This is probably the absolute best place already precut and high quality pads you can’t go wrong I just install a set in a 3080ti with great results

Welcome to Kritical Thermal Pads - High performance thermal pads for critical applications

 

For pads themselves for newer GPUs, most pads are inadequate regardless of their performance because they're not soft enough. The new alphacool (very soft) are in theory the best option. The Kritical pads @andrew149 are also ones people had good experience with, but I don't remember if they ended up being soft enough (haven't followed the discussion on the internet for pads as closely for the last few months)

Thermal putty is also a really good alternative (Though only TG-PP10).

 

How long does the TG-PP10 last in use?

 

i can confirm kritical pads are softest i have tried. softer than thermal grizzly, arctic, EC360.
also thermal conductivity is great.

 

Thank you, I was 50-60% sure at most, and really drawing a blank around the Kritical discussions from here and different forums (too much information, and I didn't compile a warfile/archive for it in my hardware folder). That's definitely one of the main reasons why people are fond of Kritical's (especially here on the forum).

Ironically I do remember @andrew149 participating in those discussions, and tons of water cooling discussions, so him recommending Kritikal definitely = they really good, but I couldn't remember how soft they were xD

It is super important that you get the correct thicknesses.

See this is why soft pads and thermal putty to an extreme degree are so good. Amongst other things, they conform to the pressure much better than usual pads. Thermal putty specifically and TG-PP10 especially (as it's much easier to clean compared to other puttys). are a god-send with some of the newer GPUs with dozen spots for pads, and all the different thicknesses required.

 

Watch this YouTube Video. I can vouch for the Gelid GP-Ultimate pads. I experienced a significant drop in thermals on VRAM over stock with them. It is super important that you get the correct thicknesses. Also, do not touch the pads with your bare fingers and do not stack them.

 

Would be interesting to see how the temps hold up after pro-longed use, not just initial assembly. After compression, and thermal cycling, pads will exhibit different cooling capabilities. I agree with the perfect fitment sentiment, rather than relying on compression to get contact -- this is the reason why the optimus block is so good. It's machined with such tight tolerances that only 0.5mm pads are needed.

 

@Dogzilla07 I'm going to get flamed for this, but IgorLab's methodology for testing in that article is flawed. If it was a moral argument, you'd call it a straw man. Their point is that the ultrasoft pads compress better and therefore are better because they reduce problems created in harder pads by uneven cold plates and ensuing hotspots. Here is my issue with this. If you use the proper thickness of pad, you don't have those either. I get super triggered when I see people stacking pads and throwing crazy thickness pads on their GPUs and then wondering why their thermals are crap. Here's my point:

Using the thinnest pad possible but making proper contact causes greater performance due to the heat needing to pass through less material.

One could argue that a thicker but softer pad will compress into the crevices and therefore increasing surface area in contact with hot components. I'd still want to see a correct pad thickness comparison here between the two because one could argue that if you use the super-soft pads and get it into every nook and crannie then you heat saturate the pad faster and actually reduce the pad's ability to cool the critical components that you are wanting to cool.

 

Uh, don't you Want the pads to heat saturate, so that the cooling surface can wick that heat away? After all, if you could use a real piece of metal on those surfaces, it would saturate pretty much immediately.

I mean, if the pad is not saturating, that means it's not conducting all the heat, right?

 

From personal experience and personal testing of pads, Thermalright Odyssey seems are best pads for money with Gelid GP Extreme, Fuji Poly pads are best but they're just expensive, Alphacool Eisschicht I would assume are Fuji Poly repacked pads, EC360 I have used only twice and for price they're not bad, Arctic Cooling pads are another alternative

Only pads which I would stay away are EK and Thermal Grizzly Minus pads, tested both of these pads and they're horrible

Thermal putty TG-PP10 I didn't tested yet but planning get it and do some tests, many people can vouch for this thermal putty

Hope this helps

Thanks, Jura

 

From personal experience and personal testing of pads, Thermalright Odyssey seems are best pads for money with Gelid GP Extreme, Fuji Poly pads are best but they're just expensive, Alphacool Eisschicht I would assume are Fuji Poly repacked pads, EC360 I have used only twice and for price they're not bad, Arctic Cooling pads are another alternative

Only pads which I would stay away are EK and Thermal Grizzly Minus pads, tested both of these pads and they're horrible

Thermal putty TG-PP10 I didn't tested yet but planning get it and do some tests, many people can vouch for this thermal putty

Hope this helps

Thanks, Jura

Gelid GP-Extreme are lower performing than GP-Ultimate... you might try those. In terms of pricing, I recognize that UK pricing might be higher, but GP-Ultimate pads are cheaper in the US on Amazon than Thermalright Odyssey. I'm seeing $36.99 for 14,400mm2 ($0.0025/mm2) for the Thermalright and $22.99 for 14,400mm2 ($0.0015/mm2) for the GP-Ultimate. Seeing as how the GP-Ultimate are 15w/mK and the Thermalright pads having a 12.8w/mK I would expect you would get better thermal performance out of the GP-Ultimate for cheaper.

Thermalright also has sus Shore hardness data. They list it as Sc 30-55, while most other manufacturers list in Shore 00 ratings. GP Ultimate lists 00 scores of 60-70. If they are using the same scales then Thermalright is more forgiving (slightly) if you aren't using the correct thickness of pads. If Thermalright's "Sc" is Shore C scale, then the Shore 00 equivalent is 92.5 - off the charts which would make Thermalright pads significantly harder than GP-Ultimate pads and should be avoided.

 

I see that Watercool is selling Thermal pad replacement for my GPU block. Wouldn't that be the best option in my case? As I know that it is the correct size?

I was going to order a bunch of different Kritikal pad sizes and just test around, but then I saw the price and that's out of the question.

I could of course buy some super cheap ones and test, and then buy the correct sizes in the Kritikal pads - but I feel like it's much simpler and probably not that bad performance to go for the "official" replacement pads?

 

Okay so the needed thickness is actually mentioned in the manual of the block, but confusingly it doesn't match the replacement pack

Here's the replacement: Thermal Pads HEATKILLER® IV for GTX 980 Ti and TITAN X, 9,95 €

Here's the manual: https://shop.watercool.de/mediafiles/Manuals/MA_HK_IV_VGA_GTX_980Ti_TITAN_X_A5.pdf

There seems to be an extra strip in the replacement pack that's not mentioned in the manual?

 

@objecttothis Don't forget the Alphacool Ultrasoft, they're an option as well.

 

I have an Alphacool water block waiting to go on a 3070. What pads come with the block stock? Worth exploring other options, or probably am good to go?

 

Liard Tflex HP34 pads:
34 W/mK!!?
Best performance at lower pressures, 10-30 psi

Anyone tested these??

Microsoft Word - A18332-00 Tflex HP34 Data Sheet 6-8-21 (laird.com)
A18306-00 Tflex HP34 Application Note.pdf (laird.com)
Experience high thermal conductivity in a soft, non-silicone solution | Laird Performance Materials

 

Anyone tested these??

They are electrically conductive, so be careful what you test them on (apologies if you are aware, I fear some folks might just look at the W/mK rating and run with them).

 

Anyone know the best replacement putty since they apparently stopped manufacturing TG-PP10?

I did a quick search and found this TG-PP10-50 t-Global Technology | Fans, Thermal Management | DigiKey which mentions the product isn't being manufactured anymore, and when it's out of stock it's gone.

Is TG-N909 the best replacement? TG-N909-30 t-Global Technology | Fans, Thermal Management | DigiKey It's the non-silicon version from the same company. Slightly less operating temp range on the low end, and only rated at 9W/mmK vs. 10W/mmK for the silicon based paste.

I'm only just starting to look into thermal pad replacements. I have two 1080 ti cards that are 5 years old that I might disassemble and clean for the first time soon. They use 4 different thicknesses of pads.

 

Anyone know the best replacement putty since they apparently stopped manufacturing TG-PP10?

Aw shucks, that's unfortunate

 

Yeah, that original post confused me too.

I think their point was that the better thermal pads might increase how much heat non-die parts are adding to the cooling system. And they theorized the die would then have to run slower to make up for the difference. Where the VRM is going to last longer at cooler temps, but not give better performance from it.

Zero idea how likely this is to happen. I'm pretty sure heat moves based on temperature gradients, so the hotter something is the faster the heat should move too (until equilibrium). Though not sure the relative rates (may not have double the transfer for double the temp difference).

 

Seems the best thermal putty right now is the Penchem TH949-1 (also DigiKey available).

Found this YouTube channel "Snarks Domain". They compare different putties, copper pads, graphite pads, etc. Some videos show how much you need to apply of thermal putty and some other cool stuff.

Regards

 

Except that they got what I assume is a last shipment. The TG-PP10-50 has been in stock for a while. I bought 3 and stashed them in the fridge.

TG-PP10-50 t-Global Technology | Fans, Thermal Management | DigiKey

Order today, ships today. TG-PP10-50 – Thermal Silicone Putty 50 gram Container from t-Global Technology. Pricing and Availability on millions of electronic components from Digi-Key Electronics.

www.digikey.com