Hey everyone! I hope you're all doing well. I'm reaching out because I've finally decided it's time to perform some surgery on my aging RTX 3080. Over the last few months, I've noticed that my memory junction temperatures are consistently hitting the 104C mark during heavy gaming sessions, which is honestly starting to freak me out. The fans are constantly pinned at 100% and the noise is becoming unbearable. I've already picked out some high-quality thermal paste for the core, but I'm completely stuck when it comes to choosing the right thermal pads.

I've been doing a lot of reading on different forums, and I keep seeing brands like Gelid Solutions, Thermalright, and Kritical come up. I’m looking for something that offers top-tier performance because I really want to bring those VRAM temps down into a safer range. My main concern is the hardness of the pads. I've heard that if I get pads that are too stiff, like the Thermalright Odyssey ones sometimes are, they won't compress enough. If that happens, the heatsink won't make proper contact with the GPU die, and I'll end up with great memory temps but a core that's overheating.

I think I need a combination of 1.5mm and 2.0mm thicknesses for my specific card model, but I'm looking for advice on which specific products actually live up to their W/mK ratings. Here are a few things I'm prioritizing:

• Maximum thermal conductivity (ideally 12 W/mK or higher)
• Good compressibility to ensure the board doesn't flex and the die makes contact
• Long-term stability so I don't have to deal with oily leakage in six months

I really want to get this right the first time since taking this card apart is such a huge hassle and I'm worried about breaking something. Does anyone have a go-to brand or a specific line of pads that they swear by for high-end GPU maintenance?