Find the exact thermal pad thickness for your graphics card. 121 models documented.
Over time, thermal pads crack, compress, and lose conductivity. A fresh repaste can feel like a new card — and keeps it running for years longer.
Modern GPUs push hundreds of watts through a die the size of your thumbnail. After 3–5 years, thermal pads dry out and crack. Temperatures climb, clocks drop, and performance suffers quietly.
A fresh set of pads and paste can drop VRAM temps by 15–25°C and core temps by 5–15°C.
GPU prices have risen sharply. The environmental cost of manufacturing a new card — rare earths, water, energy — is enormous. A GPU that runs cool lasts longer.
A card you keep for 7 years instead of 4 doesn't end up in a landfill. It costs €10–30 in materials and an afternoon of your time.
Thermal pads come in exact thicknesses because they need to fill the precise gap between a component and the heatsink. Too thin and there's an air gap — heat can't transfer. Too thick and the heatsink can't seat properly, leaving uneven pressure across the die.
Getting the right thickness is the difference between a thermal pad doing its job and doing nothing at all.
The delta (Δ) is the difference between your GPU's junction temperature (hotspot) and its VRAM or VRM temperature. A large delta usually means poor thermal contact — dried-out pads, wrong thickness, or missing coverage.
Here's a rough guide to interpreting your delta under full load:
Note: these ranges are guidelines, not absolutes. Some architectures (like Ampere VRAM) run hotter by design. Always compare to your card's spec and check if temps improved after a repaste.
Because your graphics card is worth more than a dried-out pad and a thermal throttle.
Modern GPUs push hundreds of watts through a die the size of your thumbnail. The thermal pads and paste between that die and the heatsink are the only thing standing between your card and permanent damage. Over time — typically 3 to 5 years — those pads dry out, compress, or crack. Temperatures climb. Clocks drop. Performance suffers quietly.
A fresh set of pads and paste can drop VRAM temperatures by 15–25°C and core temps by 5–15°C. That's the difference between throttling at 85°C and running cool at 65°C.
GPU prices have been rising for years. Supply shortages, mining demand, and supply chain disruptions have made new hardware increasingly hard to justify. At the same time, the environmental cost of manufacturing a new GPU — rare earth metals, water, energy — is enormous.
Repaisting and repading your existing card is one of the most effective things you can do to extend its life. A GPU that runs cool lasts longer. A card you keep for 7 years instead of 4 is a card that doesn't end up in a landfill — and one that doesn't require a new one to be manufactured.
It costs €10–30 in materials and an afternoon of your time. The math is hard to argue with.
When I first tried to repaste my own GPU, I ran into a frustrating problem: there was no good place to find the correct pad thicknesses. Forum threads were scattered and often contradictory. Manufacturer documentation was either missing or buried. Reddit posts were years old and full of conflicting advice.
The information existed — in teardown videos, iFixit guides, enthusiast forums, and community spreadsheets — but it was fragmented, hard to find, and impossible to verify at a glance.
PadDB is my attempt to fix that. A single, clean, community-maintained database where you search for your exact GPU model and immediately get the pad thicknesses you need — nothing more, nothing less.
PadDB can only be as good as the data behind it. We currently have hundreds of GPU models with verified pad data, but there are thousands of cards out there — different board revisions, regional variants, and OEM models that need coverage.
If you've opened your card and measured the pads, or found a reliable source we've missed, please contribute. Every submission is reviewed and helps someone else make their GPU last longer.
This is a free resource and always will be. We keep the lights on through affiliate links on our thermal pad recommendations page — products we genuinely stand behind.