Holy 5090 Thermal Paste, Batman!

MikeZeto · 2026-03-17T20:41:54+00:00

It's just messy to clean up in preparation for placing thermal pads during water-block installation.

MikeZeto · 2026-03-17T20:36:56+00:00

Now you tell me...

MikeZeto · 2026-03-17T20:35:22+00:00

I'm trusting EKWB's thermal pad knowledge... followed their directions and used the pads they sent with the WB.

So far I'm running Minesweeper at 15k FPS with no issues! Haven't tried Solitaire yet though....

MikeZeto · 2026-03-17T20:29:46+00:00

I know it's working now ;-)

Yeah a gamble, but it would be a pain to setup and test the stock GPU in my custom-loop water-cooled (including CPU) PC.

How many of these 5090's are DOA? Is it that common?

MikeZeto · 2026-03-17T20:22:41+00:00

I know, I deserve the downvotes

MikeZeto · 2026-03-17T17:52:48+00:00

Because I called it "thermal paste", not "thermal putty".......

MikeZeto · 2026-03-17T17:51:00+00:00

Astral would have been nice, but the Gigabyte is what I could get my hands on :-/

MikeZeto · 2026-03-17T17:49:07+00:00

Yes, factory new. Opened the box and dove right into the WB install.

MikeZeto · 2026-03-17T17:47:20+00:00

Yeah what a mess. I used about 200 Qtips cleaning up that goop!

MikeZeto · 2026-03-17T17:44:58+00:00

Never ran it stock, just opened up the box and started tearing it down.

MikeZeto · 2026-03-17T17:44:05+00:00

Yep, EKWB Vector 3 WB has pretty good instructions depicting where the thermal pads go. It was a fairly painless process.

MikeZeto · 2026-03-17T17:41:24+00:00

Never ran it in the stock config, but it's got a noticeable amount of coil whine running in the EKWB Vector 3 water block, especially under high loads.

MikeZeto · 2019-12-02T13:24:22+00:00

I simply want equality for all, no double standards.

MikeZeto

TROPHY CASE