Gigabyte says thermal gel leaking is not a cause for concern, addressed in new batches

Recently, it was reported that the server-grade thermal gel that Gigabyte is using on its RTX 50 series and Radeon RX 9000 series GPUs is leaking. Gigabyte has now acknowledged the issue and said that it is not a cause for concern and that mounting the GPU in any orientation will not affect performance or durability. It has also reportedly tweaked the amount of applied thermal gel for future batches.

Through a post on its news page, Gigabyte has stated that the thermal gel is applied using a fully automated process that ensures there is no human variance that can occur in case of traditional thermal pads. For context, the company switched to using a server-grade thermal gel on several of its RTX 50 series and Radeon RX 9000 series GPUs to cool the VRAM and MOSFETS instead of solid thermal pads. However, a few users had reported that the gel was leaking out even with moderate use.

One of the users faced this issue on a premium Aorus RTX 5080 Master Ice GPU just after a month of moderate use. They had the GPU mounted vertically and the thermal gel, as per the images shared by the user, was leaking towards the PCB. While not electrically conductive, the gel could have made contact with the PCB and caused major issues. 

Gigabyte assures customers that it has performed comprehensive testing and validation which include both vertical and horizontal mounting scenarios. The thermal gel will not melt or liquify till at least 150 degrees Celsius. As for the leaking reports, the company states that some early production batches had “a slightly higher volume of gel” to ensure proper coverage. This may cause the gel to appear extended and potentially separate from the designated area. “While the appearance of extra gel might be concerning, this cosmetic variance does not affect the card’s performance, reliability, or lifespan,” the post adds. 

The amount of thermal gel used has already been adjusted for future batches, according to Gigabyte.