Igor Wallossek from Igor's Lab has run an extensive test on a range of GeForce RTX 40 Series graphics cards from NVIDIA partners like ASUS, Manli, PNY, and Palit and concluded that most are a 'ticking time bomb' waiting to overheat and eventually fail because of cheap thermal paste. It's an explosive report that could have a massive impact on the current GPU market.
The investigation and report are now live (with video) at Igor's Lab. The conclusion is quite convincing, demonstrating how the cheap thermal paste degrades over time and that it only takes a few months to become ineffective. The report claims that this is why PC gamers with cards like the RTX 4080 Gallardo and RTX 4080 TUF Gaming are experiencing hot spot temperatures of over 100 degrees.
Igor Wallossek notes that he began investigating the issue after hearing about it from readers. After extensive testing, he found that cheap thermal paste that degrades over time is the culprit. The good news is that resolving the issue is straightforward.
Re-pasting the cards with high-quality, decent thermal paste immediately resolves the high-temperature issue, restoring thermal performance to its proper level. According to Igor's Lab, several NVIDIA partners source and use the same thermal paste, which, upon closer inspection (via microscope), is found to be made from a formula with an oily mixture that dries up.
Igor Wallossek also discovered that its particles are simply too thick for thermal paste and that it looks like aluminum oxide particles were added to improve thermal performance in the short term (which delivers performance on par with Thermal Grizzly's Kryonaut) - a move that sounds questionable at best and actionable at worst.
Check out Igor's Lab's full report and findings for more info. We'll monitor the issue on our end; stay tuned for updates on what could become quite the GPU scandal as time goes on and more and more cards with this thermal paste begin to degrade and overheat over time. At the very least, we'd expect NVIDIA's partners to cover repairs and look into the issue on their end, especially as we're on the cusp of a new generation of graphics cards.