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Thermal Putty vs Thermal Pads: Comparison Chart

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#81 ·
snarksdomain said:
Was it your memory temperatures or core/horspot temperaturs thst **** up? Could be a couple things going on here. If you used too much putty then you may have run into core contact issues. Where did you buy the UX Pro from?

Here is a guide I made that shows what I consider to be an ideal application of putty.

Click to expand...
The science revealed! I'm taking a look at the video as we speak. Thank you. I honestly can't remember what was overheating. I just saw the temps shoot up and I panicked because I thought I was killing my GPU, shut evewything down. I purchased the Upsiren UX Pro Ultra from Amazon. The seller had a lot of positive reviews on it, and from doing my research, it seems like a legit batch--consistency/color wise. It's a light grey color, not too firm, not too mushy.
 
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Discussion starter · #82 ·
DigitalJack3t said:
The science revealed! I'm taking a look at the video as we speak. Thank you. I honestly can't remember what was overheating. I just saw the temps shoot up and I panicked because I thought I was killing my GPU, shut evewything down. I purchased the Upsiren UX Pro Ultra from Amazon. The seller had a lot of positive reviews on it, and from doing my research, it seems like a legit batch--consistency/color wise. It's a light grey color, not too firm, not too mushy.
Click to expand...
Font Material property Circle Currency Metal


This is what the correct one looks like, including little cut out for the spatula. Also costs around $1/g. The CSGR UX Pro costs $2-$3 per gram (which I have yet to test).
 
#83 ·
snarksdomain said:
View attachment 2656009

This is what the correct one looks like, including little cut out for the spatula. Also costs around $1/g. The CSGR UX Pro costs $2-$3 per gram (which I have yet to test).
Click to expand...
Yep. Exact same one I have. So going back, when I took the back plate off, there were no impression marks in the putty for this area. Looks like these guys didn't have contact. I did screw everything back as tight as I could though, so maybe I used too much putty in the other areas.

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Discussion starter · #85 ·
Sector-z said:
I live in Canada to, where do you have buy it ? Searched a link have have the good one and not fake copy.
Click to expand...
I buy it from Aliexpress. There are several sellers to pick from. I've personally bought from Middle999, Upsiren, and Thermalright stores.
 
#88 ·
snarksdomain said:
Looks like 50g. It's often a little shocking to first time putty users about how much is in the container. I get messages from folks buying 10g or 20g and thinking it will be enough. Some have managed to do a laptop with just 20g, but there is no room for error. Luckily prices are pretty competitive when compared to using traditional thermal pads.
Click to expand...
My exact thoughts when I opened the 50g UX Pro Ultra lol. :oops:
 
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#90 ·
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#92 ·
DigitalJack3t said:
Yep. Exact same one I have. So going back, when I took the back plate off, there were no impression marks in the putty for this area. Looks like these guys didn't have contact. I did screw everything back as tight as I could though, so maybe I used too much putty in the other areas.

View attachment 2656028
Click to expand...
For learning purposes, can someone tell me what these are? Thank you in advance.
 
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#93 ·
DigitalJack3t said:
For learning purposes, can someone tell me what these are? Thank you in advance.
Click to expand...
Multi-layer ceramic capacitors, filtering for the VRM. It's not critical to cool them, the pads/putty on the back are pulling more heat out of the PCB traces, it acts as a heatsink for the FETs and inductors on the other side. Might reduce the VRM temp 1-2c compared to none.
 
#94 · (Edited)
RedF said:
How are the copper shimms used?
IC|putty|copper|putty|cooler, or how should I imagine that?
Click to expand...
Typically people put them on top the putty/pad already on the vram and then personally id suggest thin superglue around it to keep it in place/increase pressure, you can use adhesive on the IC connections as well if it seems weak, just make sure rhe glue isnt impeding the transfer of IC -> putty -> shim -> putty /heatsink. The absolute most effective way to utilize them is where ever they are able to apply the most pressure to anything getting hot but it really doesn't matter too much, copper moves as much heat as 680x the volume of water and 16000x of air so just adding a few should make an ENORMOUS difference to any PC. I would personally use these https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B074Y8JT7R?psc=1&ref=ppx_pop_mob_b_asin_title (NOTE, those are 2mm pictured, the 3mm ones are HUGE) on a radiator for pure mass and then shims for vram and vrm will vary based on cooler thickness but always try to get as much copper mass as possible. You could even just hot glue them to a GPUS backplate and reinforce properly if you're lazy lol. They work very good on existing heatsinks and chipset too.

Do note with extreme copper modding unlike other forms of cooling you will need to reinforce the PCIE connection and possibly the whole case/ mobo connections because it can make the GPU become so heavy it makes stock 4090s seem like McDonald's toys. Personally I have a 7900xtx x2 system where they are basically cemented in place and the board is cemented to 4x 40lb blocks. the gpus probably weigh 14 lbs each lol. If you're a true lunatic, you will want to procure mcm 1000+ copper cables with 40 strands or less. The kind that weigh like 10lbs a foot. Those thick copper strands are absolutely amazing for our thermal purposes and that type of copper is typically by far the highest purity. As a final note, I've observed keeping the copper in an environment where it receives 0 air ( enclosed cooling, hot glue, whatever) provides a very big benefit as it prevents it from getting any patina at all. The second completely clean copper interacts with air it becomes patina'd to an extent and this negatively impacts it's cooling/contact very, very much.

This is a ton of work, but I can assure you, it is absolutely worth it. The temp improvement with these copper mods are simply unobtainable with any other forms of cooling outside of Ln or chilling. The responsiveness of the systems are so much higher, its just astonishing, not to mention you'll never need to worry about anything breaking or degrading if the temps barely go above 25c hotspot lol. Really don't know why manufacturers stopped putting copper shims and heatsinks on boards, especially nowadays..
 
Discussion starter · #95 ·
Travis Scott said:
Typically people put them on top the putty/pad already on the vram and then personally id suggest thin superglue around it to keep it in place/increase pressure, you can use adhesive on the IC connections as well if it seems weak, just make sure rhe glue isnt impeding the transfer of IC -> putty -> shim -> putty /heatsink. The absolute most effective way to utilize them is where ever they are able to apply the most pressure to anything getting hot but it really doesn't matter too much, copper moves as much heat as 680x the volume of water and 16000x of air so just adding a few should make an ENORMOUS difference to any PC. I would personally use these https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B074Y8JT7R?psc=1&ref=ppx_pop_mob_b_asin_title (NOTE, those are 2mm pictured, the 3mm ones are HUGE) on a radiator for pure mass and then shims for vram and vrm will vary based on cooler thickness but always try to get as much copper mass as possible. You could even just hot glue them to a GPUS backplate and reinforce properly if you're lazy lol. They work very good on existing heatsinks and chipset too.

Do note with extreme copper modding unlike other forms of cooling you will need to reinforce the PCIE connection and possibly the whole case/ mobo connections because it can make the GPU become so heavy it makes stock 4090s seem like McDonald's toys. Personally I have a 7900xtx x2 system where they are basically cemented in place and the board is cemented to 4x 40lb blocks. the gpus probably weigh 14 lbs each lol. If you're a true lunatic, you will want to procure mcm 1000+ copper cables with 40 strands or less. The kind that weigh like 10lbs a foot. Those thick copper strands are absolutely amazing for our thermal purposes and that type of copper is typically by far the highest purity. As a final note, I've observed keeping the copper in an environment where it receives 0 air ( enclosed cooling, hot glue, whatever) provides a very big benefit as it prevents it from getting any patina at all. The second completely clean copper interacts with air it becomes patina'd to an extent and this negatively impacts it's cooling/contact very, very much.

This is a ton of work, but I can assure you, it is absolutely worth it. The temp improvement with these copper mods are simply unobtainable with any other forms of cooling outside of Ln or chilling. The responsiveness of the systems are so much higher, its just astonishing, not to mention you'll never need to worry about anything breaking or degrading if the temps barely go above 25c hotspot lol. Really don't know why manufacturers stopped putting copper shims and heatsinks on boards, especially nowadays..
Click to expand...
I'm not sure I would personally recommend to anyone to use copper shims that are as thick or thicker than the OEM pads. when using putty and shims I recommend not going more than an absolute MAXIMUM of 80% of them pad size, but most importantly, at least 0.2mm less than the gap heoght between VRAM and cooler. If folks go beyond this threshold then contact with the core will be diminished and the core temps will not be ideal.

It's much safer to go 60-70% of the pad hieght, and use outty for the rest. That way you can be sure to get good compression and contact with all the components at the same time. Applying too much pressure to the PCB can crack solder of various components and so extra caution is advised.

That's just my take on shims. I wouldn't advise anyone use shims unless they are willing to take the risk and own the consequences. I also recommend using Conformal coating or Kapton tape to protect around the shims to prevent a short circuit.

As for superglue, I wouldn't myself, but to each their own.
 
#96 ·
Travis Scott said:
Typically people put them on top the putty/pad already on the vram and then personally id suggest thin superglue around it to keep it in place/increase pressure, you can use adhesive on the IC connections as well if it seems weak, just make sure rhe glue isnt impeding the transfer of IC -> putty -> shim -> putty /heatsink. The absolute most effective way to utilize them is where ever they are able to apply the most pressure to anything getting hot but it really doesn't matter too much, copper moves as much heat as 680x the volume of water and 16000x of air so just adding a few should make an ENORMOUS difference to any PC. I would personally use these https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B074Y8JT7R?psc=1&ref=ppx_pop_mob_b_asin_title (NOTE, those are 2mm pictured, the 3mm ones are HUGE) on a radiator for pure mass and then shims for vram and vrm will vary based on cooler thickness but always try to get as much copper mass as possible. You could even just hot glue them to a GPUS backplate and reinforce properly if you're lazy lol. They work very good on existing heatsinks and chipset too.

Do note with extreme copper modding unlike other forms of cooling you will need to reinforce the PCIE connection and possibly the whole case/ mobo connections because it can make the GPU become so heavy it makes stock 4090s seem like McDonald's toys. Personally I have a 7900xtx x2 system where they are basically cemented in place and the board is cemented to 4x 40lb blocks. the gpus probably weigh 14 lbs each lol. If you're a true lunatic, you will want to procure mcm 1000+ copper cables with 40 strands or less. The kind that weigh like 10lbs a foot. Those thick copper strands are absolutely amazing for our thermal purposes and that type of copper is typically by far the highest purity. As a final note, I've observed keeping the copper in an environment where it receives 0 air ( enclosed cooling, hot glue, whatever) provides a very big benefit as it prevents it from getting any patina at all. The second completely clean copper interacts with air it becomes patina'd to an extent and this negatively impacts it's cooling/contact very, very much.

This is a ton of work, but I can assure you, it is absolutely worth it. The temp improvement with these copper mods are simply unobtainable with any other forms of cooling outside of Ln or chilling. The responsiveness of the systems are so much higher, its just astonishing, not to mention you'll never need to worry about anything breaking or degrading if the temps barely go above 25c hotspot lol. Really don't know why manufacturers stopped putting copper shims and heatsinks on boards, especially nowadays..
Click to expand...
 
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#97 ·
Got more Upsiren UX Pro Ultra from Newegg (seller Middle)....looks like they gave me a bit extra compared to the last jar I received

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#98 ·
Hey @snarksdomain,

I just recently tested out of sheer curiosity to mix about 50/50 by volume, the UX Pro Ultra and Alphacool Apex paste which is said to be 17W/mK.
I've never really liked the UX Pro's essence; It feels sandy, dry and doesn't want to stick well. By adding Apex paste I got it a little softer, stickier and more malleable - feeling more like a playdough.

Used that for a VRAM in 5700XT, didn't do any kind of comparison testing to pure UX Pro but in general the memory junction temps seem to be in line for what I'd expect from using UX Pro.

Just telling, if you'd happen to have any interest to try it out. Or anybody else. Also please share your thoughts, if you happen to know a reason this should definitely not be done.

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Discussion starter · #99 ·
Mixing a paste into a putty to make it softer is an interesting concept. It's not something I plan to do myself.

Looking at the specs of the paste, it shows a density of 3.2 g/cc so I presume it will be lower performing than the UX Pro by itself (3.5 g/cc). The paste is a bit more expensive per gram than UX.

That being said, kudos to you for experimenting with it. Cooling enthusiasts have been trying things outside the box for years, and it's that trial and error that we have to thank for some of the products and solutions now available to us on the retail market.

If I were to buy a putty today, it'd be Upsiren UTP-8 which comes in at a much cheaper price and seems to beat Upsiren UX Pro in testing.
 
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