3090 backside ram

A

applegrcoug

Gawd
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More of a rant...

But the backside ram on the 3090 sure is annoying. It just gets smoking hot without any true heatsink back there when really getting taxed So, it seems really the best way to control the heat back there is a full coverage water block. I have a couple like that and they're great.

I had a 3080 10gb in a bykski full coverage block on my son's machine, but the high resolution texture packs we run on minecraft will more than max it out. So I saw that a member here was selling their 3090 vision. Perfect, block fits for cool vram. Spent yesterday making the swap and then purging the air from the fluid lines. Then, I find one vram thermal pad that fell off during assembly...SOB.

Finally got it reback together and vram is nice and cool.

I find it interesting that the 4090 is all front mounted so it can use the heatsink.
 
The 3090 Ti was also all front mounted. IIRC, the reason for the 3090 having VRAM on the backside is that the higher density modules were not available at the time. So, toasty backside VRAM.

For what it's worth, I just put an 80mm fan blowing down onto the backplate of my 3090 and it kept things nice and cool.
 
Heat was never an issue for me with all the cards I've owned that had RAM on the back of the card. That includes the GTX Titan X, Titan X, and 3090.
 
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So, my plan to buy a 3090 Ti instead of 3090 (if go the old gen/Ampere route) is a good idea, right? :)
 
pavel said:
So, my plan to buy a 3090 Ti instead of 3090 (if go the old gen/Ampere route) is a good idea, right? :)
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Yes, but not for the reason of having all the RAM on the front of the card. The 3090 Ti gets you the full GA102 chip, which is up to 10% faster at 4K compared to the 3090.
 
Armenius said:
Yes, but not for the reason of having all the RAM on the front of the card. The 3090 Ti gets you the full GA102 chip, which is up to 10% faster at 4K compared to the 3090.
Click to expand...
Does it matter which brand? There's not many out there in the (used) market here. I also haven't inquired with sellers - some of the ads have been up for a long time. I dunno if that's a good thing or not. :) Assuming, I find one - does it matter which brand? I have found very few for 'good' prices but one was a MSI Trio. There's more 3090 choices.
But, thanks for the info. Good to know.
It's also faster for productivity too - in many cases.
 
applegrcoug said:
More of a rant...

But the backside ram on the 3090 sure is annoying. It just gets smoking hot without any true heatsink back there when really getting taxed So, it seems really the best way to control the heat back there is a full coverage water block. I have a couple like that and they're great.

I had a 3080 10gb in a bykski full coverage block on my son's machine, but the high resolution texture packs we run on minecraft will more than max it out. So I saw that a member here was selling their 3090 vision. Perfect, block fits for cool vram. Spent yesterday making the swap and then purging the air from the fluid lines. Then, I find one vram thermal pad that fell off during assembly...SOB.

Finally got it reback together and vram is nice and cool.

I find it interesting that the 4090 is all front mounted so it can use the heatsink.
Click to expand...
Are you gaming, or some other workload with your 3090?

I did a thermal pad replacement on my 3090 and it significantly lowered my vRam temps. A 16C to 20C drop! see: https://hardforum.com/threads/3090-ti-owners-club.2018815/post-1045403287

The backside vram chips only pull about 27W under gaming workloads, so just a bit of air movement along with better thermal pads makes all the difference. See the GPU-Z screenshot for memory power usage (MVDDC), which is the total for both sides of the card, divide it by 2.
If you are mining the vram can pull way more power, I think this would be the only situation where water cooling might be needed.
 
pavel said:
Does it matter which brand? There's not many out there in the (used) market here. I also haven't inquired with sellers - some of the ads have been up for a long time. I dunno if that's a good thing or not. :) Assuming, I find one - does it matter which brand? I have found very few for 'good' prices but one was a MSI Trio. There's more 3090 choices.
But, thanks for the info. Good to know.
It's also faster for productivity too - in many cases.
Click to expand...
The asus tuf model had a lot of reports of higher ram temps in the threads i read. I tamed mine with a waterblock that cools both sides
 
applegrcoug said:
More of a rant...

But the backside ram on the 3090 sure is annoying. It just gets smoking hot without any true heatsink back there when really getting taxed So, it seems really the best way to control the heat back there is a full coverage water block. I have a couple like that and they're great.

I had a 3080 10gb in a bykski full coverage block on my son's machine, but the high resolution texture packs we run on minecraft will more than max it out. So I saw that a member here was selling their 3090 vision. Perfect, block fits for cool vram. Spent yesterday making the swap and then purging the air from the fluid lines. Then, I find one vram thermal pad that fell off during assembly...SOB.

Finally got it reback together and vram is nice and cool.

I find it interesting that the 4090 is all front mounted so it can use the heatsink.
Click to expand...
Try Thermalright TFX on the hotspot. On the 3090 Ti, the difference was night and day.
 
motqalden said:
The asus tuf model had a lot of reports of higher ram temps in the threads i read. I tamed mine with a waterblock that cools both sides
Click to expand...
Oh really? Interesting. Would there be any difference with the MSI Trio - I found one for a good price and the ad has been up for a while so I wonder if it's been sold.
I dunno if I want to get into using a waterblock - unless it is sold with the card - that could put an extra $200 or so on the base card, I bet?
 
pavel said:
Oh really? Interesting. Would there be any difference with the MSI Trio - I found one for a good price and the ad has been up for a while so I wonder if it's been sold.
I dunno if I want to get into using a waterblock - unless it is sold with the card - that could put an extra $200 or so on the base card, I bet?
Click to expand...

I wouldnt worry about it for gaming. Temps were fine for gaming it was just too hot for mining.
 
It was hot for mining and other stuff too...like if I were to run Valley or Heaven.....

But yeah, I'm not going to worry about it now. Full cover block. Heck, a few winters ago, I took ice cold pool water and pumped it through everything. That is pretty entertaining.
 
motqalden said:
I wouldnt worry about it for gaming. Temps were fine for gaming it was just too hot for mining.
Click to expand...
What if I can only find 3090s? I sent 2 mgs to the 3090 Ti owners - no reply yet. Hopefully, I'll get one - but, you know, used/2nd hand sales - ppl might sell and then don't remove the ad. There seems to be a lot of 3090s for sale - there's less power consumption but then the card can get hotter and you have the memory on 2 sides?
Then, I have to worry about the backsides - and whether I have to re-pad the thing? :-/
That was my concern if I was only able to find 3090s.

P.S. how complicated is it to set up a water block - I guess you can only use ones that are specific to the brand/model, too, right?
 
pavel said:
What if I can only find 3090s? I sent 2 mgs to the 3090 Ti owners - no reply yet. Hopefully, I'll get one - but, you know, used/2nd hand sales - ppl might sell and then don't remove the ad. There seems to be a lot of 3090s for sale - there's less power consumption but then the card can get hotter and you have the memory on 2 sides?
Then, I have to worry about the backsides - and whether I have to re-pad the thing? :-/
That was my concern if I was only able to find 3090s.

P.S. how complicated is it to set up a water block - I guess you can only use ones that are specific to the brand/model, too, right?
Click to expand...


I repaste and repad anything I buy used especially when I see dust and silicone residue from pads.
 
pavel said:
What if I can only find 3090s? I sent 2 mgs to the 3090 Ti owners - no reply yet. Hopefully, I'll get one - but, you know, used/2nd hand sales - ppl might sell and then don't remove the ad. There seems to be a lot of 3090s for sale - there's less power consumption but then the card can get hotter and you have the memory on 2 sides?
Then, I have to worry about the backsides - and whether I have to re-pad the thing? :-/
That was my concern if I was only able to find 3090s.

P.S. how complicated is it to set up a water block - I guess you can only use ones that are specific to the brand/model, too, right?
Click to expand...
Ehhh, blocks aren't hard provided you have all the pads. Bykski blocks, while less expensive than others dont have instructions and they dont have good pads for the vram.

If you find a 3090 tuf, I have a bykski block sitting on my shelf with pads on it from a 3089.
 
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applegrcoug said:
Ehhh, blocks aren't hard provided you have all the pads. Bykski blocks, while less expensive than others dont have instructions and they dont have good pads for the vram.

If you find a 3090 tuf, I have a bykski block sitting on my shelf with pads on it from a 3089.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the info. Kind of scared now, shopping for 3090, though. :) Many of the 3090s are Tufs, Strix, Gigabyte - if there's any warranty left, the ASUS and MSI cards have transferable warranty - so, that is a plus.
But, it sounds like a lot of the cards get hot - and many owners replace the pads and/or use water blocks.
Dunno if I'm comfortable doing all that - but, that seems to be the reality.
I'm in Canada - so I dunno but shipping between Canada & USA tends to be a pita? Thanks for the offer, though. I'll update if I ever get one of these cards.
 
applegrcoug said:
More of a rant...

But the backside ram on the 3090 sure is annoying. It just gets smoking hot without any true heatsink back there when really getting taxed So, it seems really the best way to control the heat back there is a full coverage water block. I have a couple like that and they're great.

I had a 3080 10gb in a bykski full coverage block on my son's machine, but the high resolution texture packs we run on minecraft will more than max it out. So I saw that a member here was selling their 3090 vision. Perfect, block fits for cool vram. Spent yesterday making the swap and then purging the air from the fluid lines. Then, I find one vram thermal pad that fell off during assembly...SOB.

Finally got it reback together and vram is nice and cool.

I find it interesting that the 4090 is all front mounted so it can use the heatsink.
Click to expand...
It's the toughest feeling when you forget one step and need to disassemble them reassemble again, I know I've been there lol. Good job keeping up the work and completing with patience 🙂
 
The 3090s (2 of them) I found for a 'good' price is a scam and there's a bad review - for the other one - seller doesn't reply. So, back to the drawing board. There's some that are more expensive - a Tuf gaming and one FE (seller claims they repasted it with new thermal pads). Thoughts? I guess it's difficult to know, right? I guess one can always mod it after they buy if they need to - that's why I asked some modding questions. :)
 
Get the Repasted FE, temps will be very good.
Mine after replacing thermal pads with thermalright extreme odyssey 12.8w/mk

This is overclocked +100 core voltage, +100 core clock, +150 mem clock, 114% power limit
1699154610977.png
 
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GoodBoy said:
Get the Repasted FE, temps will be very good.
Mine after replacing thermal pads with thermalright extreme odyssey 12.8w/mk

This is overclocked +100 core voltage, +100 core clock, +150 mem clock, 114% power limit
View attachment 611086
Click to expand...
Yes, it does look good and I would expect improved temps if the seller does it properly - but, I'd have to have a lot of trust in that? If the temps are improved and it's cooling performance is improved - that should impact noise meaning it should help in that regard, too? The Asus Tuf - whichever model - has a good rep in that and my 3080 Tuf was really quiet so I would assume that should apply to the Tuf 3090 as well - which makes that particular card temping - the seller doesn't indicate that it's modded but that it's in good condition - but, most sellers mention that.
I was going to pick (if I went with either) the seller who reduces the price the most - and if both are still the same price (with any sort of price reduction) - flip a coin if both sellers sound okay - although, it's really good if the card was modded correctly - lots of ppl who do the repaste/new thermal pads mod claim an improvement.
Thanks for the feedback! The Fe cards do look cool and the small size of the gpu is kind of nice even though my case is large enough for any of the AIB cards.
 
I bought my Corsair watercooled 3090 FE used so I don't know if the thermal pads on the VRM were the original or not, but they were 1mm thick and not even touching the the plate. I ended up putting in 2mm thick which was too thick, but this type of Gelid pads seemed squishy so I scooped some out and pressed it in. I read somewhere someone saying it was 1.5mm thick, but i think its closer to 1.7mm to me. Next time I open it up I'll have to redo it and try measuring again. The hotspot seems to run much cooler than before after testing in Furmark.
 
If you were shopping for a 3090 - would just look for a great deal? I have been mostly making it conditional on a Tuf or Strix - and only considering a FE (based on someone repasting/new pads) - sometimes a Gigabyte is posted - but, the price is not any better....
 
Armenius said:
Heat was never an issue for me with all the cards I've owned that had RAM on the back of the card. That includes the GTX Titan X, Titan X, and 3090.
Click to expand...
Only the 3090 had the hot running GDDR6X modules. The RAM modules on other cards didn't get anywhere close to the 110c throttling point of GDDR6X. Those hot running backside card memory modules were the bane of ETH miners.

There should be lots of content on how to add thermal pads to help keep those modules cooler, compliments of ETH miners.
 
pavel said:
If you were shopping for a 3090 - would just look for a great deal? I have been mostly making it conditional on a Tuf or Strix - and only considering a FE (based on someone repasting/new pads) - sometimes a Gigabyte is posted - but, the price is not any better....
Click to expand...
An evga 3090 popped up on the forum for sale.
 
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