NVIDIA RTX 40xx graphics cards are overheating massively due to poor thermal paste — researcher recommends replacement

NVIDIA’s graphics card partners are allegedly using cheap thermal paste in RTX 40xx cards, which causes them to overheat. This is according to a well-known German repairman and enthusiast, Igor Wallossek.

Poor quality thermal paste has become a serious problem for many NVIDIA RTX 40xx owners. The temperature of the video cards reaches over 100 °C, which causes the fan speed to increase dramatically to almost 100%. The thermal paste works well in the early days, but quickly degrades over months (not even years).

Igor’s Lab started receiving reports from readers about the low cooling efficiency of their video cards. In the articles about the RTX 4080 Gallardo and RTX 4080 TUF Gaming, Igor Wallossek found that the only cause of the problems was poor-quality thermal paste. replacing it immediately normalized the temperature.

The study found that most, if not all, NVIDIA partners use the same thermal paste supplier. The company supplies cheap thermal paste that deteriorates much faster than it used to.

To confirm the poor quality, Vallossek tested the thermal paste from a brand new RTX 4080 Gallardo. When tested at 60 °C, Wallacek found that the paste’s performance at very low thicknesses was too good to be true. However, the thermal conductivity of the RTX 4080 Gallardo paste deteriorates with thicker applications. Thicker layers turn it from outstanding to ordinary, as in the Arctic MX-6.

Wallacek examined the thermal paste under a microscope. It was indeed a cheap paste with a strange oil mixture in it that dries in minutes if you wipe it off with your finger. It also contains particles up to 16 microns in size — too large for thermal paste. Massive aluminum oxide particles were added to the paste to easily achieve higher thermal conductivity in the short term. But they should quickly reduce its effectiveness in the long run. The particles create enough space for the oily substance to evaporate quickly.

The problem is relatively easy to solve by replacing the thermal grease, and it is inexpensive. However, it requires skill in disassembling video cards, and it’s not something that owners of $1000 or more devices should be doing.

Source: Igor`s Lab