Users of Nvidia RTX 50-series graphics cards are seeing a disproportionate number of problems this generation. Sadly, it seems that yet another one has cropped up for customers who bought Gigabyte-branded RTX 50 series cards, as reports emerge of issues involving thermal paste (specifically thermal gel) leaking.

Thermal paste is not the most exciting part of a PC build. It is an unexciting grey substance that ensures proper heat transference between a chip and a heatsink or cooler. Most PC users don’t even think about it much after it has been applied. Unfortunately, some Gigabyte customers are experiencing problems that involve the thermal paste on their expensive graphics cards leaking.

Thermal leakage on RTX 5080

The issue was brought to our attention by noted tech blogger Harukaze5719 on X, referencing a post on Quasarzone forums. The post included a picture of a Gigabyte graphics card where the thermal gel is visibly flowing out and down the card. Since thermal paste or thermal gel is vital to the thermal performance of the GPU, this is not good news.

Harukaze specified that the card involved is a Gigabyte RTX 5080 Aorus Master Ice and is vertically mounted. The card was purchased only two months ago, and its hardest task was playing World of Warcraft for two hours per day. As noted by other commenters, quality thermal solutions should not behave this way, indicating that Gigabyte is either using inferior thermal compound, suggesting it should opt for more viscous thermal paste rather than thermal gel.

Furthermore, there is nothing to suggest that Gigabyte advises against using vertical mounts or PCIe risers. If the company were using thermal gel, this should be made clear to users to ensure this problem does not occur. Fellow tech blogger Uniko’s Hardware indicated that it had seen similar reports from users in China, suggesting that this is not an isolated incident.

About the Author

Rebecca Hills-Duty

Writing and journalism experience at VRFocus, UploadVR, The Escapist, HTC, PC Gamer, Tech Radar+ and Dexerto. Can sometimes be found playing with retro tech.