was easier than I thought to take it apart.

As far as thermal pads go I have also used Thermal Grizzly. They are called Minus Pad 8, and you can get it from Amazon, or other places. But before you get them I have done some research and there are "better" ones now on the market. So depending on your budget, patience, and how important it is to you, you may want to consider some of these other pads.  

The heat transfer rate is measured in W/mK, which stands for Watts per meter-Kelvin, and the higher the number the faster the heat transfer. Here are the W/mK for four products I have looked at. There are more manufacturers out there, but these are the ones I was interested in that looked good.

Thermal Grizzly 8 W/mK
Thermalright 12.8 W/mK
Gelid Solutions GP-Ultimate 15 W/mK
Fujipoly 17 W/mK

I know that Thermalright and Fujipoly have some pads with lower numbers, so if you chose one of those companies, make sure you choose the correct product with these numbers. 

As far as the TIM, on the actual GPU chip, I really like Thermal Grizzly and I used to go with their Kryonaut thermal paste and now they have Kryonaut Extreme which is 14.2 W/mK. So I'll go with that. But use any thermal paste you prefer.

I am doing this to my 1080ti HC, which is an extra GPU at the moment, so I chose to go with Thermalright, and if necessary I have some extra Thermal Grizzly from a previous project I can use. But if I was doing this on my main GPU, I'd probably go with Gelid or Fujipoly. 

Hope this helps.

Just submit a support ticket or send us an email support@evga - I don't have the prices on hand or if they are pre cut or not but we can absolutely look for you!

jorjelul
Are the available pads better quality/thermal transfer than the stock ones? Have just installed a hybrid cooler on my xc3 3080 and my VRAM went up few degrees, which is kind of ridiculous...

If you haven't already, put some of the good pads under the backplate. That got me about 8C. I used Gelid Extreme 3mm

EVGATech_DanielM
Just submit a support ticket or send us an email support@evga - I don't have the prices on hand or if they are pre cut or not but we can absolutely look for you!

That's great, thanks!

jorjelul
Are the available pads better quality/thermal transfer than the stock ones? Have just installed a hybrid cooler on my xc3 3080 and my VRAM went up few degrees, which is kind of ridiculous...

I have no info on the EVGA pads, but I'm quite sure they aren't great. I'd try one of the ones I mentioned above. Gelid and Fujipoly seem to be the best.

I believe you want to go with 3mm.

jorjelul
have ordered 2mm and 3mm Thermalright for the XC3. I have gelid 2 and 3mm on order for an FE (the irony is that the FE has better VRAM temps than the XC3 in both air or hybrid forms)

Please let us know the difference in temps after you install the new thermal pads. Are you replacing the paste on the GPU chip? With what?

I'm working on my 1080ti atm:

The hydrocopper design is great…one piece metal. The hybrid is bad with the thin memory plate on the gpu block. And the 15 degrees is from air to hybrid.

Changed the vram pads with Thermalright 2mm. The contact seems good, but temps are at 104. I am sure it’s the cooler’s design at fault. Next would be to try the air cooler with the new pads, but one of the benefits of the hybrid one is that is pushing all the hot air outside the case