Excuse me, but can you specify the thermal pad mod? What are the cpu temperatures?
For sure!
Long story short, Nvidia skimped on the thermal pads for the 3090FE (some other manufacturers may have as well but the FE was a serious offender) and as a result the card, but more specifically the GDDR6X runs very hot. Nvidia claims the GDDR6X they use has a max heat load of 105C, but Micron claims 95C should be the max temp.
Either way, once any temp sensor crosses the 100C threshold, the card significantly throttles in an attempt to cool down (Post mod I had a +40 FPS boost in some games).
Onto the mod itself, you're just opening the card up and replacing the thermal pads and paste with higher quality materials that have a higher heat transfer capability. It costs about $80 and about 2 hours of your time to disassemble and reassemble. Some folks have said just doing the backplate pads will get you a decent bump but I'd say at that point just do the full thing in one fell swoop.
Here's some before/after photos:
Before, notice the tiny pads near the v area:
After:
If you decide you want to do this, I would recommend you follow this tutorial:
3090 FE Thermal Pad Mod, my only comments are:
1. I have no idea how they got away with using only 3 pads, I'm sure you could do it but I don't think the planning is worth it to save $20, I'd just buy 4 pads.
2. They recommend applying thermal pads to both sides and then reassembling, I think the easier way to do this is actually to prep the die side first, then reattach the PCB to the heatsink with the die frame (see photo 3), then apply the back side thermal pads.
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As for the CPU Temps, under load the 5950X gets to about 76C on an NH-L12S, so I can't complain. The idle temps are really high for some reason at about 54C on average (I'm not sure why), but this is ultimately a temporary setup and within safe operating temps by a wide margin so I'm not bothered by it. Worth noting that I'm using an 80mm fan instead of the default 120mm fan due to clearance issues with the ram (not technically low profile).
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Finally got around to contacting Ray, and wow, exactly who I needed to talk to so thanks a ton for the link. If they come at the right length and in good quality (which given his reviews seems incredibly likely) not only will I go back to him for my second W1, but also recommend him to just about everyone.
For some context:
I priced out a 24p, 8p CPU, 2x 8p GPU, and 6p Molex on CableMod and not only was that not what I actually needed (12p GPU), they also wouldn't let me make some of the cables short enough (min 24p length is 150mm).
Total price would have been:
Cables - $101.50
Shipping - $20
Total - $121.50
Contacted Ray, he sent me a bid for 24p, 8p CPU, 12p GPU, 6p Molex in the exact measurements I wanted.
Total price was:
Cables - $48
Shipping - $31 (I chose expedited, base was $6)
Tax - $8.07
Total - $87.07.
And now we wait!
