Thought I’d post my experience on using Ali Express PTM7950 and Upsiren 1mm 21W Thermal Pads on Vram. Before PTM7950 with stock paste the gpu would be at 2814MHZ GPU and 2514MHZ Memory and Hotspot would max out at about 90-93C running Time Spy Default.
After at 2914MHZ GPU and 2700MHZ Memory with 24C Ambient at 3 Days i get 78.7C Hotspot running default Time Spy. Since then its dropped a little bit more with a screw tightening. I bought the 80x80 as it took a couple tries to get it right but think it would be easier next time. Definately put in fridge for an hour 1st as its like peeling off one of those kids tatoo transfers very thin.
7900XT after PTM7950 and Upsiren 1mm Thermal Pads on Vram bought from AliExpress
Btw now there’s similar product by Gelid, i hope there will be some PTM7950 vs Gelid reviews:
https://gelidsolutions.com/product/heat-phase-ultra-2/So the memory had thermal pads and not putty? I’m worried about opening up my 7900xt if it’s a mess in there.
I have previously repasted a 6700xt and new thermal pads, even doing the big one on back of GPU core to touch backplate. Previous cards it was just thermal paste everything.
Yeh the XFX card has pads on vram and they ended up tearing so replaced them at 1mm which im pretty sure is right. Theres alot of pads on backplate and some other ones of various sizes that didn’t tear. Long story short last time i opened card i was going to replace them all but hard to know how compresed they were and what size originally. The blue looking one looked like it was 2-3mm and was very soft didn’t want to run into mounting pressure problems so just left them. Have ordered some u6 pro putty but as my temps ok not sure if ill use it straight away. I should really ask XFX Support for the sizes. Curious if putting 21W pads on backplate will help temps aswell.
If your memory temps are fine you don’t have to install new thermal pads. Unless they will tear while unmounting, but usually they are reusable.
im actually afraid to buy the aliexpress “ptm”, its most likely fake because its by far the cheapest option (vs Amazon or original PTM)
(vs Amazon or original PTM)
heres the secret , on amazon its just dropshipping or someone that bought it via Ali / alibaba and throwing a hefty margin on it.
A lot of people ordered from there, including me and nobody complaints. Just take the most popular one(filter by orders), but i doubt there’s fake’s at all.
I just rewatched that Linus video yeh the piece i got from AliExpress definately didn’t have rough edges or air bubbles or damaged edges like the one they showed looked like the more expensive one they showed. I guess mine came in bubble wrap and envelope and was lucky during shipping i think Moddiy put it in a cardboard box. At the end of the day it melts at 45C so good either way.
How much of the 80 x 80 mm pad did you use? Cause I got some ptm7950 left over but they aren’t in one big chunk, the biggest piece I have left over is like 20 by 20
Did you overclock your GPU? I used it on my 7900XT (no overclock), and it dramatically lowered my Hotspot temps. It has continued to hold steady after 3 weeks also.
Remember that it does not have to be a perfect application. It can tear and not cover the whole die. As it’s pressed and heated it will spread, covering all the imperfections.
How are those Merc 310 cards at stock btw? They seem to be much cheaper than other cards, do they have flaws? Loud fans?
Thinking of buying a Merc 310 7900XT.
Welcome to the club!!
Great results—thanks for sharing!
I have the exact same card and also re-pasted with PTM7950 (kept stock VRAM pads). Curious about your overclock+undervolt settings; I’ll fire up Time Spy and share my data for comparison!
The fact that you pay about $800 for the pleasure of taking a cooler off of the expensive GPU is insane. I very much regret my 7900XT Merc 310 purchase. It stays cool enough on the Stock BIOS (hits 99c Junction regularly on the overclocked BIOS with a 35c delta), but it’ll be a while before I consider an AMD GPU again. XFX was actually really great about an RMA, but within a month I was in the same spot. And, due to this BS I will not be able to easily sell it for an upgrade/sidegrade.
Why do you regret it? I have the same GPU and no issues. Genuinely curious.
My temps are pretty decent. I would say 89 max hot spot. General temps 65-69. I have good airflow though. (lian li lancool)
I can understand where you are coming from but i can’t say i am unhappy with my purchase. RTX 4090’s have been having alot of problems with melting power connectors and Nvidia especially where i live are considerably more expensive. I can only imagine if Nvidia had no competition from AMD you would have to sell a kidney just to play video games. Cheapest major brand 4080 in Australia is 1900$AUD/1236$US where the Merc 7900XT was 1349$AUD/878$US.
How did you open the gpu without tearing the thermal pads ?
I put two 120mm fans on my shroud, pointed up at my 7900XT, set to spin at (whatever)rpm that I can just hear with everything else off, like it’s there sound-wise but my dogs breathing is louder. The curve(on gpu) only gets aggressive when the temps clip 80c, and they just don’t do that. I also kill the zero rpm setting in adrenaline, set them to just at the edge of my hearing and keep that setting until 80c on the gpu. Furmark WILL get the little guys going full tilt if I leave it on for awhile, I think the card heat sinks the entire enclosure. I don’t see any game pushing the card that hard for that long tho.
I’m O/C’ed a little. 3000gpu and 2800memory(max limit, I let the card hound-dog it’s happy place). I hardly reach mid 60s in timespy, hot spot will see mid-high 80s. Merc 7900XT.
Nice, how much Upsiren did improve VRAM junction? Was it soft pad? My reference model needs 1,3mm thickness, tried once 1,5mm Gelid Extreme pads and it was too thick(GPU didn’t make perfect contact)
I got 31.5K with my 7900XT Taichi :) Fully stable too.
BUT I’ve started to notice the hotspot creeping from 75c with this overclock profike, to 100c slowly over the past few months. Has to be pump-out… It’s even getting colder (ambient).
Where can I get some PTM 7950 in Europe? I found a tub once but it was like €500 lol.
I also have a tube of Gelid paste that’s supposed to be really good against pump-out because it can handle slightly higher temps (around 80c is where most pastes start to detoriate) but if PTM is affordable, might as well go that way. Memory is fine but a 60c core and 100c hotspot is not.
It’s all shipped from china. Sometimes there are reseller on eBay but best and legit one is moddiy.com
https://www.moddiy.com/products/Honeywell-PTM7950-SP-Super-Highly-Thermally-Conductive-PCM-Pad.html
Yeh the XFX 7900XT max is 355watts would be fun to have more headroom or an XTX but budget didn’t allow for it. Be nice if XFX released a new firmware with a power upgrade aswell.
Normal or merc? The merc should have 400w after +15%.
Normal one is like 355-360.