Adding thermal paste to thermal pads drops RTX 3080 GDDR6X temperatures by up to 15C

Thermal pads and thermal paste have been the go-to methods of cooling GDDR memory on graphics cards over the past 20 years, with thermal paste serving mainly as an alternative solution where thermal pads might not work. However, a YouTuber, Blighted Agent, tested thermal paste with thermal pads on an RTX 3080 and found that using both together dropped the GPU's GDDR6X memory temperatures by up to 15C.

The YouTuber did all of their testing on an EVGA RTX 3080 graphics card that needed maintenance on the thermal paste and thermal pads. First, they repasted only the GPU core, leaving alone the thermal pads on the GDDR6X memory modules. In Furmark with the power limit maxed and the GPU pulling 450 watts, the GPU ran at almost 70C with VRAM temperatures climbing above 95C.

The second test involved adding thermal paste to the GDDR6X modules while keeping the thermal pads on the GPU cooler, making it so the thermal paste was sandwiched between the G6X modules and the thermal pads. Temperatures dropped significantly in FurMark running the memory in this way, with temperatures spiking up to 80C on the hottest modules.

For the final tests, the YouTuber took off the thermal paste and thermal pads on the GDDR6X memory and put brand new thermal pads on the modules, representing a typical thermal pad replacement on a GPU. Temperatures were identical to the second test with the thermal paste/thermal pad combo, but the YouTuber noted that they mixed two thermal pastes together, GD2 and MX-4. Replacing the GPU thermal paste with GD2 only dropped temperatures of the GPU and memory down into the mid-70s.

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How do GDDR6X temperatures affect thermal throttling on the RTX 3080 during sustained workloads?

In a FurMark test with the RTX 3080 drawing 450 watts, GDDR6X temperatures climbed above 95C with the original pads. Adding thermal paste between the memory and pads reduced peaks on the hottest modules to about 80C, but the test did not report whether the card thermally throttled or how its clocks behaved during sustained workloads.

How should thermal paste be applied over the stock pads on an EVGA RTX 3080’s GDDR6X modules?

Apply thermal paste to the GDDR6X memory modules and leave the stock thermal pads in place on the cooler, so the paste sits between the modules and the pads when the cooler is reinstalled. The test did not specify how much paste to use or how to spread it.

How does the long-term durability of paste over thermal pads compare with replacing aging pads?

The paste-and-pad combination matched new replacement pads in the reported temperature tests, but its long-term durability was not tested. It was suggested as a way to extend the life of aging pads, not shown to last as long as replacing them.

Can lower GDDR6X temperatures give an RTX 3080 more memory overclocking headroom?

Lower GDDR6X temperatures were demonstrated, but more memory overclocking headroom was not. On the tested EVGA RTX 3080, adding thermal paste while retaining the memory's thermal pads reduced the hottest memory temperatures from above 95C to about 80C in FurMark; no memory overclocking results were reported.

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The results show that using thermal paste with thermal pads is a legitimate way of improving the thermal performance of thermal pads. This can be a particularly useful method to increase the lifespan of thermal pads sitting on GPU memory that are beginning to show their age or deteriorate, and is a safe solution compared to using copper shims.