Now, with reference to the above, I installed the Komodo HD5800 to this card, AND ALSO removed the VRM thermal pads. low and behold, we are getting very good temps at 1.35v as shown below:



But since I am on a roll testing, I decided to tune-down the card to a more reasonable voltage and to drop the OC to 950. Incidentally, these are the same settings than those found in the recent comparative published by the German site PCgameshardware here: http://extreme.pcgameshardware.de/wa...d-5870-oc.html

Assuming that this number is an average, they found 69.2C at the VRM temps with their stock Komodo, as shown below:



And this is what I am finding, with the thermal pads removed:



This is an average of 49.6C to be compared to 69.2C. I know that the cards are different, the cooling loops are different, but what's important here is the order of magnitude of difference. 20C! this is very indicative of what removing the thermal pads and going grease instead will yield as an improvement.

These results were also confirmed during extensive testing we recently did on the Epsilon HD5900.

Conclusions: pads are out, grease is in, welcome to the new king of VRM TIM!