**A Look into the Thermal Upgrade of Corsair's Hydrographics GTX 1080**

In a recent update, it was revealed that Corsair had made a change to their Hydrographics GTX 1080 card, specifically the cold plate solution. The question on everyone's mind was why not make the running change in a way that just shaved down from the factory, rather than changing the entire cold plate entirely. However, according to Corsair, it was a trade-off between tooling a new standoff or taking off the shelf cold plate that already existed for the solution.

This decision was made to balance resource availability and lead times. The change does not alter the function and feature of the card, but rather makes a slight tweak to accomplish the same result. Both cold plate solutions meet the stated specifications of the card, and Corsair has confirmed that they will not be splitting them as different SKUs.

So, what does this mean for consumers? If you buy the card today, it's possible that you could receive either the original or the updated cold plate solution in your package. However, according to Corsair, it can't be determined which one you'll get just yet, as MSI's serial numbers are not being used to determine the shipment.

**Shaving Down the Standoffs**

The real question on everyone's mind is: how did this issue even occur? In an effort to shave off a fraction of a millimeter from the GPU silicon, Corsair made the modification. This change was intended to improve airflow and reduce temperatures, but it also had the potential to cause issues with the card's thermal performance.

The good news is that every production unit that shipped with the updated cold plate solution has already been installed with shaved standoffs. If you bought your Hydrographics GTX 1080 from Corsair directly, you can rest assured that you'll be fine in terms of temperature performance. However, if you purchased the card from a third-party retailer like MSI's Seahawk, it's not clear whether this issue was addressed.

**Testing and Results**

In order to test the thermal performance of both cold plate solutions, Ada 64 or GPU-Z were used to install stress testing software and run a series of tests. The results showed that the updated solution performs slightly better in terms of temperature management. However, it's worth noting that this may be due to differences in testing methodologies rather than any actual improvements.

**Consumer Impact**

With 85 out of the first 100 Corsair Hydrographics GTX 1080s going straight to end-users, it seems that this issue is relatively rare. If you're one of the lucky ones who received an updated cold plate solution, you should be in good shape in terms of temperature performance. However, if you're concerned about the potential for thermal issues or simply want to run some stress tests on your card, there's no harm in doing so.

**Conclusion**

In conclusion, while Corsair has made a change to their Hydrographics GTX 1080 card that addresses thermal performance, it appears to be a minor tweak rather than a major overhaul. If you're concerned about the issue or want to test the temperature performance of your card, there are steps you can take. However, if you bought from Corsair directly, you should be in good shape. As always, we appreciate your feedback and would love to hear from you in the comments below.

**Recommendations**

* For those who received an updated cold plate solution, check the temperature performance of your card using Ada 64 or GPU-Z.

* If you're concerned about thermal issues or simply want to test your card's performance, install stress testing software and run a series of tests.

* For MSI Seahawk users, contact their support team to inquire about whether this issue has been addressed in their production units.

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"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enhey everyone quick update on the Corsair hydrog Graphics into MSI Seahawk so we noticed in the new marketing video for the Hydrographics card on corsair's channel that the cold plate used in the marketing video was actually this one which is the one we've been talking about for a while for about a year now it's got the protruded copper out of the base it's basically the one that EVGA uses so this is what was shown in the new marketing video for the Hydrographics which the review model we received here in pieces used this one which is actually a flat plate cooler uh and that's what we reviewed the unit based on so few things here why why did the change happen we emailed Corsair asked them about it I've emailed MSI as well but haven't really received the real response yet so we're going off what we got from Corsair as of now the the core question why did the plate change and the answer was some of the first units of Seahawks and Hydrographics used the flat base with machine down standoffs to provide better contact with the GPU surface we changed immediately to the raised GPU cold plate we had used the CPU cold plate in previous version with no issues that did not work for the new 10 series as Nvidia changed some dimensions for production silicon that were not seen on pre-production parts so the the short of it uh basically this is the same issue we saw when we built our own GTX 1060 hybrid where the cold plate didn't reach all the way down into the base plate of the GPU of the video card that aluminum base plate was providing too much uh well two parts the base plate was too high and the GPU silicon was not high enough so that's the part that changed the GPU silicon has a shorter height or Z height as we sometimes call it depending on what you're talking about and that means that the cold plate can't as easily access it so we asked corser what they did and as stated there they actually shave down these standoffs so it doesn't leave the aceex factory like this Corsair did this themselves shave down the standoffs and if we look at a new model uh they're actually I've measured these with some digital calipers they're about an extra half a millimeter or so shorter on the Corsair flat plate CLC that's found on the Hydrographics and Seahawk so that change shrinking these so to speak did make it so that the cold plate could mostly contact the Silicon the results were fine as we saw in our review so really ultimately in that regard for users who bought the Hydrographics it would appear to be a non-issue because as we saw in the review the temperature is still really low it was uh we'll put the chart on the screen now in our Hydrographics versus EVGA hybrid review when we swapped this cold plate onto the Seahawk we actually did see a slight Improvement about 1° celsus when using the evj fan if you use the Corsair fan it would be even a bit better than that so these do in our testing perform a bit better Corsair is told told us that they don't perform a bit better uh it just it comes down to I suppose test methodology and tools we stand by our testing we've proven it a few times now over the years these are in our testing experience better for cooling gpus now the one point they may have is that the main difference is coming from the fact that this mounting pressure is not perfect and that's partly because the tolerance between the shaved standoffs is a bit larger than the tolerance of these standoffs on a fact unit so in our measurements it was something like a range of 2 mm difference one height to the next whereas this one was something like 05 or something like that so that could also be the contributor to the temperature difference just that's the short of that uh so overall not a huge deal with the Corsair unit let me answer a few more questions that I I sent these to Corsair we'll we'll R run through them rapid fire the main question was why not make the running change in a way that just shaves these down from the factory uh rather than changing the entire cold plate and their answer is pretty reasonable was it's a trade-off between tooling a new standoff or taking off the shelf cold plate that already existed for the solution so that makes sense I can I can get behind that because they don't want to Tool a new standoff it take have a longer lead time made more sense for them to buy a different cold plate the next question I asked was Will Corsair publicly State this change and Corsair said as the function and feature of this card has not changed and both cold plate Solutions meet the stated spec of the card we don't plan to split them as a different skew we've not upgraded the cold plate it's just a slight tweak to accomplish the same result given the resources available at initial development and extended production so that's the answer to that one the next question was if I buy this card today which cold plate will I receive in the mail as a consumer and they said it could be either they don't really know for sure uh depending on what MSI serial numbers are so right now today it could be either in a few months time it will probably be exclusively this plate just that's how because they're phasing the other one out uh next question was the Shaving modification made to all affected production standoffs that's the important question right because if this got through on any Seahawk or Hydrographics units then as a user you are going to be off contact of the GPU silicon by again about half a millimeter that's a big difference that's so in our testing with the GTX 1060 when we first put the unit in the system and I if you may remember I had to put a shim in there later a copper shim that was because the temperatures were higher than air cards air cooled cards in some cases so that's a big deal they answered every production unit that shipped with the CPU cold plate which they mean this by that uh has the shaved standoffs so if you bought one from corsair.com based on this you're fine that doesn't answer for MSI Seahawk uh we don't know when they caught the unit the the issue in their production so I I don't have an answer if it's ever affected those but if you do have a Seahawk that you bought from newer Amazon that would be from MSI not from Corsair my recommendation would be to install Ada 64 or GPU Z and install some kind of stress test program 3D Mark whatever run it for 20 minutes see what the kind of Max average temperature r ranges and as long as it's reasonable you're probably fine if it's getting in the 60s plus Celsius you may want to contact them and ask about a replacement uh but Corsair is fine based on this information from them I said how many users purchased the first production run and Corsair said 85 out of the first 100 Corsair Hydrographics GTX 1080s went to end users 85 so really sounds like a non-issue if you're one of the 85 uh you should be taken care of by the shaved standoffs there's really there's not going to be a temperature issue there last question was basically me just saying we saw a thermal difference between the two uh it looks like the protruded plate is better and they said well we tested that too and they're sort of saying it's probably more of a mounting pressure difference than anything accounting for that extra degree difference or so uh so that is that's what's going on with this really just to emphasize from the Corsair side of things this appears to be a non-issue 85 people got the uh flat cold plate and those have shaved standoffs so The Thermals are not going to be an issue in theory you can check them very easily if you're concerned MSI we don't know what their status is we know that they sold cards but uh just again check temperatures make sure it's good it should be though but if not contact MSI or let us know because we can chase them down for you so that's that's the gist of everything the primary reason of posting this video and artic is just to let everyone know our review model may be different from the one you receive in the future the temperature should be mostly the same you will likely based on our testing not corsairs apparently which is fine there's different test methodologies based on our testing if you test the way we do you'll probably see a slight Improvement in temperature with this one and so that would mean your your results May look different than hours did with our review unit using this one so that's the end of the story thank you for watching as always patreon link the postal video help us out directly subscribe for more content and I'll see you all next timehey everyone quick update on the Corsair hydrog Graphics into MSI Seahawk so we noticed in the new marketing video for the Hydrographics card on corsair's channel that the cold plate used in the marketing video was actually this one which is the one we've been talking about for a while for about a year now it's got the protruded copper out of the base it's basically the one that EVGA uses so this is what was shown in the new marketing video for the Hydrographics which the review model we received here in pieces used this one which is actually a flat plate cooler uh and that's what we reviewed the unit based on so few things here why why did the change happen we emailed Corsair asked them about it I've emailed MSI as well but haven't really received the real response yet so we're going off what we got from Corsair as of now the the core question why did the plate change and the answer was some of the first units of Seahawks and Hydrographics used the flat base with machine down standoffs to provide better contact with the GPU surface we changed immediately to the raised GPU cold plate we had used the CPU cold plate in previous version with no issues that did not work for the new 10 series as Nvidia changed some dimensions for production silicon that were not seen on pre-production parts so the the short of it uh basically this is the same issue we saw when we built our own GTX 1060 hybrid where the cold plate didn't reach all the way down into the base plate of the GPU of the video card that aluminum base plate was providing too much uh well two parts the base plate was too high and the GPU silicon was not high enough so that's the part that changed the GPU silicon has a shorter height or Z height as we sometimes call it depending on what you're talking about and that means that the cold plate can't as easily access it so we asked corser what they did and as stated there they actually shave down these standoffs so it doesn't leave the aceex factory like this Corsair did this themselves shave down the standoffs and if we look at a new model uh they're actually I've measured these with some digital calipers they're about an extra half a millimeter or so shorter on the Corsair flat plate CLC that's found on the Hydrographics and Seahawk so that change shrinking these so to speak did make it so that the cold plate could mostly contact the Silicon the results were fine as we saw in our review so really ultimately in that regard for users who bought the Hydrographics it would appear to be a non-issue because as we saw in the review the temperature is still really low it was uh we'll put the chart on the screen now in our Hydrographics versus EVGA hybrid review when we swapped this cold plate onto the Seahawk we actually did see a slight Improvement about 1° celsus when using the evj fan if you use the Corsair fan it would be even a bit better than that so these do in our testing perform a bit better Corsair is told told us that they don't perform a bit better uh it just it comes down to I suppose test methodology and tools we stand by our testing we've proven it a few times now over the years these are in our testing experience better for cooling gpus now the one point they may have is that the main difference is coming from the fact that this mounting pressure is not perfect and that's partly because the tolerance between the shaved standoffs is a bit larger than the tolerance of these standoffs on a fact unit so in our measurements it was something like a range of 2 mm difference one height to the next whereas this one was something like 05 or something like that so that could also be the contributor to the temperature difference just that's the short of that uh so overall not a huge deal with the Corsair unit let me answer a few more questions that I I sent these to Corsair we'll we'll R run through them rapid fire the main question was why not make the running change in a way that just shaves these down from the factory uh rather than changing the entire cold plate and their answer is pretty reasonable was it's a trade-off between tooling a new standoff or taking off the shelf cold plate that already existed for the solution so that makes sense I can I can get behind that because they don't want to Tool a new standoff it take have a longer lead time made more sense for them to buy a different cold plate the next question I asked was Will Corsair publicly State this change and Corsair said as the function and feature of this card has not changed and both cold plate Solutions meet the stated spec of the card we don't plan to split them as a different skew we've not upgraded the cold plate it's just a slight tweak to accomplish the same result given the resources available at initial development and extended production so that's the answer to that one the next question was if I buy this card today which cold plate will I receive in the mail as a consumer and they said it could be either they don't really know for sure uh depending on what MSI serial numbers are so right now today it could be either in a few months time it will probably be exclusively this plate just that's how because they're phasing the other one out uh next question was the Shaving modification made to all affected production standoffs that's the important question right because if this got through on any Seahawk or Hydrographics units then as a user you are going to be off contact of the GPU silicon by again about half a millimeter that's a big difference that's so in our testing with the GTX 1060 when we first put the unit in the system and I if you may remember I had to put a shim in there later a copper shim that was because the temperatures were higher than air cards air cooled cards in some cases so that's a big deal they answered every production unit that shipped with the CPU cold plate which they mean this by that uh has the shaved standoffs so if you bought one from corsair.com based on this you're fine that doesn't answer for MSI Seahawk uh we don't know when they caught the unit the the issue in their production so I I don't have an answer if it's ever affected those but if you do have a Seahawk that you bought from newer Amazon that would be from MSI not from Corsair my recommendation would be to install Ada 64 or GPU Z and install some kind of stress test program 3D Mark whatever run it for 20 minutes see what the kind of Max average temperature r ranges and as long as it's reasonable you're probably fine if it's getting in the 60s plus Celsius you may want to contact them and ask about a replacement uh but Corsair is fine based on this information from them I said how many users purchased the first production run and Corsair said 85 out of the first 100 Corsair Hydrographics GTX 1080s went to end users 85 so really sounds like a non-issue if you're one of the 85 uh you should be taken care of by the shaved standoffs there's really there's not going to be a temperature issue there last question was basically me just saying we saw a thermal difference between the two uh it looks like the protruded plate is better and they said well we tested that too and they're sort of saying it's probably more of a mounting pressure difference than anything accounting for that extra degree difference or so uh so that is that's what's going on with this really just to emphasize from the Corsair side of things this appears to be a non-issue 85 people got the uh flat cold plate and those have shaved standoffs so The Thermals are not going to be an issue in theory you can check them very easily if you're concerned MSI we don't know what their status is we know that they sold cards but uh just again check temperatures make sure it's good it should be though but if not contact MSI or let us know because we can chase them down for you so that's that's the gist of everything the primary reason of posting this video and artic is just to let everyone know our review model may be different from the one you receive in the future the temperature should be mostly the same you will likely based on our testing not corsairs apparently which is fine there's different test methodologies based on our testing if you test the way we do you'll probably see a slight Improvement in temperature with this one and so that would mean your your results May look different than hours did with our review unit using this one so that's the end of the story thank you for watching as always patreon link the postal video help us out directly subscribe for more content and I'll see you all next time\n"