The German edition of Tom's Hardware tested these cards and found that during FurMark torture testing, the VRM areas of the EVGA GeForce GTX 1070/1080 FTW cards can reach temperatures in excess of 100°C. Furthermore, there were also reports about video card memory hitting dangerous temperatures due to the overheating VRM, and some user reports about dying cards.
EVGA investigated the issue but notes they were unable to replicate the very high temperatures, even with an ambient temperature of 30°C. However, for those who prefer lower temperatures the company will ship free thermal pads. These can be applied between the PCB and the backplate to help dissipate the heat.
“The test used in the referenced review from Toms Hardware (Germany) is running under Furmark, an extreme usage case, as most overclockers know. We believe this is a good approach to have some idea about the graphics card limit, and the thermal performance under the worst case scenario. EVGA has performed a similar qualification test during the design process, at a higher ambient temperature (30C in chamber) with a thermal coupler probe directly contacting the key components and after the Toms Hardware (Germany) review, we have retested this again. The results in both tests show the temperature of PWM and memory is within the spec tolerance under the same stress test, and is working as originally designed with no issues.
With this being said, EVGA understands that lower temperatures are preferred by reviewers and customers.
During our recent testing, we have applied additional thermal pads between the backplate and the PCB and between the baseplate and the heatsink fins, with the results shown below. We will offer these optional thermal pads free of charge to EVGA owners who want to have a lower temperature. These thermal pads will be ready soon; and customers can request them on Monday, October 24th, 2016. Also, we will work with Toms Hardware to do a retest.”
Thanks,
EVGA
EVGA GeForce GTX 1080 FTW running Furmark with thermal pad mod (30C Ambient in Chamber) – October 21st, 2016 (image below)