Hi
 
I've managed to buy an RTX 3080 XC3 Ultra at last and should be receiving it in a week or so.
 
As this is one of the smallest RTX 3080 cards, and I'll be using it in an ITX case (NCASE M1), I wanted to do all I can to improve the cooling.
 
I plan to re-paste the GPU, replace the stock thermal pads, and add thermal pads between the back of the card and the backplate.
 
I was hoping someone here had disassembled the card and could tell me how thick the thermal pads are for the memory and VRM?
 
A measurement of the gap between the card and backplate would be handy too. From the images I've looked at it appears to be about 3mm.

I'll be testing the card before I make any changes to it, but I've already read in several places that the XC3 cards run quiet, but fairly warm (compared to bigger cards with larger heatsinks like the FTW3).
 
As I'm about to place an Amazon order I thought I'd get some thermal pads before the card arrives if I can find out what thickness I need.

Case space be damned - can I introduce you to the dark underworld of externally-mounted radiators?
https://forums.evga.com/Wallmounting-DG77-m3119343.aspx
I honestly can't figure out why there aren't cases with separate airflow zones for radiators (full towers are certainly big enough) rather than either venting inside or pulling from the case. Until then, this is my best alternative.
I was doing the wall-mount anyway, which worked out well, but it shouldn't be too hard to do something similar on a stand, desk, or even the case itself.

I've added 2 packs of the Thermalright 12.8W/mK 3mm pads to my Amazon cart. I figure that should be enough. One pack sliced up to do the back of the memory modules, and the other for the VRM.
 
They have good reviews from people using them to replace stock GPU pads.
 
I have a FLIR thermal camera, so I'll remove the backplate first and run the card under load so I can confirm which areas are heating up the most. 
 
As I'm still waiting on some other items I need to come into stock I probably won't be able to do this for at least four to six weeks.  That should be sufficient time to run the card stock and get a good idea of it's default performance, temps, and reliability.
 
Hopefully I'll get lucky with the silicon lottery and get a chip that undervolts well to get those higher and more stable boost clocks.

How did this go for you?  I recently had to do a repair job on an FTW3 Ultra that someone tried to do themselves with the wrong pad sizes.  It severely thermal throttled because the pads were basically doing nothing.  I used 2mm for the VRAM and 1mm to replace the thermal "puddy" and the card now works like a champ again.

freshpips
How did this go for you?  I recently had to do a repair job on an FTW3 Ultra that someone tried to do themselves with the wrong pad sizes.  It severely thermal throttled because the pads were basically doing nothing.  I used 2mm for the VRAM and 1mm to replace the thermal "puddy" and the card now works like a champ again.

I've had the card for a few days now, but the Thermalright Pads will only be arriving on 17 May, according to Amazon.  This order just has 2 packs of the 3mm pads, so my first test will be seeing how much improvement I can get by just adding thermal pads between the PCB and backplate.  
 
I'll do some thorough testing of the card stock, before I bring a screwdriver anywhere near it.  I'll be testing it in games, Blender, and doing some Ethereum mining to ensure I get a good idea of the temps with different workloads. I expect ETH mining to heat up the memory the most, for example.
 
I imagine there should be some improvement given that the card has no thermal interface connecting the backplate at all.
 
I think the safest option for the next step, where I'll actually remove the heatsink and fan assembly, would be to buy a selection of 0.5mm - 3mm pads, and measure each stock pad as accurately as possible to get a perfect match for the replacements.  The thermal putty is my biggest concern.
 
It does seem like quite a few people have ended up with worse performance than stock while trying to re-paste their cards, so I'd obviously like to avoid that! Although, that may be down to problems like the one you've fixed, with the wrong size pads being used.  
 
Nice neat job on those replacement pads, btw!

Yes a selection is ideal.  I only have 1mm, 2mm, and 3mm but the best version is having them by 0.5mm increments - so far with the 3080s I have been fine with 1,2, and 3mm but I have seen other users use 1.5mm and 2.5mm in some areas.  The 3080 problem child had 1.5mm on the VRAM and that was the main cause of thermal throttling.  Best suggestion is use a caliper when you remove the pads to get the factory thickness. The price of the caliper on amazon is worth the avoided headaches of putting in the wrong pad size.

freshpips
The price of the caliper on amazon is worth the avoided headaches of putting in the wrong pad size.

I've been using an iGaging Digital Caliper I got from Amazon for about 3 years or so and it's been excellent.
 

aliop1
Evga tech about thermal pad sizes:

Unfortunately, that post only has thermal pad sizes for the FTW cards.  I'm hoping to add the correct sizes for the XC3 that I have to it once I'm replaced them.
 

Here is the measurement. 

AlexTSG
Hi
 
I've managed to buy an RTX 3080 XC3 Ultra at last and should be receiving it in a week or so.
 
As this is one of the smallest RTX 3080 cards, and I'll be using it in an ITX case (NCASE M1), I wanted to do all I can to improve the cooling.
 
I plan to re-paste the GPU, replace the stock thermal pads, and add thermal pads between the back of the card and the backplate.
 
I was hoping someone here had disassembled the card and could tell me how thick the thermal pads are for the memory and VRM?
 
A measurement of the gap between the card and backplate would be handy too. From the images I've looked at it appears to be about 3mm.

It's okay to just say you're going to be mining with it ;) Running my 3080 normally, the temps with the vram were high, but within spec, but for mining, it was throttling like mad. From my experience with a gigabyte 3080, the space between the backplate and the vram was 3mm and the front and the vram is 2mm. I've seen exactly the same with the Dell 3080.

I recommend to search for a tutorial on youtube

darklord2021
I heard EVGA cards are prepaded quite well compare to others. Gigabyte GPUs seems to be the worst when it comes to thermal pads.

You heard correct ...

Jacob answered a similar question on another post and gave exact measurements on the 3090. I'd think the 3080 will still be similar. He did say that putty is used in some places where the gaps are larger like over 2.5mm

jimbopoppins

msdmoney
I'm suprised some of the thermal tricks people are using for cards haven't been implemented by some of the card manufacturer's, or maybe I'm missing something.

Cost I'd guess.

for sure its cost