Temperature peaks up to 110C and sudden overheating: these are some of the causes that prompted a user (who told his whole story on Reddit) to open the video card you just purchased, a NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 Founders Edition. “AntonyJeweet” he thought it could be a problem with the incorrect application of thermal paste and instead realized how much different the reality was.
It was a finger cover that made this NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 Founders Edition overheat
Between the memory modules and the cooler, he indeed found a rubber finger covers, which was obviously not in the initial plans of the video card engineers. Normally, finger guards are used by factory workers to protect the graphics card from fingerprints during assembly steps. However, in this case, it obviously fell into an unsuspected spot on the video card, preventing it from working properly.
After removing the finger guard and reapplying the thermal paste, in fact, “AntonyJeweet” has seen a sharp drop in temperatures, with an average dropping to 86C.
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 Founders Edition cards are often subject to replacement of thermal paste, because it is not uncommon for the temperature of their memories to exceed tolerable limits. If the heat is not transferred efficiently to the cooler, the temperatures of the GPU itself will rise, which in the case of the new 3090 is closer to memory.
“AntonyJeweet” he also stated that he informed NVIDIA of all stages of its operation. He said that initially the video card manufacturer refused to grant the guaranteebecause the video card has been removed. Later, after it became clear that the malfunction was due to a production crash, NVIDIA retraced its steps and offered to change the video card if the “repaired” specimen continued to cause problems.
On the plus side, the story had a happy ending. However, this gross error in the assembly phase could be a symptom of a larger problem, attributable to the semiconductor shortage we see globally. Factories that produce computer components are working at an increasingly rapid pace to be able to regain lost ground and be able to meet the very high demand for products. In such working conditions, therefore, certain oversights may be justified …