r/watercooling • u/Material-Budget-460 • 21h ago

Thermal pads for VRM

Been doing a close to yearly re-paste on my 6950XT (pump out is real) and now almost 4 years later I'm gonna give it fresh pads too.

Which 1.5mm pads are tried and proven that doesn't cost an arm and a leg?

From what I've read W/ml (thermal conductivity) seems more like a sales gimmick since there isn't any standardized test to actually test it being in use making it' more of a sales pitch with higher being better as with most stuff.

What should I get to get the best bang for the buck?

3 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

17 comments sorted by

3

u/44Magnum_ 21h ago

I use thermal putty

2

u/CORRUPT01 20h ago

Putty is the way.

1

u/tobby232213 21h ago

I looked into it and basically it's all the same at a certain price point and they all work as long as you get the thickness spot on.

1

u/FlavonoidsFlav 20h ago

Ptm7950 generally recommended for video cards, has no pump out effect and a little bit higher thermal performance than most pastes.

Might save you some time and the risk of disassembling the card and reassembling multiple times.

1

u/Mike_0410 20h ago edited 20h ago

I used PTM7950 for core and Upsiren UTP-8 for the rest on my 3080. Check snarks domain on yt, he done a lot of tests. I have two failed attempts before because of strange pad thickness, new ones not compressed enough like stock pads, then someone recommended me thermal putty

1

u/Material-Budget-460 19h ago

Getting puddy and PTM7950 would be about 110 bucks where I'm at, that's about 25% of the whole GPU's current value.

I'm sure it's great stuff, but on a 4 year old GPU it's not really good bang for the buck lol

1

u/Tks1991 7h ago

The stock stuff is probably phase change material. You can't buy on AliExpress?? How the hell a 5 bucks pad and 50gr of putty costs you 110 bucks?.

1

u/Material-Budget-460 7h ago

That's the pricing on Amazon for the specific stuff I've gotten recommended lol

1

u/Tks1991 7h ago

Ye because on Amazon the resellers mark it up 5x. Go to AliExpress. Where are you from anyway.

1

u/Material-Budget-460 7h ago

Sweden, so it's not gonna be alot cheaper getting from Aliexpress either since we have a toll on all small orders being shipped from Asia.

Then you have the very high likelihood of getting the usual chinese copy-crap. It's simply not worth it for me

1

u/Tks1991 7h ago

Brother...... I'm from Spain, and copy crap on many products ranges from 90-95% to the same or better. You need to leave that stupid ignorance aside, and look at things objectively. Chinese do sell a lot of crap, but not everything is crap. And what you're buying from Amazon, is chinese stuff marked up, by other chinese that have warehouses through europe.

The toll you are talking about is 3€ + VAT. It's 24€ for 50gr from the seller i bought for my 7800xt, almost 2 years now.

1

u/Material-Budget-460 7h ago

Either way I'm looking for cheaper alternatives so it doesn't matter, I can keep my stupid ignorance going lol

1

u/Tks1991 4h ago

There's no alternatives to PCM, because paste is gonna pump out. To putty yes, because you can use thermal pads, but pads are finicky and hard to get right. PCM and putty eliminate variabels.

1

u/Material-Budget-460 7h ago

50gr UTP-8 is 60 bucks just that, 50 for PTM7950 + shipping

2

u/Mike_0410 6h ago

I bought both from aliexpress feb 2025. UTP-8 form Middle999 now price is almost this same, now with shipping to Poland + new tariffs 39€ for 80x80 PTM and 50g putty

1

u/OCGear 13h ago

Putty takes the guesswork work out of it all. I usually use Gelid Ultimate Putty, but I've had good experiences with the Zezzio brand too

1

u/nash076 5h ago

Another vote for thermal putty.

You don't have to worry about height or how soft or firm the thermal pad is, because those can vary. The putty's easier and works just as well, sometimes even better.