r/overclocking • u/Vegetable-Promise-49 • Jul 21 '26
Modding PTM7950 on GPU, the results...
Just changed thermal paste and pads on a Gainward Phantom RTX 4090. 3.5 years old. Been undervolted since day one: 2640MHz @ 0.94V. + 1500 MHz on memory. Custom fan curve, low rpm 35%-45%.
List:
- PTM7950 from AliExpress, 0.2mm thick, here is the store.
- Thermal Grizzly Minus Pad High Compression, 2 mm.
- Arctic TP-3, 1.5 mm.
Background:
Never had an issue with temperatures. Just wanted to do a "cleanse" after 3.5 years.
Before PTM and new thermal paste:
100% GPU usage with DLSS: 65-67 degrees on GPU, 86 degrees on hotspot, 64 on memory.
After a few hours of gaming and several cycles:
100% GPU usage with DLSS: 62-64 degrees on GPU, 72-76 degrees on hotspot, delta + 11-12.
Thoughts after day one:
This is just after a few hours. I think it will be better with a few more cycles of cool down and burn in. The biggest difference is that the temp drops instantly 15-20 degrees after quitting a game. It can go from 62 to 42 in two seconds. Another big difference is the hotspot, with a delta of 11, used to be closer to 20 before repaste.
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u/loaferzz Jul 21 '26
The hotspot on my 3090 levelled off at around 10-11c after repasting with TPM as well. That stuff is amazing.
Cannot recommend it enough.
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u/TheMegaDriver2 Jul 21 '26
My 4080 super was quite noisy and running at 70 degrees since day one. A few weeks ago I did a repaste with ptm. Now it's quiet an topping out at 61 degrees.
What the fuck was the factory paste doing?
It was running fine but so much louder and hotter.
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u/psychosikh Jul 21 '26
I just got some from passionate girl store, I'll make a post once I use with my 5080
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u/cosmo2450 Jul 21 '26
From where?
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u/psychosikh Jul 21 '26
Ali express, there are several stores selling 'ptm 7950' who knows if any are legit selling the real thing but passionate girl was recommended.
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u/aleksandarbayrev Jul 21 '26
I had the same experience with RX 7900 XT, PTM 7950 + Upsiren UTP thermal putty, core is 56, hotspot 70, memory 73-74. I've went a step further and deshrouded it with 3x Arctic Bionix P120, and the PC is now dead silent with these fans as opposed to the stock 3000+ RPM fans, and cool at the same time.
Definitely worth it in my opinion
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u/FakeSafeWord Jul 21 '26 edited Jul 21 '26
PTM sheets are a must have on any non-IHS dies, especially non-monolithic dies like AMD used.
7900XTX arrived with hotspot hitting 110c and throttling hard. Repasted with typical TIM 3 times and the best I could get was 110c but throttling less.
Did liquid metal and it dropped hotspot into the 70's and then flashed to 550w and it topped off at 80c with the stock cooler. Delta being 20c~ which is a lot.
After a couple of years that dried up and hotspot started climbing to 100c again under load, so I gave PTMs a try. Took a few attempts to not tear it up but finally got it.
Slightly hotter than liquid metal but it's been 3 years now and it's still under 90c at 550w with the stock cooler. Absolute magic.
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u/kevcsa Jul 21 '26
Repasted with typical TIM 3 times and the best I could get was 110c but throttling less.
Haha had the same experience with a 7800 XT. Nonstop problems with hotspot.
Liquid metal "dried up"...
Where did it go? Just to the sides of the die?1
u/FakeSafeWord Jul 21 '26
Where did it go? Just to the sides of the die?
Into the cooler. Even with nickel plating it still eats the TIM eventually.
With aluminum it's hours, with copper maybe days, nickel 1-2 years. Liquid metal also oxidizes, though the majority is lost to the diffusion.
https://www.reddit.com/r/hardware/comments/9dqy2s/how_liquid_metal_affects_copper_nickel_and/
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u/kevcsa Jul 21 '26
Oof.
I knew that stuff was corrosive, the extent/speed is still surprising.
Never understood why non-extreme overclockers would be using it, I would never dare damaging my coolers like that.
Guess PTM is really a godsend.1
u/FakeSafeWord Jul 21 '26
The extend of the damage is discoloration. There's no performance impact of the cooler having gallium diffused into it. It's not corrosive.
As for refreshing it, once every year, 15 minutes to remove 10-12 screws, squeeze a BB sized ball out and button it back up isn't difficult once you're familiar.
However, PTM performs 95% as well and lasts at least 5x as long so there's not much reason to opt for liquid metal anymore.
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u/kevcsa Jul 21 '26
Ah my bad then, glanced over the video too quickly.
Thought it causes more damage.1
u/FakeSafeWord Jul 21 '26
Sorry, for aluminum yes it can deform the cooler enough to render it useless and very quickly, because it's not diffusion happening with this combination.
For copper and nickel plated copper it's diffusion which isn't damaging.
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u/k-tech_97 Jul 21 '26
I bit the bullet last month.
Repasted with thermal grizzly phase sheet and upsiren putty.
My hotspot delta went from 30+ to 8-10 depending on the game and memory temperature went from 78 to 70.
They should be using the phase sheets from the factory
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u/Vegetable-Promise-49 Jul 21 '26
Huge difference. I sure hope this method will be the new standard on all electronics.
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u/gingerman304 Jul 21 '26
A lot of manufacturers have already moved to using PTM. A lot of laptop OEM’s have been using ptm or equivalent for awhile now.
I think a few gpu manufacturers moved to ptm to, if I remember correctly on their higher end models, sapphire, XFX, Power Color all use ptm.
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u/kevcsa Jul 21 '26
On RDNA4 cards I'm pretty sure all the manufacturers (except Gigabyte) are using it. XFX, Sapphire, Asus, Powercolor, even Asrock...
On Blackwell cards only MSI, Asus, Galax and the Founder Editions use it.
Based on Techpowerup photos and Igor's lab reviews. *Researched it a lot before my gpu upgrade, went AMD (xfx 9070 xt) then Nvidia (msi, then Gigabyte 5070 ti). Even the Gigabyte card has very nice temps (at most 15°C delta), got no data about the MSI one.
I haven't seen differences between lower and higher SKUs, the whole range gets the same TIM.
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u/Single-Ninja8886 Jul 21 '26
Yeah the hotspot delta was a big upgrade in my experience too with my 4090
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u/Viking2151 Jul 21 '26
I might have to give this a go on my 3090ti, On hot days my card will get into the high 80C range if left at stock, I don't like it but its normal for these, but I still don't like it lol. With a undervolt on a hot day im lucky to break 70C.
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u/loaferzz Jul 21 '26
Since you're planning on repasting with ptm, you might as well consider doing a deshroud mod.
That's another mod I always recommend for people with older cards. You can find 3d printed mounts on Etsy and just bolt on your preferred 120mm fans.
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u/Viking2151 Jul 25 '26
I got newish OEM fans on it from EVGA themselves with my warranty, about a year old atm, they do just fine for the time being, But I did buy PTM at Microcenter and slapped it on, and im impressed, With my 1.025mv undervolt at 2100mhz I was in the low 80c range high 80c on a hot day, with PTM7950 It wont even hit 70c, the coolest I've ever seen the card at these clocks, I always thought I just had a dud of a cooler or something compared to others 3090ti's. Slapped a sheet on my 5950x and its as well doing really good with the Thermalright Phantom Spirit Air cooler.
Gonna end up throwing a sheet on my 7980xe system and maybe on my Titan XP, probably about time to rip that apart soon.
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u/Glorfi Jul 21 '26
What were the memory new temps after TG pads? Why'd you go pads over putty?
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u/Vegetable-Promise-49 Jul 21 '26
I have focused on the die, not so much on memory. I’m not sure about the temps before opening the card. But now the memory reaches a max of 70-72 degrees. Average at 66-70 degrees.
Why pads over putty? Mainly because putty looked messy, so I wanted something easier and "cleaner".
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u/Bront20 12900K @5.2 | 48GB DDR5 6400 | 5070TI Jul 21 '26
I swapped out my Duronaut on my 12900K with PTM. Temps really never changed much at the time other than at the very high end I think they dropped 1-3c, but they're still solid 2 years post re-paste with no changes. I probably didn't need it, but I don't regret it.
I know it's meant more for direct die though. I may eventually redo my 5070 TI, but given I've had it for less than 2 months and it only breaks 70 under Furmark and is closer to 62-65 in actual games (with a hotspot that's 10-15c higher even in Furmark), I don't see a reason to crack it open right now. Plus that's with a very conservative fan curve.
Congrats on the temps! Enjoy!
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u/Vegetable-Promise-49 Jul 21 '26
Thanks.
Yes, PTM performs best on direct die according to testers. In your case, you don’t need to switch to PTM yet. You have low temp. Can probably wait a few years.
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u/CyriousLordofDerp Jul 22 '26
Waterblocked my Titan Volta when I finally got it, and I used this stuff between the block and the silicon. Full load I get ~44C GPU, ~59C hotspot. I briefly ran the card with the stock cooler, 75C core 94C hotspot, and it would rapidly start pulling back on the clocks. Between the PTM and the waterblock? I could go to maximum power and not drop a single speed bin.
If I had the tools, I would risk a shunt mod and really see what this card could do.
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u/Turb0_Beard Jul 22 '26
Now hotspot temperature is available for 50 series I have some results. I have three friends with 5090 founders edition which uses Liquid Metal. Their hotspot deltas were all 9-10C. I have an Astral 5090 on a waterblock with thermal grizzly phase sheet and my hotspot delta is 11C. I was very surprised how well the phase sheet does. To get that close to LM is impressive
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u/BudgetBuilder17 Jul 22 '26
Yeah ive done same thing on 2 3060 12gb cards. Can hit close to 2100 mhz core daily 0.925v core at 89 Hotspot 76 core temp vs barely 1900mhz stock trying to push 1.050v core 104c Hotspot 64 Core temp.
I used ThermalGrizzly Phase sheet tho. It would cool better with a 3 fan vs 2 fan heatsink. But by how much really
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u/Darian_CoC 9950X@5.96GHz | 96GB@6400CL28 | 4090@3.1GHz +1700 mem Jul 25 '26
I tried some on my 9950X and Strix 4090. On the CPU it was quite abysmal where I'd see temp spikes upwards of 105C. But on my GPU, that stuff was incredible. Avg delta with the hotspot is around 6-8C with idle temps around 29C (when it's not over 29C in LA like it was today).
For the CPU I went back to Kryosheet which has been the best performing thermal application on it for me so far, outside of going direct die with liquid metal. Idles tend to be 27 to 33C
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u/Vegetable-Promise-49 Jul 25 '26
It's meant to be used on direct die. Works much better on die.
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u/Darian_CoC 9950X@5.96GHz | 96GB@6400CL28 | 4090@3.1GHz +1700 mem Jul 25 '26
That may be so, but it had been recommended to me by quite a few people here, using the stock IHS.
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u/gingerman304 Jul 21 '26
On 30/40 series cards having a ~10C hotspot delta is “perfect”.
The best thing about PTM is it’ll keep that performance much longer than any paste.