Enthusiasts replaced the liquid metal in the NVIDIA RTX 5090 cooling system with regular thermal paste. The minimal increase of +2°C did not affect the operation of the video card.
NVIDIA uses liquid metal to improve cooling of RTX 50xx video cards. However, the experiment showed that this technology provides minimal improvement, which does not affect the operation of the RTX 5090. Researchers from TechPowerUp note the complex disassembly process of RTX 5090 FE, as a result of which the liquid metal was discovered between the graphic processor and the vapor chamber.
After the photo session, there was a problem with assembling the video card — the experimenters decided to use regular thermal paste. They applied the tested Arctic MX6 paste, installed thermal pads, and assembled the video card.
The GPU temperature increased on average by 2 °C compared to the standard thermal interface. The graph shows the performance of both options during a 370-second test load. Initial temperatures differ slightly, but this does not indicate a higher idle temperature with liquid metal.
The maximum temperature reached with the original liquid metal thermal interface is about 77.6°C, with Arctic MX6 the processor reaches 79.4°C. The temperature increase of 1.8°C is not significant — room temperature changes cause larger fluctuations. Performance was accurate, the same as before disassembly — no hint of more stringent thermal regulation. Both values are safely below the 90°C temperature threshold for RTX 5090 (now it is not 83°C as before on RTX 40xx).
The result of this experiment is good news for enthusiasts and video card manufacturers. There is essentially no need for a liquid metal thermal interface, and using thermal paste is safer for metal parts, also it does not cause short circuits.