GTX 1660 Super Tear-Downs: 9mm of Thermal Pads & Bendy Backplates
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- Опубліковано 3 лис 2019
- We're taking apart the EVGA GTX 1660 Super & Gigabyte GTX 1660 Super cheaper models, looking for build quality and thermal design.
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Watch our 1660 Super review here: • EVGA GTX 1660 Super Re...
The GTX 1660 Super started its review life with MSRP models getting sent to reviewers -- or close to MSRP, anyway -- and so it's no surprise that we encountered some cost-cutting measures in tearing these down. What was more surprising was the double-stacked ~8-9mm of thermal pads to make contact with a cooler. The bendy backplate, sadly, is a byproduct of consumers complaining when a card doesn't have a backplate. Rather than shipping a cheap card without a backplate, Gigabyte stuck a bad, bendy, plastic heat trap on their cards to sate consumer demand.
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Host: Steve Burke
Video: Keegan Gallick, Andrew Coleman
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we've got Thicc Boi on the red team and Bendy Boi on the green team
sums up
flexing on the fatties
My EVGA RTX 2070 Super FTW+ Ultra feels left out xD
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@@lawliot my Rx 480 strix oc has 1.5 mm pads and I thought that's kinda thick
a n i m e
n
i
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e
Thermal Pad?
More like Thermal Brick.
THICC Pads
Simon Thermal Marshmallow
Agreed
Yikes
@@CaveyMoth THICC Ultra.
Must be tiring constantly being speechless at the poor design of these manufacturers, thanks Steve for doing it on our behalf.
There's enough space there for some slim individual chip heatsinks that could be attached with adhesive thermal tape. These huge pads are just obscene zero effort cost cutting.
I was thinking exactly the same thing. Even a cheapish 3rd party air cooler does a better job
Who would have thought that cost cuts would be a thing on a 1660! 😂
@@jackadams99 To be expected of course, but this is just awful.
Would be an interesting mod you can do yourself.
Either slim individual sinks or just a thin strip of aluminum connecting them all. It's not like it needs an absurd amount of cooling, the fan blowing on it through the cooler's fins would be enough.
I'm not interested in seeing the memory temps on the Gigabyte card, but I REALLY, REALLY, REALLY want to see the memory temps on the EVGA THICC thermal pads card.
Declineto State Same
I to wanna see what 9mm's of thermal "insulation" does.
I'd be interested to see if small thermal pads connecting to the backplate would do more for temps than these pads.
+1
Sweet Jeebus - there was room for discrete heatsinks on those VRAMs!
My thoughts exactly, some thin finned, short, vram heatsinks with decent TIM, would have been a better choice.
why not put a heatsink on the other side
The heatsink has open airflow in RAM area. Unlike some heatsinks where the fins at the bottom are bent in and create a nearly solid plate that needs to be connected to the ICs underneath by the pads, because otherwise there would be a hot pocket, there's literally nothing precluding them from using low-profile heatsinks here, and they don't have to be anyhow special, just lengths of standard mass produced extrusion. So those pads are just completely baffling. Well there are some bent in fins but not really enough to cause an issue there.
And then the pads just run into the alu plates of the heatsink edgewise, what good is that at all?
Luckily GDDR6 consumes less than GDDR5X, so they likely aren't in any immediate danger, but just letting them cool naturally in the airflow might actually be a better solution than 4mm of padding, and cheaper too.
As to Julian's comment, yes, these are flip chips and can be cooled via the PCB backside, and there are enough vias for the power planes and the common data bus for that to work. But given how sloppy the backside "cooling" usually is with backplates that do more harm than good, would you really trust them to do something sensible there?
@@Redicat That requires you need to place memory on the back aswell, which increase costs I believe
@@SianaGearz you seem to have some pretty big misconceptions in there bro, backplate are used to stop flexing and they don’t even make contact with the card except for standing off the ground points on the screw holes.. seems like you are typing with charged feelings when you made that comment tbh
On the other hand, you can probably replace those thermalpads with regular small aluminium/copper heatsinks
true, but if i'm buying a card in this price range i dont want to be messing around with it. it gets too hot and humid here in the summer for me to trust the "solution" they used.
i have the EVGA 1660ti & there are no thermal pads on my memory! , After 3 years I decided to re-paste & made my discovery. This has made me find channels like this that do a great job with teardowns & product information, Thanks
with that much thermal pad, wouldnt that do more insulating than transfering heat?
This is like chinese-level thermal cooling. Nvidia really dropped the ball on this one.
@@ChaotiX1 You mean EVGA. Nvidia provided the board, it's up to EVGA to design the cooling
Yup.
@@Primeyy to be fair. It's the 1660 S, who cares?
@@Bigdude0444 Probably most people here. We all ended up here for valid information. Nvidia had little or nothing to do with the cooler design
Love the content Steve, keep it up !!!
I would absolutely be interested in seeing how well 9mm of thermal pad actually cools
If you do a video about the memory temperatures, could you include testing for bare dram (airflow only) and with dram heatsinks+thermal glue off amazon or something? Would be interesting to see temp comparison.
He doesn't even have to go to Amazon. Didn't he get a bunch of small heatsinks in China a while ago? Or didn't he buy those? Was he just showing them to the camera? It was in one of the Shenzhen videos.
It isn't worth it on such a cheap card like this. Most buyers in this price category don't even know what a thermal pad is.
@@achkr597 How does a budget relate to hardware knowledge? lol just because someone cant afford a 2000 series card doesnt mean they have no knowledge on the hardware.
Another work of art GN. I always enjoy the video's. Take care. Cheers!!
Would be interesting to see what are the temps with the plastic back plate removed
Exactly my thought too along with removing the brick pads also
I actually bought this exact card,
With overclock to 2040MHz on the core and 1800MHz on the memory the highest temperature after 2 hours of full load is just 64c at 26c ambient with the plastic backplate,
There is no need to remove the backplate.
It wouldn't be enough to measure with or without the backplate
He said they have proven a difference in another video
@@QuadPowerful Lower temps are lower temps and even lower fan speed/0 rpm for longer
Steve: "people tend to get caught up on GPU temps"
Me: " Hmm 90c with the overclock.....MORE FAN SPEED"
Stop before your pc starts to levitate
RIPTIDE FPV has happened to me before, I go to adjust the fan speed up then realise I’m already at 100%
@@randomperson8367 duct tape will solve that issue lol.
@@MarshallSambell I did the same to mine but i found a PCIE fan that blows across the GPU works great.
Every fan on my PC will always be at 100%! I never get above 58°C during stress testing (not counting cinebench where I hit 73°C) and barely get above 55°C in regular gaming. I never understood the whole noise issue, it's just fans, who cares? I would love if someone could explain it to me though.
I love all of your videos, watch every one that I can, I would like to see more CPU, less GPU, more case thermals, and maybe fan/cooler reviews.
Bendy and the Marketing Machine
Its there so people dont rip off components if they say put it on a piece of cloth like a bed sheet pile i do when building or taking apart stuff
I would love to know what sort of temps it gets with that sort of setup. Like you said, it's nice that they at least did something so there's contact being made, but I wonder how much it actually does temp wise. Or do the cards run cool enough that it's just not a big problem?
Not enough AMD boxes around the studio to catch into my eye!
Joking..
@TDR REVENGE Yeah
I am waiting for next gen AMD/NVIDIA and Intel GPU's but I'm still watching your content. Just great. Cheers, Steve.
does anyone know the thickness of the thermal pads of the 1660super windforce 3x?
Anybody else noticing that these "good companies" have been cheaping out like a mf lately?
Could you do a gddr6 thermal dissipation deep dive. From the unused modules it lacks a direct thermal sink to the board.
just out of curiosity, I'd like to see how this card performs thermally, between the 2 cards. Let's see the difference between the EVGA and the Gigabyte
The component layout is pretty slick looking despite the pad issue.
Yea it's a good product
Whelp, you said to show interest, I am interested in the temps for the memory. Was strongly coconsidering upgrading to one of these using a pretty old card right now that still handles what I throw at it.
Can you please make a video for Galax nVidia Geforce GTX 1660 SUPER (1-Click OC)? Is the heatsinks and thermal pad well designed?
Please make a video about those big thermal pads impact. This is interesting!!
Do you think you could mount a noctua slim cpu cooler on evga 1660 super to reduce noise? Doesn’t look like vrm or mem cooking is a big concern. The card is just extremely loud.
I'd like to know if the memory temp is acceptable? As and engineer sometimes janky and working is fine.
what is the size of thermal pads gigabyte 1660super ? I was just wondering how thick they are
I've always wondered if you place another memmory module from lets say a same card and solder it to the open spot on this one, would it work?
I really want to know how effective those pads are. Are there pads connecting the backside to the gpu backplate?
Great video. Would really like to see the thermal performance of those bricks on the memory! Looks like the anti-tamper sticker is more like a "please don't look under the hood" sticker ;)
I'm definitely curious about the EVGA 1660 Super. I bought that exact card because I've always used EVGA for my GPU. With that much thermal padding.. is it hurting performance? will it make it overheat? So far, I haven't had any issues and I've had the card for about 6 months in regular use, not overclocked. But I'm super curious now.
i care, would like to see the temps on the evga card about the memory
I'm trying to find thickness of thermal pads in gigabyte 1660s 6g oc. Which is dual fan model. I guess it's pretty similar to the windforce model? Can't find it taken apart anywhere?
Well, I have the EVGA 1660 super for a year now and just opened it up the heatsink fan. I removed the bubble gum heat pads. Reapplied some high quality CPU thermal paste. My previous stable OC speed was 150/500. Now, is 170/750. :) GPU temp is about 74-75 in 3dmark. I am getting lockup at 180/800.
Your memory modules are naked? I have the "same" card as this one, its the 2060, but with same cooler and pcb design as this one.
7 months later i removed all the thermal pads and put 3mm copper heatsink with thermal adesive that came with them. I still not sure if it got better with the copper there.
Overclock wise looks the same. Im mining on the card and nothing wrong so far.
@@JuniorCloudHouse Well, before, they were insulated. I could OC the memory at 900+ ever since removing the thermal gum because they are getting air cooled by the fans. I think 20 series card has better thermal design. I just got the 2070 super. It has its own alu plate for the VRAM and memory chips.
Would be fascinating to see if there is any vast differences between the two cards temperatures.
also would there be a way to push GPU memory intensive tasks to see if there is a difference when you cool it separately with a water cooler, or copper block.
Thanks!! My prebuilt unfortunately came with the evga 1660 super. In 2024. It works. It’s ok. But needs a better card asap and this explains a lot.
Did you ever find out about the memory temperature? Curious if I should recommend this $230 MSRP card over the MSI one which is also at MSRP.
Whats the Palit card look like inside? is it the same Pad sandwich?
Why is the VRM on the left? Wouldn't it be better to be to the right, near the 8pin? Does it have an impact on the video out integrity? Seems like the PCB design can be improved / shorten by removing the top unused memory spots and relocate some components around
I'm considering the purchase of a 1660 super. I like the memory size and speed for my gaming/light workstation rig. Is there a quality version out there or should I consider something else?
Hi, so plastic back plates are basically "heat traps"? Does anyone know if the ASUS TUF GTX 1660 Super model that has the two fans have a plastic or metal back plate?
On the backplate:
If they would have put some holes or slots on the end of the card (where the PCB ends) the heat could rise directly upwards
Hello... is the same size of the terminac pads for the gigabyte 1660 SUPER 2 fans?
EVGA has really stepped their quality down in recent years haven’t they?
bit of a late reply lol but I built my missus a PC and retired my GTX 750ti 2gb ftw and damn it looks so much better then the current EVGA cards....
And they quitted making gpu now
Delid a CPU, 9700k or so, put the 4mm Thermal Pad on the die directly, and then strap a watercooling on it. Not too much pressure though.
I'd love to see how a thermal view of that looks, plus of course know if it works in any way! :D
I know on the 1660 Ti by EVGA they have a Base Plate, so they probably took a 1660 Ti cooler (looks damn similar, with a super sticker on it) and left out the baseplate to save $$$ and make it cheaper, then they had to cool the memory, so that's why that abomination exists
link proving evga gtx 1660ti sc ultra has a baseplate?
I'm sure evga tested this but it almost seems like it would be better to omit the pads so the memory modules get direct airflow, possibly?
Yeah, because one fan doesn't even cover much off the fin stack at all, and would have given them some nice airflow.
Would definitely love to see how it performs with such fat thermal pads vs without any and vs the gigabyte one
Damn those thermal pad stacks are something that not even I would do lmao.
Thanks for exposing this things.
I'd liek too se a follow up on the ECGA cards memory temps
I actually do wanna see what the temps look like with those thermal pads, vs an average sized pad. Look more like 3 Musketeers Bars than thermal pads.
I would like to know as well I bought the same card and when I asked EVGA they said there was direct airflow to the VRM's. So maybe the one in the video was a earlier version of the card or something and they changed it for the final model hopefully that's the case. I really wish reviewers would start putting temps in their reviews I would have gotten another brand like MSI if I had known about this beforehand.
@@16-bit54 Well, seeing as you had already bought the card before this review came out I'd say you were already stuck with that card. For your sake I hope they did change the design & it now does a better job of cooling.
You may try this...before the warranty runs out, send it in for RMA and hope EVGA sends a better replacement model V.C.
@@wboyd33 I hope they are fixed and these were just early review models if not and the temps are bad I will just return the card and get an MSI or Zotac card because this is the only model that EVGA has.
@Dhars i'd try putting on some small heatsinks on the mem chips. They cost pennies and probably work better then these huge cheap quality pads
@@16-bit54It's a year late mate but what exactly did you do with these :) ? If you got the zotac card could you share your experience ?
I'd love to see more 1660 Super teardowns.
All these new cards coming out, it is so tempting to upgrade my 1060 60gb. All the forums keeps saying just to wait til next years cards hit the market.
@GN
I'd be curious to how those thermal pads perform. Yeah it could have been done better but does it really matter?
Hi, what thickness of thermal pad do you use 1660 super gigabyte triple fan?
There are unused BGA spaces on the PCB, could you ask Louis Rossman to put RAM-modules on them, to see if it would work?
You have got to do further testing and comparison on the EVGA card with Thermal BLOCKs on memory, and a GN Memory thermal interface mod and the improvements
i'm also curious about the EVGA 1660s memory temps, maybe some tips on solutions or mini sinks or even if aftermarket coolers exist, some details there would be greatly appreciated.
Me to i have that evga card and it seems to be safe to over clock the core above 2000mhz max boost without memory overclock it stays stable til now i mostly just benchmarked it to see if it works after buying it, the temps stay around 60/70 max with 60/70& fan speed
i got the same one but 1660ti but it does not come with any pads. anyone know why?
I guess they heard your criticism of that other card that used halves of thermal pads that didn't even cover the memory modules properly, and thought "OH WE'LL GIVE YOU THERMAL PADS."
Will you test the heat conduction of thermal pads?
So are the memory temps OK on the EVGA 1660 super?
13:41 Scotty Kilmer would like to call that a " stupid beauty cover " lol XD
i would like to see the memory temps. what's better dummy thick thermal pads or no pads at all
I know you're asking Steve but he doesn't respond often especially to old videos. Personally I'd say thick pads are better than no pads because at least with the thick pads you have SOME heat transfer. With no pads, the memory is just left to cook on it's own
I think AIB are showing their attitude toward this meaningless product differentiation
i'd have to agree, especially with EVGA's "lazy" way of labeling their super cards even though it seemed like an intentional jab at nvidia from the way i saw it.
Thanks for this. Would like to see MSI’s Gaming X. And, definitely would like to see thermals on EVGA memory.
I just bought that same EVGA card a month ago and looking at it through the top i can't see anything on top of the memory, no thermal pads or anything. Should i be worried? lol
Maybe the extra mass of those pads actually does something positive for heat dissipation. I'd vote to see you test it.
Thank god it's just a video, otherwise nothing would stop me from eating these thermal pads
Is a GTX 1660 a reasonable upgrade from someone currently using a 1060 3gb on a 1080p monitor? (With I5k kobylake +16GB ram)
I want to see those GDDR6 temps on the EVGA card for sure!
Would like to see some more 1660 Super teardowns especially after weeks of those 5700 XT reviews and teardowns. Just saying. Keep up the great work whatever.
You HAVE to do a thermal test on those EVGA bricks. And I'd also like to see one on the Gigabyte card, with and without back plate, because I'd actually prefer a plastic back plate to bare PCB, for aesthetic reasons, but only if it doesn't hurt the thermals too much.
You in the wrong channel bud
Aquacomputer has developed a cpu cooler where you can move (bend?) the baseplate orientation in some points after mounting for better/even contact.
Does it really conduct heat? Try to burn it's end and see with thermal camera, i want to know...
Is it possible the 9mm of thermal pad is actually there for vibration dampening? EVGA killing one bird, and slightly wounding another with one stone?
Aside from some firmware/fan curve issues, is there an actually BAD Asus strix card?
My EVGA 1660 Super’s memories got burned under the chunky pads (never overclocked), but the ASUS ROG 1660 Super’s memories remain intact. They doesn’t even have a pad nor contact with the heat pipes, only air got blown on them.
Curious how big the Gigabyte cards thermal pads are, anyone know?
funny i look at this PCB and it matches my gt x 1660 ti SC edition can anyone confirm this? looking to use a water block on mine but can only seem to find a XC model :/
I definitely do not care about the memory thermals for a 1660 super, but I will watch it if you put it out. I pretty much watch all these videos oh, it's where I know I can get unbiased information about computer tech and that's why I come back
It's a bit of a Clust.....Confusing. Well played
Whats a cluster truck? OHHHH, I miss heard
i'd like to see temps on bottom and top of that heatbrick.
if its good enough it's good enough, and easier+cheaper to build.
And the plastic backplate simply makes it easier to dust off ;-)
so i have a question, i see that there's still room for two more memories right? my question would be, if you added that memory, what would happen?
Please i want to see the if the thermal brick is doing something on the vRam
i have a gigabyte 2 fan gtx 1660 super and i would love a repasting vid of that since i am close to have to do that my self.
What dimensions are the thermal pads of the gigabyte 1660s?
Could you have a look at the Zotac 16 series cards?
My Asus TUF3 1660 super Advanced edition is not excatly "cheap" and i'm very proud of it.
It took me sometime to afford it.
Not everybody is lucky as you are, sir.
I have an EVGA SC 1660 Ti, same as the video, and don't have ANY thermal pad lol, i would love to see these 9mm pad in action xd
exactly the same for me. but i did put some thermal grizzly ones between the pcb and the backplate which seemed to help
EVGA memory thermals with and without pads, and if you fancy being adventurous with low profile alu heatsinks thermal taped or glued to them.
I would love to see a Lian-li TU 150 case review from you guys, it would be perfect for my situation but I'm still hesitating about getting it. I trust your guys' opinion.
You should test the effectiveness of those thermal pads with a hotplate. See how much heat they transfer from top to bottom, or whatever good metrics for seeing how well (or badly) the pads do compared to say... Half the size pads, and 1/4 and so on. Just a thought. See how much these pads actually help if at all.
Im wondering if the memory temps of the evga card woud be better if you just glue on small aluminum heatsinks (eg. these for the Raspberry Pi) instead of the thermal pads. I also wonder if the memory temperature without thermal pads would be better than the temperature of the stock card.
I do believe the heatpipes, beeing as hot as the GPU core, actually heat up the Memory. Therefor i think without thermal pads the Fans blow fresh air diurectly over the chips and cool them better in the end.
A test of this situation would be great.
oh man can you do testing on the Gigabyte with the plastic removed?