What thickness for thermal pads can I use on GPU VRM chips for Acer Predator Helios 300 (PH315-52)?

zerophyte

Hello all,

I just recently joined the Predator family by purchasing a brand new Acer Predator Helios 300 15.6" (PH315-52) with the GTX1660 Ti gpu option.
When I went to repaste my CPU/GPU with Artic MX-4, I noticed that the VRM chips to the sides of the GPU die had a dried out pink thermopaste that was inconsistent to say the least. Some of the VRM chips had moist pink thermopaste, while other chips it was flaking off like dry scabs.. That obviously cannot be good cause I know these GDDR6 VRM chips will run hot under load.

I had been googling for a little while but have not found any discussion with a definitive answer on what thickness of thermal pads I could cut and place on the vrm chips for under the gpu heatsink. I have some Thermal Grizzly Minus Pad 8 kicking around which is 1 mm in thickness. I have no way of really measuring what I need, so I was hoping someone from here could shed some light on this, and on if they have put pads on that they found effective at reducing heat. I can get 0.5mm, 1mm and 1.5mm Grizzly minus pad 8. Of course I'm open to taking suggestions on other good thermal pad brands. 

Thanks guys!

- zerophyte

belik

I’m not sure Mx4 is good choice it has quite poor conductivity btw

There is a reason they didn’t put thermal pads on video chip I guess it’s because any pads will make worse the heatsink pressure. With 1 mm whole part on gpu can be out of paste at all, with 0.5 mm it’s better almost acceptable but still worse than without pads/with pink paste. You can check it on your implementation if you apply paste and then assemble and disassemble and compare footprint on gpu heatsink with 3 cases - 1 mm, 0.5 mm, no pads

If you still want to use pads you may want to improve pressure on the screw #6, this is what I’m doing myself now)

zerophyte

So should I just get a tube of the pink thermopaste? (any brands to suggest?) Rather than mess with the pads and varying thickness. Also, if Artic MX-4 is not that great.. Should I order Grizzly Kryonaut or Noctua NT-H1 instead? (just edited my post after realizing that condoctonaut was liquid metal.. I do NOT want that.. lol)

belik

Kryonat or pk-3 would be fine, yes
As for pink paste well there is a small problem I never saw it on offer and don’t know any other paste which would replace it
And using conventional paste on memory chips will result in virtually zero contact there as shown on the photo below (btw this is Mx-4)

zerophyte

I've continued to search on if I can buy this pink thermopaste anywhere but with no success.. Most people tend to want to stick thermal pads on their VRM chips in most forums I've visited.. But again, the Acer Predator Helios 300 2019 is never been brought up in most discussions with any conclusive results on success. 

@belik what are you using on your vrm chips for your setup? Do you have the same laptop as I?

belik

0.5 mm thermal pads or old pink paste, still trying to get what’s better 

Citizenkane

belik said:

0.5 mm thermal pads or old pink paste, still trying to get what’s better 

Do you know maybe tickens of pads? Pink ones and other ?

belik

Citizenkane said:

belik said:

0.5 mm thermal pads or old pink paste, still trying to get what’s better 

Do you know maybe tickens of pads? Pink ones and other ?

As I told it’s 1 mm everywhere except vmemory

Gaps on vmems are different from 0.3 to 1 mm roughly and filled with pink paste

Citizenkane

belik said:

Citizenkane said:

belik said:

0.5 mm thermal pads or old pink paste, still trying to get what’s better 

Do you know maybe tickens of pads? Pink ones and other ?

As I told it’s 1 mm everywhere except vmemory

Gaps on vmems are different from 0.3 to 1 mm roughly and filled with pink paste

So 1mm everywhere except VRAM ? Or even PINK paste is 1mm which is on VRam ?

belik

Citizenkane said:

So 1mm everywhere except VRAM ? Or even PINK paste is 1mm which is on VRam ?

correct

belik

Citizenkane said:

 Or even PINK paste is 1mm which is on VRam ?

Pink is 0.5 but in some places contact isn't good so you need to add some paste
Or just keep pink mass and reuse

Citizenkane

belik said:

Citizenkane said:

 Or even PINK paste is 1mm which is on VRam ?

Pink is 0.5 but in some places contact isn't good so you need to add some paste
Or just keep pink mass and reuse

i already removed all the pads even pink ones so now its hard to find correct pads for chips. If you can, can you just write under what number is 1mm and where is 0,5mm.....also youthink i need to put extar paste on some pads ? tx

xapim

I sincerely dunno why ppl keep removing the thermal pads (big mistake) all the laptops i had repasted i had never replaced any thermal pads and they are all working fine including mine for 2 years now but hey do it if you want to i wouldnt also do not count on acer to help you in any way with any of these procedures they go against any warranty policy if youre not in the US/CA you prob can already consider your warranty voided

belik

xapim said:

I sincerely dunno why ppl keep removing the thermal pads (big mistake) all the laptops i had repasted i had never replaced any thermal pads and they are all working fine including mine for 2 years now but hey do it if you want to i wouldnt also do not count on acer to help you in any way with any of these procedures they go against any warranty policy if youre not in the US/CA you prob can already consider your warranty voided

there are no thermal pads on vmem 

belik

Citizenkane said:

belik said:

Citizenkane said:

 Or even PINK paste is 1mm which is on VRam ?

Pink is 0.5 but in some places contact isn't good so you need to add some paste
Or just keep pink mass and reuse

i already removed all the pads even pink ones so now its hard to find correct pads for chips. If you can, can you just write under what number is 1mm and where is 0,5mm.....also youthink i need to put extar paste on some pads ? tx

vmem are number 1 and it is variable from 0.3 to 1 mm
and I see some problem with one of #1 on your picture you have no footrprint 

Citizenkane

belik said:

Citizenkane said:

belik said:

Citizenkane said:

 Or even PINK paste is 1mm which is on VRam ?

Pink is 0.5 but in some places contact isn't good so you need to add some paste
Or just keep pink mass and reuse

i already removed all the pads even pink ones so now its hard to find correct pads for chips. If you can, can you just write under what number is 1mm and where is 0,5mm.....also youthink i need to put extar paste on some pads ? tx

vmem are number 1 and it is variable from 0.3 to 1 mm
and I see some problem with one of #1 on your picture you have no footrprint 

So if i put 1mm on vram will cooler sit ok on GPU and CPU ?

belik

No no and no
If you use 1mm instead of pink paste, your gpu will have really bad contact 

I will tell you the only reliable way to know, you need to apply paste on cpu and gpu, apply pads 1 mm everywhere except vmem, apply 0.5 mm pads on vmem, install heatsink, uninstall heatsink and check footprint everywhere, by paste and on pads
only this way you can know as each heatsink individual 

as I told your pink on vmem near the edge doesn’t have contact, why? 

Citizenkane

Thank you very much for this advice ....and i really dont know why there is no contact on one of vmem it was factory made like this.

xapim

belik yup i know that its only thermal paste in the new 2019 but i was taking about all models in general and i i had one i would certainly use kryonaut on everything

Citizenkane

I repasted it again and put new paste on cpu and gpu.  Temps on benchmark for gpu doesnt go above 60'C and CPU 70'C max. I have one problem it doesnt go above 3.9Mhz it seams i have power limit throttel. 

Anyone knows why ?

zerophyte

@Citizenkane
What thickness of thermal pad did you end up using on your vmem pictured above? I had ordered Artic thermal pads at 1.5mm thickness, but haven't tried using it yet. I heard from others that 1.5mm of that brand is not too bad cause it squishes quite well.