The Nvidia GeForce RTX 5090 may have only been out for a matter of days, and seemingly only a handful of people worldwide actually have one. However, that hasnβt stopped the PC modding community getting to work on creating a plethora of accessories to help you customize your colossal card, and the latest addition is a clean and convenient way to keep it cool with a graphene thermal pad.
As the undisputed best graphics card on the planet, the Nvidia RTX 5090 packs quite a punch when it comes to power consumption and heat output. As such, even though we found the default cooler of the Founders Edition performed impressively well in our RTX 5090 review, some users will be looking to eke out even more cooling potential, which is where this thermal pad could be useful.
Created by custom cooling purveyor, Thermal Grizzly, the new pad is essentially just a thin sheet of graphene. Itβs sold cut to size to fit directly over the RTX 5090βs massive GPU die and you simply lay it between the GPU and your cooler of choice β after cleaning off any existing thermal paste or liquid metal thermal interface material (as used on the Founders Edition card).
Graphene is a very thin sheet of carbon atoms bonded in such a way that theyβre very strongly connected and also have extremely high thermal and electrical conductivity. They need some manipulation to become useful as thermal pads but essentially they can in theory offer solid cooling results in a form factor thatβs mess-free and reusable.
Interestingly, the company actually sells the thermal pad slightly oversized compared to the GPU die, such that users have to apply a small amount of insulating tape (supplied and shown in yellow below) to ensure the electrically conductive pad doesnβt touch the components around the die.
Thermal Grizzly demonstrates fitting the pad onto an Asus ROG GeForce RTX 5090 Astral card. This card ships with standard thermal paste, rather than liquid metal, so this graphene sheet offers an easy upgrade, given how easy thermal paste is to clean up with the right cleaner.
Thermal Grizzly is the company behind tech YouTube channel der8eaur, a video of whose we featured in a recent story talking about the RTX 5090 restock situation. That story covered the fact that RTX 5090 stock is vanishingly low, so those wanting to know where to buy an RTX 5090 have been left wondering. Thermal Grizzly also sells CPU and GPU water cooling blocks, CPU delidding tools, CPU mounting frames, and other thermal pastes and cooling accessories.
You can buy the new KryoSheet pads directly from the company for $24.96 or pick it up in various sizes from Amazon via this link. Shoppers in the UK can also go direct or via this Amazon link.
For more on the best gear for keeping your PC cool, check out our best PC fan guide to ensure your PCβs airflow is optimal, or peruse our best CPU cooler guide to find the best way to keep your processorβs temps in check.
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