Not that it makes it ok, but I’d bet a large amount of money the single biggest reason for this happening now is how much Nvidia has been squeezing their board partners. It’s why we lost EVGA.
The answer is money, but it’s not material cost that’s driving these crappy thermal interface pads, but labor expenses (and I’d guess consistency too). Pick-and-place is absurdly fast at putting components onto a PCB, and if they can put the pre-cut pads onto the board that’s huge for a manufacturer.
It’s the difference between slapping a post-it note, or the dot/line/X/cross/etc method with grease. No contest that TIM pads win for them, any fallouts get handled via warranty.
Enshittify my thermal paste to save 10 cents on a $500 graphics card why don’t you.
Why not leave off a few resistors or use leaky caps while you’re at it.
Not that it makes it ok, but I’d bet a large amount of money the single biggest reason for this happening now is how much Nvidia has been squeezing their board partners. It’s why we lost EVGA.
The answer is money, but it’s not material cost that’s driving these crappy thermal interface pads, but labor expenses (and I’d guess consistency too). Pick-and-place is absurdly fast at putting components onto a PCB, and if they can put the pre-cut pads onto the board that’s huge for a manufacturer.
It’s the difference between slapping a post-it note, or the dot/line/X/cross/etc method with grease. No contest that TIM pads win for them, any fallouts get handled via warranty.
I assume they got a CEO from a car company.
At least it wasn’t a Boeing executive.
You’d run a benchmark test on your computer and die.