Pictures? It may be factory issue with cooler that doesn't fit 100%.
Those cards should be ok with Zalman VF900 or VF950 if you're looking for something better.

Here you go.

There are no attachment points that would press the PCB to the backplate in the area of ​​​​transistors and the RIALTO bridge.
Need very soft and thick pads, alas.

This is not an original cooler. Looks like something you would find on Polaris cards, Radeon RX580/RX570.
There are nuts used as spacers for the GPU!

paradigital wrote on 2023-07-20, 12:48:

Hello fellow Vogons, […]
Show full quote

Hello fellow Vogons,

I've just acquired this card, which appears to be in pretty nice condition (though I currently have no idea of it's functional state). I was about to throw it onto a test bench to see if all is well, but wanted to replace the thermal paste first.

It was at this point I noticed that none of the thermal pads on the backplate of the card were touching their respective components (two pads for MOSFETs and one pad for PCIe/AGP bridge chip), there was a good 1-2mm air-gap.

Upon removal of the backplate I noticed that there were two different sets of rubber standoffs between the backplate and the heatsink mount, like someone had previously added some spacers for some reason. Removing a set however doesn't appear to make the slightest jot of difference to the proximity of the thermal pads to their respective components.

If anyone has good pictures of the backplate mounting on this card I'd love to see it!

Assume we're talking this card...

...which I have in an old dual 604 rig (sorry for the old pic - can't access the box atm for clearer shots). What I can say is that I bought the card brand new, and to my eye the backplate never fitted snuggly (screws were all done up tight) to the extent that I fashioned a small u-clip to pressure flex the backplate into contact with the the pads / components. I'd say poor design all round.

stef80 wrote on 2023-07-20, 20:17:

This is not an original cooler. Looks like something you would find on Polaris cards, Radeon RX580/RX570.
There are nuts used as spacers for the GPU!

You are unfortunately incorrect. This is a stock card.

PC Hoarder Patrol wrote on 2023-07-20, 20:17:

Assume we're talking this card... […]
Show full quote

paradigital wrote on 2023-07-20, 12:48:

Hello fellow Vogons, […]
Show full quote

Hello fellow Vogons,

I've just acquired this card, which appears to be in pretty nice condition (though I currently have no idea of it's functional state). I was about to throw it onto a test bench to see if all is well, but wanted to replace the thermal paste first.

It was at this point I noticed that none of the thermal pads on the backplate of the card were touching their respective components (two pads for MOSFETs and one pad for PCIe/AGP bridge chip), there was a good 1-2mm air-gap.

Upon removal of the backplate I noticed that there were two different sets of rubber standoffs between the backplate and the heatsink mount, like someone had previously added some spacers for some reason. Removing a set however doesn't appear to make the slightest jot of difference to the proximity of the thermal pads to their respective components.

If anyone has good pictures of the backplate mounting on this card I'd love to see it!

Assume we're talking this card...

Gecube X1950 XT AGP.jpg

...which I have in an old dual 604 rig (sorry for the old pic - can't access the box atm for clearer shots). What I can say is that I bought the card brand new, and to my eye the backplate never fitted snuggly (screws were all done up tight) to the extent that I fashioned a small u-clip to pressure flex the backplate into contact with the the pads / components. I'd say poor design all round.

Thank you, I appreciate the time and effort it took to help. I agree that the backplate at least seems a poor design, but the main cooler does seem to make good contact.

As I don’t know what kind of temperatures to expect I don’t know if the peltier is working well, but I’ll find out as soon as I get some new thermal pads for the rear!

paradigital wrote on 2023-07-20, 21:22:

PC Hoarder Patrol wrote on 2023-07-20, 20:17:

Assume we're talking this card... […]
Show full quote

paradigital wrote on 2023-07-20, 12:48:

Hello fellow Vogons, […]
Show full quote

Hello fellow Vogons,

I've just acquired this card, which appears to be in pretty nice condition (though I currently have no idea of it's functional state). I was about to throw it onto a test bench to see if all is well, but wanted to replace the thermal paste first.

It was at this point I noticed that none of the thermal pads on the backplate of the card were touching their respective components (two pads for MOSFETs and one pad for PCIe/AGP bridge chip), there was a good 1-2mm air-gap.

Upon removal of the backplate I noticed that there were two different sets of rubber standoffs between the backplate and the heatsink mount, like someone had previously added some spacers for some reason. Removing a set however doesn't appear to make the slightest jot of difference to the proximity of the thermal pads to their respective components.

If anyone has good pictures of the backplate mounting on this card I'd love to see it!

Assume we're talking this card...

Gecube X1950 XT AGP.jpg

...which I have in an old dual 604 rig (sorry for the old pic - can't access the box atm for clearer shots). What I can say is that I bought the card brand new, and to my eye the backplate never fitted snuggly (screws were all done up tight) to the extent that I fashioned a small u-clip to pressure flex the backplate into contact with the the pads / components. I'd say poor design all round.

Thank you, I appreciate the time and effort it took to help. I agree that the backplate at least seems a poor design, but the main cooler does seem to make good contact.

As I don’t know what kind of temperatures to expect I don’t know if the peltier is working well, but I’ll find out as soon as I get some new thermal pads for the rear!

No probs 😀

There's definitely potential for temp issues with this card, although I can't say I ever experienced any despite feeling slightly anal at the time about getting the backplate to seat "properly" as I saw it - perhaps helped by not being much of a gamer and having the card in a dual Xeon system with copious amounts of cooling / airflow.

The finned heatpipe cooler & fans seems decent enough but I do wonder if the additional layer of the peltier is in part to blame, both for the poor fitting / temp issues reported by others or if it's just down to shoddy design / QC - have a look at some of the less than stellar customer ratings on Newegg!! https://www.newegg.com/gecube-radeon-x1950xt- … N82E16814241049

I'd say a complete teardown & reinstall with new TIM and pads might be in order.

Finally got hold of some useful thickness (4.5mm) thermal pads. Replaced the massively undersized ones, used some threadlock on the standoffs as they were coming out of the heatsink, and applied some thermal grizzly to the GPU core itself.

Going to fire this up tomorrow and see what it runs like.