Hey guys, I'm planning to replace the thermal pads on my RTX 3080 and I've narrowed it down to two thermal pads, so I need help to choose which performs better in terms of thermal performance. I did some research and found out that most people recommend the Gelid Extreme over the Gelid Ultimate because it is softer, so it will make better contact with the components and the cold plate. However, the Gelid Ultimate has a higher thermal conductivity than the Gelid Extreme, but I'm not sure how much that makes up for it to provide lower temps than the Gelid Extreme (if it does at all). Any help will be appreciated!
>TLDR; you should be able to swap out Gelid Extreme (not Ultimate) pads for EK stock pads with identical sizes.
So I've spent way too much time researching this, but I figured I would make a post here instead of letting it go to waste. There is A LOT of random info floating around about using Gelid pads on EK waterblocks. EK of course recommends you use their pads (that they will happily sell you), and says other brands can cause issues with the GPU seating properly with the block because other pads are too hard and will prevent the block from having enough mounting pressure.
There also seems to be confusion about Gelid Extreme vs Gelid Ultimate pads, which are totally different and sometimes even get swapped around on Amazon where they give you the one you specifically didn't search for, so be careful.
Hardness:
- EKWB stock pads: 5 (Shore A) which translates to 45 (Shore 00) <- important!
- Gelid Extreme pads: 35 (Shore 00)
- Gelid Ultimate pads: 70 (Shore 00)
https://www.apstpe.com/media/pdf/Shore-Hardness-Scales.pdf
I had no idea what the hell a Shore hardness was until now, and it is very easy to quickly look at Amazon and EK's documentation and assume EK is 5 and Gelid Extreme is 35 and that they are too hard (especially with EK's info floating around about other brands). Obviously this is not the case, but unless you know to convert their Shore A hardness to Shore 00 you're comparing apples to oranges.
The two are close enough in hardness (Gelid Extreme being even softer) that you should be able to just swap them out with identical thickness/dimensions. Note that the ultimate pads ARE harder and would probably cause the problems EK talks about.
Oh, and why does any of this matter?
Thermal conductivity:
- EKWB stock pads: 3.5 W/mK
- Gelid Extreme pads: 12 W/mK
- Gelid Ultimate pads: 15 W/mK
Over 3x more thermal conductivity with the Gelid Extreme (and probably 3x more cost...they are expensive). They are also close very close in conductivity to the Ultimates without having to worry about hardness. In other words, they seem like the goldilocks thermal pads. :)
In the end does any of this really matter? The EK pads are honestly...fine. But you will see lower memory and VRM temps with the Gelid Extreme pads. Some people are reporting over 10C differences. If your temps are already in a safe range, does lowering them really matter? That one
... keep reading on reddit ➡
Just wanted to share that these thermal pads are the bomb! Knocked another 10c off the Memory Junction Temp compared to the other aftermarket pads that came with my waterblock for my 3090. 82⁰c is the highest temperature I see for the 300w 120mh/s I got out of the GPU 😁
I'm hoping that I get a good mint number and sell it for a couple thousand myself
I was going to mount a waterblock from EK on my 3080ti FTW3. I was wondering if it would be worth getting aftermarket pads such as the GELID ultimate or the Fujipoly or the Thermal grizzly ones instead of using the ones that come with the waterblock. I haven't been able to find benchmarks on this, have any of you done it?
Hey guys, I'm planning to replace the thermal pads on my RTX 3080 and I've narrowed it down to two thermal pads, so I need help to choose which performs better in terms of thermal performance. I did some research and found out that most people recommend the Gelid Extreme over the Gelid Ultimate because it is softer, so it will make better contact with the components and the cold plate. However, the Gelid Ultimate has a higher thermal conductivity than the Gelid Extreme, but I'm not sure how much that makes up for it to provide lower temps than the Gelid Extreme (if it does at all). Any help will be appreciated!
