Kyle. You are the gift that just keeps on giving! There is a lot of scattered content on thermal modding but the video you created has the next level of polish to it. Sincere thank you from the community.
I'd looked at thermal pads on Steam Deck to see if it was worth it, but never found any benchtest I could trust, but you went above and beyond as always! Seems like the backplate + thermal pad combo is absolutely worth it!
@@cryobyte33Hello cryobyte. I hope you're doing well. I've noticed that update 1.61 brought FSR 2.1 to cyberpunk 2077, so I was wondering if you were going to do a new performance video for the game?
Thank you for watching! I'm just here to present the information, and I don't want to detract from it. Aside from trying to improve retention and make a few jokes, I'll be standing strong 😁
I just got my Vented JSAUX backplate today, and WOW the difference is instantly noticable! Any graphically intensive game would be loud as hell, but now it's super quiet, and GPU and CPU didn't go over 70c the whole time! Well worth the $30, was super easy to install too, highly recommended 👌 Thanks for this super informative video, never would have found this was it not for your awesome content 👍
Thank you so much for watching and for trying out the backplate! It's been a huge change in daily usability and I'm glad that you're getting the same results that I am 😁
Thanks for confirming that I made the right choice to replace the thermal paste with ptm7950 when I replaced my thumb sticks last month! Now I have a reason to get a backplate. 😁 Oh and I'm excited about the results of that monoblock! Keep up the good work!
Geebus this video was great. We had so my opinions and "I think this or that" in the community and now finally we have this glorious comprehensive test that told us a LOT. Thank you Cryo for another amazing set of tests.
Finally the Monoblock! I’m using the old jasaux backplate, new paste, monoblock and Fantastic from Decky. Temps are great with the custom fan curve. The monoblock with the back plate moves a ton of heat but boy does it get hot! Looking forward to the next video!
As a note about the vented backplate: 1. I tested VRMs, ICs, the SSD and the RAM for temperatures with the vented backplate and saw less than 1 degree difference from the stock backplate. 2. A lot of air still gets taken in through the rear vent, even with the vented backplate, so I have very few concerns with device longevity, but wanted to be fully transparent! Edit: I used the "sensors" command for SSD and motherboard temperatures, spot checked with the other results I gathered from MangoHUD. The ICs and VRMs were a bit more difficult. I used a temperature probe wired through the back vent to measure the surface temperatures, and verified its accuracy with a backplate-off IR thermometer test. Obviously the backplate-off results are cooler, but I verified that the probe was accurate that way.
Finally bro, thank you for relieving my stress with the vented back plate. I bought it but started to think about how tf air passively cools the Ics, ram, etc
I love this video, but I wish you went into as much detail about your validation of all critical component temperatures as you did with the rest of the testing methodology. The airflow the way Valve designed it is very much needed to keep things like the charging IC and MEM4 within safe temperatures, as per GN's analysis. While I am definitely open to the idea that the JSAUX backplate could be an improvement all around and would love the performance/aucoustic gains, I would need some more details than (crudely put, I am sorry) "trust me, I did some testing and it all seemed fine to me" in a comment. It seems like you actually did some thermocouple testing, I would have love it if that was included in the video! I'd love to modify my Deck in this way, but as it stands the details as to the thermal safety of doing so just aren't enough for me to risk my Deck.
Your videos are really cool! But what about the power consumption? If the SoC has more headroom in terms of temperature and therefore keeps the clock more stable, it should also consume a little more power, right? Or is that compensated by the lower power consumption of the slower rotating fan?
I have the OG JSAUX Backplate and I also did a repaste but after watching this video I bought the thermal pad as well as the new jsaux backplate. My temps on my OC Deck have been basically always in the 80s so seeing those temps drop will be greatly appreciated
I still haven't bought my SD, but will in a month. These videos are gold for enthusiasts like me who like to min-max every bit of hardware they got. I've already bookmarked the products you've linked and will be buying them first thing. Thanks a lot!
To be honest, I don't follow this account, I've never seen another of his videos, I don't even have a Steam Deck, and I just accidently came across here. I'm strangely intrigued and thoroughly enjoyed the effort and thought process of this video. Keep up the good work dude!
I know you just did all this work and seriously thank you, but I'd love to see some of data for TG's new kryosheet also. That is what I'm running on both my ally and deck and from some rough testing it seems to be performing quite a bit better than stock pastes for both and even the kryonaut extreme I had on the deck prior. People like you shouldering the extreme time investment and hard work to not only do all the testing but consolidate and present it to the community really drives everything forward and makes everyone's lives easier. THANK YOU
Thank you so much for watching, and for the recommendation! I can't order any more products while I;m still here in Sweden, but I'll try to order it after I'm back in to US and do another cooling test video 😉 I'm really happy I was able to help a bit, hopefully it won't be too long before I can follow-up!
Man, dont think ive ever done this before but ...subscribed, hit the bell, dropped a like and even commenting. Amazing content. Thank you for the time you dedicated putting this all together.
another piece of top-notch content as usual! your dedication to thorough and fair testing is admirable, thank you so much for all of your hard work :) this info is very valuable and i'll definitely be considering purchasing at least one of these products in the future!
I've had a conversation about theoriticals of this like an hour before you uploaded the video. I never expected to get my answers so fast. Thank you for the hard work!
Dude how do you not have over 1 million subs. I'm relatively new to your channel and from all I've watched. I've come up with nothing but amazing content. Plus, your download I installed on my deck is freaking sweet! Thank you man!
great video! I have the old jsaux backplate. I slapped a blue anodized heatsink on it with a thermal pad and nothing gets too hot to touch. I have not overclocked. Sometimes the fans don't even run. That is when accessible parts get the warmest, but not hot enough to trigger the fan. I can even feel warmed air coming from the top vent on pure convection sometimes .
Wow, that was one technical video that I don't normally watch and didn't really need to watch, but watched it to the end. Just love the Deck and what it can do.....Gaming has come a long way since the ZX 48K spectrum where I started. Love the utility by the way.
I live in the desert. (AZ) It's usually no cooler than 80°F in my home. Currently have the old metal plate Jsaux that is effing HOT! I used these links to get the new back and the Honeywell pad. Liked, subscribed, and will look into your patreon.
In terms of the clip on fan from Jsaux which is only compatible with the stock backplat, I purchased two different versions of this, there is a kickstand built into the foot of the clip on fan which allows you to stand it. Also, there is a version which does not require the clip from Jsaux and is sold seperately as part of the ModCase, but it includes a metal stick on connector that also gives you the latch from the ModCase which lets you add other ModCase components (but not at the same time). I also tried PTM7950 and that was a total bust, in fact in some cases it made my Steam Deck hotter and definately made the standard case back a lot warmer. Maybe it depends on what model of Steam Deck you are testing on and if Valve used different paste in construction.
Just wanted to drop by and add my voice to the choir. I also changed to the Honeywell pad and jsaux backplate. This, together with a cryobyte-undervolt and a fan replacement changed my deck from “pretty damn annoying” to quiet and amazing. I’m extremely satisfied with these upgrades. The pad was a pain to install, but indeed worth the effort. Thnx for all your amazing guidance 👌
I have the Delta fan but never found it bothering me since I always cap the fps/ screen refresh. I finally changed the backplate (vented) and thermal paste to NT-H1 and what a difference in noise! The fan is barely audible most of the time. I wish there weren't so many fake PTM7950 sellers out there. I'm happy with the Noctua paste for now. Thank you for your hard work!
I'd like to see the temps of the charging IC and the SSD with the new Jsaux backplate. That extra cent hole probably hurts those way more than it helps the APU
I actually did test the VRMs, SSD, RAM and ICs (and mention it in the concerns section), they were within 1 degree of stock and gave me no reason to worry whatsoever 🙂 The fan still pulls air through the back vent and the metal plate also contacts the heatsink (which is getting better cooling). Thanks for watching, I hope this helps!
@@cryobyte33 apricides for video but I must ask - how you measured temps of IC, SSD, VRMs and battery? I heard yours concerns but I have mine as well ua-cam.com/video/NeQH__XVa64/v-deo.html With this hole above fan I treat this backplate like there is no backplate at all because negative airflow is interrupted. I wonder what temps of battery are at your tests while gaming with docked deck.
@@RetroWaveArcades While negative airflow is interrupted, it still pulls a ton of air through the back plate. The fan can pull quite a bit more air than normally gets to it. As for the temperatures, I used the "sensors" command for SSD and motherboard temperatures, spot checked with the other results I gathered from MangoHUD, and checked. The ICs and VRMs were a bit more difficult. I used a thermocouple temperature sensor wired through the back vent to measure the surface temperatures, and verified its accuracy with a backplate-off IR thermometer test. GN does really good work, and I want to make it clear that I'm not trying to argue with Steve's results. All I know is that I did the best I could to to verify that this would be safe for long-term use. 🙂
Again, an amazing and incredibly helpful video! Thank you so much! If it's not too basic for your channel, I'd absolutely love to see a video about how to find the perfect settings for any game on Steam Deck to guarantee steady FPS, maximise battery life while still having a decent gaming experience. I do know the basics but I have a hard time finding playing around with all the options the Steam Deck provides. Maybe with an explanation of what which feature does so viewers can easily transfer this to any game they want to play. Keep up your amazing work!
something i use that you may want to check out is a graphene thermal pad. it goes over the gpu and is pretty thin. beats putting paste way deep in there.
Great video, watched the entire thing, I do have a comment about the backplate though. I'd be interested to know if it could be resealed, how it would perform then in comparison to the stock plate. The negative pressure you point out, according to Gamer's Nexus, that allows area to be pulled over the battery circuit which if it doesn't do that, may be long term implications and could cause damage due to running at higher, possibly out of spec temperatures. If the newer backplate's, fan vent, was sealed, you may get the best of both worlds, and address the dust and noise concerns. Worth considering for sure - looking forward to the block testing :)
I absolutely love your content man. No other content creator I know of does such extensive and useful testing as you do for the steam deck. Keep up the great work as always, and I wish you the best going forward 😁.
Just got a 512gb OLED SD and have been loving your channel. I can't wait to hear your thoughts and modding recommendations on the OLED deck. Keep up the great work.
I bought the new jsaux, but was on the hunt 4 the first gen with metal plate. After seeing this video. God im happy i went for the new. Really good video 😁
I’m curious as to how the KingPin paste would perform. Very thorough and informative video, thank you! I’ll be keeping the stock backplate but I think I’ll move up to the thermal pad 👍🏼
This is exactly what I've been wanting to see. Jsaux posted tests that only covered the internal temps of the APU, where my main concern was the components not cooled with the heat pipe.
For direct die application, one paste that for some reason people don't bring up that often, but it's likely one of the very best, is the Prolimatech PK-3.
I was thinking about getting the PTM7950 and new JSAUX backplate, but was concerned what the actual games were. This video definitely helps make my decision easier. I might just get the backplate and use some thermal paste I already have. Don’t want to setup the PTM7950 if it is all going to come out for a p3r. FYI I saw Salocin900 posted a video of an updated Steam Deck which has different mounting screw locations for the heat pipe. Might be an issue for the p3r if Valve has significantly changed the design.
Kyle, another great video. I'd like to share my setup, experience and also ask a couple questions. First, I am running your CryoUtilties and followed your excellent Undervolt & Overclock video. My best stable setup was UV = 40/30/40: OC = CPU 3950 / GPU 1800 : TDP = 17 Watts. After replacing my back plate with the newest JSAUX, my current stable setup is UV = 40/20/40: OC = CPU 4300 / GPU 2100: TDP = 20 Watts. The back plate made a monster difference in deck temps. Second, I've used a few different tools for benchmarking & stress testing (cpu-x, Superposition, gtkstresstesting (locks up on me) & mprime) however, I've never seen my CPU run @ more than 4058 or my GPU @ over 2000. So, it doesn't seem to matter if I tweak the BIOS settings above 4000 & 2000 respectively. My next step is to crank up TDP to see if it makes a difference. Any thoughts on a better tools for benchmarking or what I may be doing wrong? Temps at my current config are low 70's to low 80's while pushing the deck hard, seems there's room for more juice.
I recently fitted the 'old' jsaux back plate. I removed the thermal pad prior to installing the shell.. I wasn't after a shell to cool the deck down, more for the looks, since I opted for a transparent purple back plate. I don't notice any difference in temps... but now I feel that I maybe shouldn't of removed the thermal pad.. The reason I removed it, because I heard that the pad actually blocks the air from passing from the vent at the back to the fan.
Watched this video twice. And i think i'll go with the thermal pad and backplate. If I can cut down the noise when playing in bed while the wife tries to sleep, then it's absolutely worth it. Thanks a lot !
Great video! I didn't know jsaux made a new backplate. I just received and installed the old one about an hour before this video came and temps are night and day difference for me. Before 20w overclock would instantly go to 95C within seconds and maxed fans. Now after 10 mins it hovers around 89-90C.
I ordered the pad, going to keep using original back plate for now. If nothing happens while using vent plate then I'll upgrade to it. Thanks for all your hard work.
Installed the vented backplate and wow what a difference, playing Fallout 4 my deck dropped from 68c on the cpu and gpu to 59c on both. I would of gotten the thermal pad but they wanted $10 shipped for a $7 pad so that was a nope.
That magsafe cooler you used they make a version of it with a teg cooler built in and I can't confirm the teg units work amazingly and probably would be a huge benefit in your situation you really ought to give it a try!!! I use the teg set up on gaming phones and it makes a huge difference in thermals but mostly it offsets the heat caused by wireless charging in my case the problem it has in my case is that the cooler doesn't sit directly above the chip and due to my camera bumps its super hard to make it work but when I did force it to work it did a great job its just not practical for my case but in your case it likely would work great!!!
I was about to buy the vented jsaux backplate but hesitated because of those concerns about the airflow that could potentially harm the other components in the long term tho, it's a cool informative video as always thanks
Installed the vented backplate on my delta fan deck, and also added the clip on fan. Deck runs cooler and the little leg on the clipon fan does work well as a stand. It's not fallen over, surprisingly.
Thanks for the insights. I’d like to add 2 cents to it. The stock backplate isn’t that great in terms of thermal design. Warmer air has higher static pressure. Stock plate has intake vent right above the silicon cover, which is heating up the air and causing elevated pressure that will hinder cool air from flowing into the chasis. That’s why fan speed has to go much higher to counter that effect to keep air flowing into the chasis. I think the best backplate will be a vented cover with metal plate exposed for magnet peltier cooler.
Seeing you’re video hit my sub box always puts the biggest smile on my face because i know how much hard work and time it takes testing things like this take, And someone with OCD&HDHD I really appreciate the effort you put into your testing with all the different independent variables there is when it comes to testing the smallest of things. I’m planning on water cooling my steam deck in an upcoming video if you ever have the free time I have some questions about attending to dd this stupid idea of mine
Thank you so much for watching the videos and being subscribed! I'm happy that you enjoy them as much as you do, and that it can hold your attention since both my wife and I have ADHD. As for water cooling, feel free to either email me at my business email, or join the Discord server and start a thread to chat through it 😁
Your long term concerns deserve to be reviewed at a later date maybe a year or two from now or even periodically? I think viewers would be interested in such content. Thanks for your hard work!
I might be able to do that, but I'd need a separate Deck to do it. As it stands, this Deck will be modified repeatedly for other testing so I can't do a "set and forget" follow-up 😓
@@cryobyte33 Thanks for the reply! I noticed that your video did not have general guidelines (i.e. in the introduction section) about what temperatures we should aim to keep the Steam Deck at. Noticed mine getting to around 85 C after playing for several hours and worried about what that temperature range (80-90C) might do to my Deck's longevity. I changed the CPU TDP under Performance settings to 10 and temps went down to 70-80C range. I will check if you have a video on optimizing settings in the Deck for minimizing temps.
@@manaseeker2414 The Deck APU is safe up until 105C. Since we were working with Stock temps or lower, I didn't think it was necessary to include that 😅 I mentioned the upper limits in my overclocking video, where I thought it was more relevant, sorry!
Sorry if it was hard to parse, it's pretty hard fitting 79 graphs into a UA-cam video, especially one this short 😅 I'll try to do a little better at pacing it in the future, thank you for watching!
Thank you for your work! Have you tested the temperature in Killswitch or Spigen cases? It feels like the temperature is increasing slightly, but I wanted to have some comparison numbers to make a decision.
thank you uncle kyle. maybe we could hope for a colab with the youtuber "dyi papi"? He pioneered at handcraft cooling solutions in the early steam deck days. much love
Thank you for this video. I have been on a cooling odyssee ever since i bought the deck myself. I tried out all the methods you demostrate in this vid, its really good to have you coming up with pretty much the same results. Cheers mate, keep up the awesomeness. Edit: With that being said, the weirdest thing: I spent half my time in a desert country, andwhen I'm there the old JSAUX backplate combined with a magnetic fan is what worked out best for me. Not so when I am back in western europe though. Also, there are concerns with JSAUX new backplate in regards to internal airflow and cooling of other elements, specifically the SSD. I even think to remember that Valve had once mentioned waz back that this was the reason for the absence of a second vent in the stock configuration.
Thanks for watching and for sharing your results! The locational difference is almost certainly humidity, with drier air you'd need more fan/watt to keep temperatures down. As for the new backplate: 1. I tested VRMs, ICs, the SSD and the RAM for temperatures with the vented backplate and saw less than 1 degree difference from the stock backplate. 2. A lot of air still gets taken in through the rear vent, even with the vented backplate, so I have very few concerns with device longevity. Hopefully this helps 😁
I bought the magnetic fan a while back and no one had any tests on it. I did notice it worked but it is cumbersome in some regards. I ended up modding my JSAUX old backplate by cutting holes where the fan is like the new backplate they offer. Then I added heatsinks on top of the metal plate. It has cooled down the Steam Deck alot. I did my own testing with before and after results and it does work. My deck is overclocked as well. My settings are undervolt 30-10-30. Overclock 4077 CPU, 2077 GPU and 20777 for the battery.
Sounds like that was a great idea, I was thinking about cutting a hole in my metal plate backplate too! I'm also glad that my testing aligns with yours 🙂 Thanks for watching!
@@cryobyte33 Yeah I ended up buying two of those backplates before they announced the New one so I had a spare to experiement with. I cut down a mesh fan screen and a used non scented dryer sheet to protext the fan from dust build up on the fan. I wonder if that maybe helps with back pressure as well? I also added a few thermal pads inside the deck in a few spots to help disapate the heat. I will have to try that thermal pad you mentioned in your video. I keep my house around 25c degrees and luckily I am able to keep the deck pretty cool. It is all thanks to you that I was able to learn how to unlock the potential of the Steam Deck through undervolting and overclocking. I look forward to any other videos you do.
A friend of mine just sent me a photo of a new revision of steam deck, the CPU cooler mounting mechanism is completely different. In your and mine steam deck, we have RAM in between the fan and the SOC, the new version don't, and SOC is closer to the fan. The EMI metal shield is now painted black instead of the bare metal look.
Interesting to see you're using generous dimensions for the PTM pad. I've seen others cutting them to (exactly?) 13mm^2, which would be the size of the die. If you're thinking what I'm thinking, the pad is non-conductive and any excess size would only help transfer heat from the pad to the heatsink slightly. In any case, thanks for the extensive testing! :)
Today I've tested the undervolt settings on the 118 bios, I'm on -30 cpu, -40 gpu, -50 soc, any higher I would start to see corruption/random shut downs. I stress tested with Doom eternal (raytracing, low resolution, low settings), with a 4k video running on the background (gpu at 99%, cpu at 95% average), and also with mprime (for ram, altough I used "blend" option). My termals were pretty good already, as I'm rocking the old jsaux plate and that does already some good job at lowering the temps, but noticed the new backplate that you showcase in the video.I decided to make a hole in the superior part, where the top of the fan would be, the hole is about 70 x 200 mm, and my temperatures have gone down by 2-3 ºC compared to the unmodified old backplate, fan speed lowered about 600 rpm. The way I cut the backplate is by warming up a cutter and a lot of pacience, it definitely doesn't look clean but pretty functional, thanks for your videos.
I really need to object to the jsaux vented backplate. That vent disrupts the airflow path from the original rear intake, which means that things like VRMs and RAM chips will not get cooled sufficiently. There's a lot more to the thermal and airflow engineering on a portable device on the deck than the SOC cooling alone. That said, the PTM7950 has been a godsend. It works way better than kryonaut, NT-H2, or the stock thermal paste. It will also last for the life of the device, as opposed to conventional thermal paste which needs to be regularly re-applied due to the pump out effect. Good video overall.
I actually pinned a comment about the JSAUX backplate and the testing I did. Mine has been on for months with perfectly safe temperatures 🙂 Thanks for watching!
Thank you for watching, I had my doubts too! I've been rocking stock for almost a year, but these have really shown me that there could be something here.
iv been waiting for someone to make an aftermarket shell replacement with active cooling with pins that touch some traces on the steam deck to pull power.
Just got the copper heat spreader from another UA-camr Low_Budget, and it basically ties the RAM, all of the VRM/coil/MOSFET and stuff together, and also couple it all to the heatpipe. Which basically negated the need to flow much of the air over those things. (Except SSD, but i do have a small copper heat spreader/sink on that) i also have the JSAUX non-vented Case, which i do plan to drill some holes to minick the vented case. One funny thing i found during testing. In cyberpunk 2077's settings menu, if you do not limit frame rate in Cyberpunk's setting, it will be driving the GPU like mad and easily send the temperature through the roof. (GOG version) the GPU is actually cooler when running the benchmark than just the menu... If you need to run benchmarks with heatsink as saturated with heat as possible, all you need to do is let it sit at the menu for 1 minutes without frames rate limit... I think i know what i need to do when my Honeywell pads arrives.
Kyle. You are the gift that just keeps on giving! There is a lot of scattered content on thermal modding but the video you created has the next level of polish to it. Sincere thank you from the community.
Thank you so much for watching another video! 😁 As always, I'm just happy to help.
I just had an idea. Drilling out vent holes in the back of the old Jsaux case would give you the best of both worlds right?
@@jackinabackpack7599 theoretically similar, but with a lot of the heat sunk into the backplate still 🙂
I'd looked at thermal pads on Steam Deck to see if it was worth it, but never found any benchtest I could trust, but you went above and beyond as always! Seems like the backplate + thermal pad combo is absolutely worth it!
100% but even good paste with back plate is worth it.
That's exactly why I wanted to make this video, thank you for watching it! 😁
Which backplate though? Stock or JSAUX?
@@rohacha9iin40 juasx v2
Kyle, you're a legend!
Thank you so much for being subscribed and watching the video! I hope it helps out!
@@cryobyte33Hello cryobyte. I hope you're doing well. I've noticed that update 1.61 brought FSR 2.1 to cyberpunk 2077, so I was wondering if you were going to do a new performance video for the game?
@@TheRealPaul_Morphy I plan to make an update after phantom liberty releases, since they're bumping the requirements 🙂
No flashy edits, no useless padded infos, just the good stuff. Never change Kyle.
Thank you for watching! I'm just here to present the information, and I don't want to detract from it. Aside from trying to improve retention and make a few jokes, I'll be standing strong 😁
I just got my Vented JSAUX backplate today, and WOW the difference is instantly noticable! Any graphically intensive game would be loud as hell, but now it's super quiet, and GPU and CPU didn't go over 70c the whole time! Well worth the $30, was super easy to install too, highly recommended 👌 Thanks for this super informative video, never would have found this was it not for your awesome content 👍
Thank you so much for watching and for trying out the backplate! It's been a huge change in daily usability and I'm glad that you're getting the same results that I am 😁
Thanks for confirming that I made the right choice to replace the thermal paste with ptm7950 when I replaced my thumb sticks last month! Now I have a reason to get a backplate. 😁 Oh and I'm excited about the results of that monoblock! Keep up the good work!
Thank you for watching, I can't wait to test it and share the results! 😁
Geebus this video was great. We had so my opinions and "I think this or that" in the community and now finally we have this glorious comprehensive test that told us a LOT. Thank you Cryo for another amazing set of tests.
Thank you for the kind words! I also noticed that there wasn't anything really solid out there so I wanted to do my part 🙂
Finally the Monoblock! I’m using the old jasaux backplate, new paste, monoblock and Fantastic from Decky. Temps are great with the custom fan curve. The monoblock with the back plate moves a ton of heat but boy does it get hot! Looking forward to the next video!
I can't wait to test it, thank you so much for watching!
As a note about the vented backplate:
1. I tested VRMs, ICs, the SSD and the RAM for temperatures with the vented backplate and saw less than 1 degree difference from the stock backplate.
2. A lot of air still gets taken in through the rear vent, even with the vented backplate, so I have very few concerns with device longevity, but wanted to be fully transparent!
Edit:
I used the "sensors" command for SSD and motherboard temperatures, spot checked with the other results I gathered from MangoHUD.
The ICs and VRMs were a bit more difficult. I used a temperature probe wired through the back vent to measure the surface temperatures, and verified its accuracy with a backplate-off IR thermometer test. Obviously the backplate-off results are cooler, but I verified that the probe was accurate that way.
OK that's the answer I was looking for :)
Finally bro, thank you for relieving my stress with the vented back plate. I bought it but started to think about how tf air passively cools the Ics, ram, etc
I love this video, but I wish you went into as much detail about your validation of all critical component temperatures as you did with the rest of the testing methodology. The airflow the way Valve designed it is very much needed to keep things like the charging IC and MEM4 within safe temperatures, as per GN's analysis. While I am definitely open to the idea that the JSAUX backplate could be an improvement all around and would love the performance/aucoustic gains, I would need some more details than (crudely put, I am sorry) "trust me, I did some testing and it all seemed fine to me" in a comment. It seems like you actually did some thermocouple testing, I would have love it if that was included in the video! I'd love to modify my Deck in this way, but as it stands the details as to the thermal safety of doing so just aren't enough for me to risk my Deck.
👍 Thanks!
Your videos are really cool! But what about the power consumption? If the SoC has more headroom in terms of temperature and therefore keeps the clock more stable, it should also consume a little more power, right? Or is that compensated by the lower power consumption of the slower rotating fan?
I have the OG JSAUX Backplate and I also did a repaste but after watching this video I bought the thermal pad as well as the new jsaux backplate. My temps on my OC Deck have been basically always in the 80s so seeing those temps drop will be greatly appreciated
Agreed, the stock thermal system is great but not quite up to a good OC.
Thank you for watching!
🔥 hope you're settling in well mate, loving the content!
Haven't moved back yet, but thank you!
I still haven't bought my SD, but will in a month. These videos are gold for enthusiasts like me who like to min-max every bit of hardware they got. I've already bookmarked the products you've linked and will be buying them first thing. Thanks a lot!
To be honest, I don't follow this account, I've never seen another of his videos, I don't even have a Steam Deck, and I just accidently came across here. I'm strangely intrigued and thoroughly enjoyed the effort and thought process of this video. Keep up the good work dude!
Just want to thank you for being thorough with this video. Really appreciate the time and effort you put in!
New Deck owner and new arrival to your channel. Thanks for all your hard work and pleasant demeanor Kyle!
Thank you for watching, I hope the videos help out!
I know you just did all this work and seriously thank you, but I'd love to see some of data for TG's new kryosheet also. That is what I'm running on both my ally and deck and from some rough testing it seems to be performing quite a bit better than stock pastes for both and even the kryonaut extreme I had on the deck prior. People like you shouldering the extreme time investment and hard work to not only do all the testing but consolidate and present it to the community really drives everything forward and makes everyone's lives easier. THANK YOU
Thank you so much for watching, and for the recommendation! I can't order any more products while I;m still here in Sweden, but I'll try to order it after I'm back in to US and do another cooling test video 😉
I'm really happy I was able to help a bit, hopefully it won't be too long before I can follow-up!
Man, dont think ive ever done this before but ...subscribed, hit the bell, dropped a like and even commenting. Amazing content. Thank you for the time you dedicated putting this all together.
A lot of information gathered and collated, you can tell this video took time and effort, have a thumbs up 👍
another piece of top-notch content as usual! your dedication to thorough and fair testing is admirable, thank you so much for all of your hard work :) this info is very valuable and i'll definitely be considering purchasing at least one of these products in the future!
Thank you for watching, I'm happy to have helped a bit and I hope you at least know all the implications of whichever choice you go with 🙂
The most comprehensive cooling video to date. Thank you for sharing all of this information!
Thank you so much for watching, I hope you liked it!
I've had a conversation about theoriticals of this like an hour before you uploaded the video. I never expected to get my answers so fast. Thank you for the hard work!
Thank you so much for watching, and I'm happy to put some researched information out there!
Dude how do you not have over 1 million subs. I'm relatively new to your channel and from all I've watched. I've come up with nothing but amazing content. Plus, your download I installed on my deck is freaking sweet! Thank you man!
Thank you so much for the kind words! I'm trying to get there, hopefully some day 🤞
Oh, and thank you for using CU as well!
great video!
I have the old jsaux backplate. I slapped a blue anodized heatsink on it with a thermal pad and nothing gets too hot to touch. I have not overclocked. Sometimes the fans don't even run. That is when accessible parts get the warmest, but not hot enough to trigger the fan. I can even feel warmed air coming from the top vent on pure convection sometimes .
Didn't know you could replace the fans and thermal paste. Good to know. :) Saving video for future reference. Ty. :)
Thank you very much for taking time doing all this work!
Wow, that was one technical video that I don't normally watch and didn't really need to watch, but watched it to the end. Just love the Deck and what it can do.....Gaming has come a long way since the ZX 48K spectrum where I started. Love the utility by the way.
that was great man, you put a lot of work into this. instead of filling it with fluff and bullshit like most videos.
I live in the desert. (AZ) It's usually no cooler than 80°F in my home. Currently have the old metal plate Jsaux that is effing HOT! I used these links to get the new back and the Honeywell pad. Liked, subscribed, and will look into your patreon.
In terms of the clip on fan from Jsaux which is only compatible with the stock backplat, I purchased two different versions of this, there is a kickstand built into the foot of the clip on fan which allows you to stand it. Also, there is a version which does not require the clip from Jsaux and is sold seperately as part of the ModCase, but it includes a metal stick on connector that also gives you the latch from the ModCase which lets you add other ModCase components (but not at the same time). I also tried PTM7950 and that was a total bust, in fact in some cases it made my Steam Deck hotter and definately made the standard case back a lot warmer. Maybe it depends on what model of Steam Deck you are testing on and if Valve used different paste in construction.
Incredible break down! Prepping for an eventual Deck purchase and this channel is a gold mine.
I was geeking out over this and I enjoy the detailed testing that you do.
Just wanted to drop by and add my voice to the choir. I also changed to the Honeywell pad and jsaux backplate. This, together with a cryobyte-undervolt and a fan replacement changed my deck from “pretty damn annoying” to quiet and amazing. I’m extremely satisfied with these upgrades.
The pad was a pain to install, but indeed worth the effort.
Thnx for all your amazing guidance 👌
What fan did you get? Also, what is the honeywell thing..?
I have the Delta fan but never found it bothering me since I always cap the fps/ screen refresh. I finally changed the backplate (vented) and thermal paste to NT-H1 and what a difference in noise! The fan is barely audible most of the time. I wish there weren't so many fake PTM7950 sellers out there. I'm happy with the Noctua paste for now. Thank you for your hard work!
I'd like to see the temps of the charging IC and the SSD with the new Jsaux backplate. That extra cent hole probably hurts those way more than it helps the APU
I actually did test the VRMs, SSD, RAM and ICs (and mention it in the concerns section), they were within 1 degree of stock and gave me no reason to worry whatsoever 🙂 The fan still pulls air through the back vent and the metal plate also contacts the heatsink (which is getting better cooling).
Thanks for watching, I hope this helps!
@@cryobyte33 apricides for video but I must ask - how you measured temps of IC, SSD, VRMs and battery? I heard yours concerns but I have mine as well
ua-cam.com/video/NeQH__XVa64/v-deo.html
With this hole above fan I treat this backplate like there is no backplate at all because negative airflow is interrupted. I wonder what temps of battery are at your tests while gaming with docked deck.
@@RetroWaveArcades While negative airflow is interrupted, it still pulls a ton of air through the back plate. The fan can pull quite a bit more air than normally gets to it.
As for the temperatures, I used the "sensors" command for SSD and motherboard temperatures, spot checked with the other results I gathered from MangoHUD, and checked.
The ICs and VRMs were a bit more difficult. I used a thermocouple temperature sensor wired through the back vent to measure the surface temperatures, and verified its accuracy with a backplate-off IR thermometer test.
GN does really good work, and I want to make it clear that I'm not trying to argue with Steve's results. All I know is that I did the best I could to to verify that this would be safe for long-term use. 🙂
Fan-freaking-tastic content man. I look forward to more
Again, an amazing and incredibly helpful video! Thank you so much!
If it's not too basic for your channel, I'd absolutely love to see a video about how to find the perfect settings for any game on Steam Deck to guarantee steady FPS, maximise battery life while still having a decent gaming experience. I do know the basics but I have a hard time finding playing around with all the options the Steam Deck provides. Maybe with an explanation of what which feature does so viewers can easily transfer this to any game they want to play.
Keep up your amazing work!
something i use that you may want to check out is a graphene thermal pad. it goes over the gpu and is pretty thin. beats putting paste way deep in there.
Thanks for the recommendation, too! I've had one before, but I'll need to wait until I'm back in the US to get another. We'll see 😉
Great video! While delivering lots of data it's tricky to balance droning on forever and keeping the video moving. You nailed it. Huge thanks!
Excited for the Monoblock video! It will be the deciding factor in modding my Deck.
Dude as soon as you said 50 hours I had to comment, thank you, in advance!
Great video, watched the entire thing, I do have a comment about the backplate though. I'd be interested to know if it could be resealed, how it would perform then in comparison to the stock plate. The negative pressure you point out, according to Gamer's Nexus, that allows area to be pulled over the battery circuit which if it doesn't do that, may be long term implications and could cause damage due to running at higher, possibly out of spec temperatures. If the newer backplate's, fan vent, was sealed, you may get the best of both worlds, and address the dust and noise concerns. Worth considering for sure - looking forward to the block testing :)
Great Work Kyle! Keep it up. Was a bless to watch and match my Modding Experiences ;)
Thank you so much for watching, I'm glad to have helped out!
Excited for the new content as always man!
Hey man, welcome back! Hopefully you like it!
I absolutely love your content man. No other content creator I know of does such extensive and useful testing as you do for the steam deck. Keep up the great work as always, and I wish you the best going forward 😁.
very detailed and thoughtfully done. I'm thinking about the Noctua Paste and the Honeywell heat pad for sure.
Just got a 512gb OLED SD and have been loving your channel. I can't wait to hear your thoughts and modding recommendations on the OLED deck. Keep up the great work.
I bought the Honeywell pad and installed it on my GPD win 4.
Glad these tests are further proof it actually is doing its job.
I bought the new jsaux, but was on the hunt 4 the first gen with metal plate. After seeing this video. God im happy i went for the new. Really good video 😁
I’m curious as to how the KingPin paste would perform. Very thorough and informative video, thank you! I’ll be keeping the stock backplate but I think I’ll move up to the thermal pad 👍🏼
I've got the old JSAUX backplate.
Going to get the recommended thermal pad and new backplate. Thanks so much!
I dropped in just for some data, but holy smokes this tickled every diagnostic bone in my body! Mucho grazie!
Thank you for watching, I'm glad that it helped out 😁
This is exactly what I've been wanting to see. Jsaux posted tests that only covered the internal temps of the APU, where my main concern was the components not cooled with the heat pipe.
Thank you for watching! I'm glad that I could provide solid third party results 😁
This was really comprehensive and a great deciding factor for me. Thanks
For direct die application, one paste that for some reason people don't bring up that often, but it's likely one of the very best, is the Prolimatech PK-3.
I actually haven't heard of that! I'll need to check it out when I get back to the US, thanks for watching and for the recommendation 🙂
I was thinking about getting the PTM7950 and new JSAUX backplate, but was concerned what the actual games were. This video definitely helps make my decision easier. I might just get the backplate and use some thermal paste I already have. Don’t want to setup the PTM7950 if it is all going to come out for a p3r.
FYI I saw Salocin900 posted a video of an updated Steam Deck which has different mounting screw locations for the heat pipe. Might be an issue for the p3r if Valve has significantly changed the design.
whats a p3r? Would like to know what you mean as im thinking of ordering the thermal pads but have some mx6 paste here? Cheers
Great breakdown man, Thank you. I just ordered a deck and will be exploring your recommendations.
Kyle, another great video. I'd like to share my setup, experience and also ask a couple questions.
First, I am running your CryoUtilties and followed your excellent Undervolt & Overclock video. My best stable setup was UV = 40/30/40: OC = CPU 3950 / GPU 1800 : TDP = 17 Watts. After replacing my back plate with the newest JSAUX, my current stable setup is UV = 40/20/40: OC = CPU 4300 / GPU 2100: TDP = 20 Watts. The back plate made a monster difference in deck temps.
Second, I've used a few different tools for benchmarking & stress testing (cpu-x, Superposition, gtkstresstesting (locks up on me) & mprime) however, I've never seen my CPU run @ more than 4058 or my GPU @ over 2000. So, it doesn't seem to matter if I tweak the BIOS settings above 4000 & 2000 respectively. My next step is to crank up TDP to see if it makes a difference. Any thoughts on a better tools for benchmarking or what I may be doing wrong? Temps at my current config are low 70's to low 80's while pushing the deck hard, seems there's room for more juice.
I recently fitted the 'old' jsaux back plate. I removed the thermal pad prior to installing the shell.. I wasn't after a shell to cool the deck down, more for the looks, since I opted for a transparent purple back plate.
I don't notice any difference in temps... but now I feel that I maybe shouldn't of removed the thermal pad..
The reason I removed it, because I heard that the pad actually blocks the air from passing from the vent at the back to the fan.
Very great videos, I plan on getting the JSAUX clip on fan to deal with the higher temps related to overclocking, can't wait to receive it.
Watched this video twice. And i think i'll go with the thermal pad and backplate.
If I can cut down the noise when playing in bed while the wife tries to sleep, then it's absolutely worth it.
Thanks a lot !
This is impossible to be more clear. Congratulations 🎉
Great video! I didn't know jsaux made a new backplate. I just received and installed the old one about an hour before this video came and temps are night and day difference for me. Before 20w overclock would instantly go to 95C within seconds and maxed fans. Now after 10 mins it hovers around 89-90C.
They didn't advertise it very well, but I'm really happy they did. If the old one wasn't so hot it'd be easier to recommend 😅
Thanks for watching!
Your dedication to your test earned my sub! i hope you keep it up brother man.
I ordered the pad, going to keep using original back plate for now. If nothing happens while using vent plate then I'll upgrade to it. Thanks for all your hard work.
I had already ordered the new backplate, but you talked me into getting the thermal pad also!
Epic vid! I was interested in getting one of those new backplates, and this convinced me fully. Now I’m also considering getting the thermal pads too!
Thank you for watching and commenting! I'm happy that I could answer a few questions for you and hope that you enjoy them as much as I have!
Installed the vented backplate and wow what a difference, playing Fallout 4 my deck dropped from 68c on the cpu and gpu to 59c on both. I would of gotten the thermal pad but they wanted $10 shipped for a $7 pad so that was a nope.
This is exactly the video I was looking for! Thank you!
That magsafe cooler you used they make a version of it with a teg cooler built in and I can't confirm the teg units work amazingly and probably would be a huge benefit in your situation you really ought to give it a try!!! I use the teg set up on gaming phones and it makes a huge difference in thermals but mostly it offsets the heat caused by wireless charging in my case the problem it has in my case is that the cooler doesn't sit directly above the chip and due to my camera bumps its super hard to make it work but when I did force it to work it did a great job its just not practical for my case but in your case it likely would work great!!!
Your awesome, i was looking everywhere for this information and you delivered flawlessly. You win a subscriber
I was about to buy the vented jsaux backplate but hesitated because of those concerns about the airflow that could potentially harm the other components in the long term
tho, it's a cool informative video as always thanks
Fantastic video! Definitely gonna get the vented backplate when I get a steam deck.
Installed the vented backplate on my delta fan deck, and also added the clip on fan. Deck runs cooler and the little leg on the clipon fan does work well as a stand. It's not fallen over, surprisingly.
King Cryo bringing the heat (I mean cool) once again!
They don't call me Cryo for nothing 😉 Thanks for watching, I hope it helps!
Thanks for the insights. I’d like to add 2 cents to it. The stock backplate isn’t that great in terms of thermal design. Warmer air has higher static pressure. Stock plate has intake vent right above the silicon cover, which is heating up the air and causing elevated pressure that will hinder cool air from flowing into the chasis. That’s why fan speed has to go much higher to counter that effect to keep air flowing into the chasis. I think the best backplate will be a vented cover with metal plate exposed for magnet peltier cooler.
FANTASTIC VIDEO. Well done kyle... i have nothing more to say than thank you.
Dude I've bought the old back plate. Wish I'd seen this before. Thanks
Seeing you’re video hit my sub box always puts the biggest smile on my face because i know how much hard work and time it takes testing things like this take, And someone with OCD&HDHD I really appreciate the effort you put into your testing with all the different independent variables there is when it comes to testing the smallest of things. I’m planning on water cooling my steam deck in an upcoming video if you ever have the free time I have some questions about attending to dd this stupid idea of mine
Thank you so much for watching the videos and being subscribed! I'm happy that you enjoy them as much as you do, and that it can hold your attention since both my wife and I have ADHD.
As for water cooling, feel free to either email me at my business email, or join the Discord server and start a thread to chat through it 😁
Your long term concerns deserve to be reviewed at a later date maybe a year or two from now or even periodically? I think viewers would be interested in such content. Thanks for your hard work!
I might be able to do that, but I'd need a separate Deck to do it. As it stands, this Deck will be modified repeatedly for other testing so I can't do a "set and forget" follow-up 😓
@@cryobyte33 Thanks for the reply! I noticed that your video did not have general guidelines (i.e. in the introduction section) about what temperatures we should aim to keep the Steam Deck at.
Noticed mine getting to around 85 C after playing for several hours and worried about what that temperature range (80-90C) might do to my Deck's longevity.
I changed the CPU TDP under Performance settings to 10 and temps went down to 70-80C range.
I will check if you have a video on optimizing settings in the Deck for minimizing temps.
@@manaseeker2414 The Deck APU is safe up until 105C. Since we were working with Stock temps or lower, I didn't think it was necessary to include that 😅
I mentioned the upper limits in my overclocking video, where I thought it was more relevant, sorry!
I don't even have a steam deck (still thinking whether to get one) but this is fantastic. You're like the Steve (from gamers nexus) of steam deck.
Impressive! You basically cover all scenario I could think of.
Thank you for watching, I'm glad that I could help out 😁
I had to watch more than once (I won't say how many times more) just to understand what was being said. Thank you for this info :)
Sorry if it was hard to parse, it's pretty hard fitting 79 graphs into a UA-cam video, especially one this short 😅
I'll try to do a little better at pacing it in the future, thank you for watching!
@@cryobyte33 No, really good job, thanks for all the recent content! Very Helpful 😁
Thank you for your work! Have you tested the temperature in Killswitch or Spigen cases? It feels like the temperature is increasing slightly, but I wanted to have some comparison numbers to make a decision.
The Gamer's Nexus of the Steam Deck! What an absolute legend. Deck Jesus!
Thank you so much for watching, the kind words and incredibly kind comparison ❤️
thank you uncle kyle. maybe we could hope for a colab with the youtuber "dyi papi"?
He pioneered at handcraft cooling solutions in the early steam deck days. much love
I've actually been talking to him on discord and hope to try out his mods! Stay tuned and hopefully we'll work something out 😉
Thank you for this video. I have been on a cooling odyssee ever since i bought the deck myself. I tried out all the methods you demostrate in this vid, its really good to have you coming up with pretty much the same results. Cheers mate, keep up the awesomeness.
Edit: With that being said, the weirdest thing: I spent half my time in a desert country, andwhen I'm there the old JSAUX backplate combined with a magnetic fan is what worked out best for me. Not so when I am back in western europe though.
Also, there are concerns with JSAUX new backplate in regards to internal airflow and cooling of other elements, specifically the SSD. I even think to remember that Valve had once mentioned waz back that this was the reason for the absence of a second vent in the stock configuration.
Thanks for watching and for sharing your results!
The locational difference is almost certainly humidity, with drier air you'd need more fan/watt to keep temperatures down.
As for the new backplate:
1. I tested VRMs, ICs, the SSD and the RAM for temperatures with the vented backplate and saw less than 1 degree difference from the stock backplate.
2. A lot of air still gets taken in through the rear vent, even with the vented backplate, so I have very few concerns with device longevity.
Hopefully this helps 😁
Could you test the game performance difference between a third party launcher like Heroic Launcher vs owning it natively on Steam?
I bought the magnetic fan a while back and no one had any tests on it. I did notice it worked but it is cumbersome in some regards. I ended up modding my JSAUX old backplate by cutting holes where the fan is like the new backplate they offer. Then I added heatsinks on top of the metal plate. It has cooled down the Steam Deck alot. I did my own testing with before and after results and it does work. My deck is overclocked as well. My settings are undervolt 30-10-30. Overclock 4077 CPU, 2077 GPU and 20777 for the battery.
Sounds like that was a great idea, I was thinking about cutting a hole in my metal plate backplate too! I'm also glad that my testing aligns with yours 🙂
Thanks for watching!
@@cryobyte33 Yeah I ended up buying two of those backplates before they announced the New one so I had a spare to experiement with. I cut down a mesh fan screen and a used non scented dryer sheet to protext the fan from dust build up on the fan. I wonder if that maybe helps with back pressure as well? I also added a few thermal pads inside the deck in a few spots to help disapate the heat. I will have to try that thermal pad you mentioned in your video. I keep my house around 25c degrees and luckily I am able to keep the deck pretty cool. It is all thanks to you that I was able to learn how to unlock the potential of the Steam Deck through undervolting and overclocking. I look forward to any other videos you do.
A friend of mine just sent me a photo of a new revision of steam deck, the CPU cooler mounting mechanism is completely different.
In your and mine steam deck, we have RAM in between the fan and the SOC, the new version don't, and SOC is closer to the fan.
The EMI metal shield is now painted black instead of the bare metal look.
Going to check the fan I have to see if that backplate will be useful.
Interesting to see you're using generous dimensions for the PTM pad. I've seen others cutting them to (exactly?) 13mm^2, which would be the size of the die. If you're thinking what I'm thinking, the pad is non-conductive and any excess size would only help transfer heat from the pad to the heatsink slightly. In any case, thanks for the extensive testing! :)
I don't even have a steam deck but I just watched the full rundown 😅 Great work!
Today I've tested the undervolt settings on the 118 bios, I'm on -30 cpu, -40 gpu, -50 soc, any higher I would start to see corruption/random shut downs. I stress tested with Doom eternal (raytracing, low resolution, low settings), with a 4k video running on the background (gpu at 99%, cpu at 95% average), and also with mprime (for ram, altough I used "blend" option). My termals were pretty good already, as I'm rocking the old jsaux plate and that does already some good job at lowering the temps, but noticed the new backplate that you showcase in the video.I decided to make a hole in the superior part, where the top of the fan would be, the hole is about 70 x 200 mm, and my temperatures have gone down by 2-3 ºC compared to the unmodified old backplate, fan speed lowered about 600 rpm. The way I cut the backplate is by warming up a cutter and a lot of pacience, it definitely doesn't look clean but pretty functional, thanks for your videos.
I really need to object to the jsaux vented backplate. That vent disrupts the airflow path from the original rear intake, which means that things like VRMs and RAM chips will not get cooled sufficiently. There's a lot more to the thermal and airflow engineering on a portable device on the deck than the SOC cooling alone.
That said, the PTM7950 has been a godsend. It works way better than kryonaut, NT-H2, or the stock thermal paste. It will also last for the life of the device, as opposed to conventional thermal paste which needs to be regularly re-applied due to the pump out effect. Good video overall.
I actually pinned a comment about the JSAUX backplate and the testing I did. Mine has been on for months with perfectly safe temperatures 🙂
Thanks for watching!
@@cryobyte33 Ah, I missed that. Good to know!
To be honest I never would have guessed these third party backplates were ever worth it but after watching this I'm definitely gonna look into jsaux
Thank you for watching, I had my doubts too! I've been rocking stock for almost a year, but these have really shown me that there could be something here.
Great video, can't wait for the P3R Monoblock video !
Been thinking of OC. I think it’s time ✌🏽
Thank you for watching, I hope you get good results!
Awesome work. As always. Thank you! You're the best.
iv been waiting for someone to make an aftermarket shell replacement with active cooling with pins that touch some traces on the steam deck to pull power.
Just got the copper heat spreader from another UA-camr Low_Budget, and it basically ties the RAM, all of the VRM/coil/MOSFET and stuff together, and also couple it all to the heatpipe.
Which basically negated the need to flow much of the air over those things. (Except SSD, but i do have a small copper heat spreader/sink on that) i also have the JSAUX non-vented Case, which i do plan to drill some holes to minick the vented case.
One funny thing i found during testing. In cyberpunk 2077's settings menu, if you do not limit frame rate in Cyberpunk's setting, it will be driving the GPU like mad and easily send the temperature through the roof. (GOG version) the GPU is actually cooler when running the benchmark than just the menu...
If you need to run benchmarks with heatsink as saturated with heat as possible, all you need to do is let it sit at the menu for 1 minutes without frames rate limit... I think i know what i need to do when my Honeywell pads arrives.
So much hard work packed into one video!
Thank you for watching, I hope it helps!
Hope you give us an update about the vented backplate in the future.