Thursday, April 24th 2025
GIGABYTE AORUS RTX 5080 MASTER Starts Leaking Thermal Gel After Four Weeks of Light MMO Gaming
An unlucky owner of a GIGABYTE AORUS GeForce RTX 5080 MASTER ICE 16 GB graphics card has reported a baffling instance of thermal gel leakage. A forum post—titled: "5080 oh my god thermal problem"—on the Quasar Zone BBS alerted the wider world to this bizarre fault. The South Korean MMORPG enthusiast described circumstances up until the point of critical liquefaction: "it's been exactly a month since I bought it. I use it for (Blizzard's) World of Warcraft. Two hours of use per day. I set up the card with a riser kit. Thermal (material) is crawling out?!" Early 2025 press coverage has largely focused on other types of unwanted high temperature events involving GeForce RTX 50-series cards, but the seeping out of "server-grade thermal conductive gel" compound is something new. As reported by several PC hardware news outlets, GIGABYTE has utilized fancy thermal conductive gel within flagship SKUs—instead of traditional/conventional thermal pads. This gel was placed over the card's VRAM and MOSFET sections; following fairly light usage (as described above) some of this material started to head down—getting ever closer to the unit's PCIe interface.
Assisted by the AORUS RTX 5080 MASTER ICE's vertical orientation, the (apparently) highly deformable, but non-fluid thermal gel was susceptible to the effects of gravity. JC Hyun System Co., Ltd.—GIGABYTE's official domestic importer (for South Korea)—weighed in with a separate bulletin: "we are aware of the thermal gel issue with the GIGABYTE GeForce RTX 50 series, which was first posted on Quasar Zone—(we) are currently discussing the thermal gel issue with GIGABYTE HQ and future customer service regulations. In addition, we sincerely apologize for the confusion caused to many customers who love and use GIGABYTE products due to inaccurate guidance provided to customers who received the products due to unclear customer service regulations regarding the issue that occurred this time. Lastly, when the manufacturer's customer service policy regarding this thermal gel issue is finalized, we will also forward the service policy to CS Innovation so that it can be processed smoothly in accordance with the service policy. We will also provide information through a separate post so that more customers can be aware of the information." As mentioned by Notebookcheck, GIGABYTE uses this special thermal gel solution on other highly expensive custom: "RTX 50-series cards like the GeForce RTX 5090 XTREME WATERFORCE 32G, RTX 5090 MASTER ICE, RTX 5070 Ti MASTER, and others."
Sources:
Quasar Zone BBS #1, VideoCardz, Notebookcheck, Wccftech, Quasar Zone BBS #2
Assisted by the AORUS RTX 5080 MASTER ICE's vertical orientation, the (apparently) highly deformable, but non-fluid thermal gel was susceptible to the effects of gravity. JC Hyun System Co., Ltd.—GIGABYTE's official domestic importer (for South Korea)—weighed in with a separate bulletin: "we are aware of the thermal gel issue with the GIGABYTE GeForce RTX 50 series, which was first posted on Quasar Zone—(we) are currently discussing the thermal gel issue with GIGABYTE HQ and future customer service regulations. In addition, we sincerely apologize for the confusion caused to many customers who love and use GIGABYTE products due to inaccurate guidance provided to customers who received the products due to unclear customer service regulations regarding the issue that occurred this time. Lastly, when the manufacturer's customer service policy regarding this thermal gel issue is finalized, we will also forward the service policy to CS Innovation so that it can be processed smoothly in accordance with the service policy. We will also provide information through a separate post so that more customers can be aware of the information." As mentioned by Notebookcheck, GIGABYTE uses this special thermal gel solution on other highly expensive custom: "RTX 50-series cards like the GeForce RTX 5090 XTREME WATERFORCE 32G, RTX 5090 MASTER ICE, RTX 5070 Ti MASTER, and others."
38 Comments on GIGABYTE AORUS RTX 5080 MASTER Starts Leaking Thermal Gel After Four Weeks of Light MMO Gaming
Another few months and you will have only those components cooled, which received the gel from the above components. All other will be bare.It just behaves like a liquid, it does not seem it can hold anywhere on its own. I am starting to have doubts about it even in normaly horizontally mounted cards.They cannot ignore this for another few months now. It is really good that you posted this.
I got the Gigabyte model because that was the only one available, had 7900XTX from them before and they also messed that one up, it started to overheat on the core, hotspot reached 110C after 6 months of usage (and back then had NZXT H7 flow case, it was mounted normally). RMAed it, only for the service to basically do nothing for 1 month. I was saved by the shop then, that simply decided that they will refund me and take it further with Gigabyte service themselves.
I thought that maybe they are just bad at making Radeons, but nope, they also messed it up here.
Last time I got anything from them, even if it will be the only one available.
I wonder if you could try to focus the photo on the leak, so that you can compare it well with future photos to see, how quickly it moves.You can even still see the RAM packages outline on the gel. There is something seriously wrong with this stuff.
How long have you been using your card?
videocardz.com/newz/gigabyte-reputation-melts-alongside-thermal-gel-more-cases-of-rtx-50-gel-spill-issue
To update on the case, Gigabyte Esupport portal replied that I need to make an RMA with a seller. So I did. The card will go to service. We will see what will be done.
Copied from TPU.
But with headline (translated) "Gigabyte Card Issues. Users Notice Strange Leak".