Hello.
I switched from GTX1080 to RTX3080, and this one is EVGA 10G-P5-3898-KL. I used extra fans under the GTX, so I decided to remove the cover of RTX and let this sweet airflow do its thing.
I kept the card's fan and the frame it sits on. It is joined to a heatsink, and all this is held by one screw and a thermal pad. On the other side of the pump, another heatsink piece sticks to the card on the thermal pad only.
The overall gain in temperatures doesn't justify warranty void, so no joy. I am ill-equipped and unprepared, so I have a couple of general questions, like - what to do, what to do? And few more specific ones.
Would it be a good idea to remove a fan and the piece of steel it is mounted on? I haven't tried to start it with a fan unplugged, but I assume it won't mind; LEDs unplugged without hassle. I am not sure if this fan does any cooling right now, same for the metal bit.
Can I get better heatsinks? Unfortunately, I have no tools to cut to size and drill holes for mounting etc. Perhaps you know where to get good size pieces? The on-card heatsink fins are oriented along with the card. If I had one with fins across the card, I could at least tight it up with cable tights. That would be an improvement. I've looked a little after heatsinks, and the deepest I've found was 36mm. These I have, are ~20mm in depth. The last thing about heatsinks, bases aren't flat. It is like a 1mm difference in thickness, so I could level this up with different thickness thermal pads. Am I right?
What to do with a backplate? Right now, it holds on one screw, which holds the radiator and the fan thing, plus cable tights on the corners. Can I do better than that? Should I look after nuts for these tiny screws?