Last week, GIGABYTE issued an official response to an initial case of "thermal conductive gel slippage," involving an ultra-expensive AORUS GeForce RTX 5080 MASTER ICE, a vertical-mounted graphics card setup, and very non-intensive MMO gaming sessions. The Taiwanese manufacturer believes that this problem is isolated within a first wave of products: "every graphics card is inspected and verified against our quality standards before leaving the factory. The thermal conductive gel is an insulating, deformable, putty-like compound. It is engineered to remain in place when applied properly, and can endure at least 150 °C before any melting or liquification could happen. In some early production batches for the GIGABYTE GeForce RTX 50 Series, a slightly higher volume of gel was applied to ensure sufficient thermal coverage. The overapplication may cause the excessive gel to appear more prominent, extended, and could potentially be separated 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. We had already inspected the issue, and adjusted the gel to the optimal amount in (subsequent) production runs."

Despite sending out a public assurance to a worried audience—"(we) take your concerns seriously and want to provide clear information"—GIGABYTE will not be recalling problematic products. VideoCardz reckons that the company is "downplaying" current conditions. Based on further evidence—shared by several members of the TechPowerUp forum (commenting on news coverage)—unfortunately, the first reported case (emerging from South Korea) was not an isolated incident. Given the contents of GIGABYTE's public bulletin, they seem to be aware that this special thermal material (reserved for fancier SKUs) is troubling owners of early batch "GeForce RTX 50 Series and Radeon RX 9000 Series graphics cards." TPU forumite, remekra, shared two images and the following bit of feedback (plus a warning): "I have mine mounted in Lian Li SUP01 case, so GPU is basically standing that's why it drips into the direction of ports. So far it does not overheat on memory modules. I will hold off sending it to GIGABYTE customer service, as I don't have good memories of them; so until it overheats or stops working I will use it. But if you have a vertical case or stand then be aware."GIGABYTE's (claimed) laborious QA process points to solid footing: "the thermal conductivity gel solution on the GIGABYTE graphics cards has undergone rigorous testing to verify the performance and stability, including but not limited to: multi-axis drops and vibration testing (covering four corners and six sides). Long‐duration heavy‐load operational simulations, meanwhile, the exposure to extreme ambient temperatures. Verification in both vertical and horizontal installation orientations." In another reply, TaLL—a brand-new TPU community member—disclosed problems arising shortly after purchase: "I just bought a Gigabyte graphics card about two weeks ago. One week shipping process, and then this past week using the GeForce RTX 5080. I am just now learning of this leaking problem, so I checked under the heatsink, and BOOM; some blob is oozing out. I am very worried about this, for obvious reasons.... about 1500+ reasons. These things cost so much, and to use the card for about a week then get gel leaking out...I have a vertical mounted Lian Li case with a riser cable...First time using GIGABYTE as well, and this makes me never want to have any other product from them."

vermie22—another fresh sign-up—shared their personal observation: "same appears to be happening to mine, and it doesn't even appear to be melted at all, just completely slipping out of position. In my case, the thermal pad still seems to be holding its original shape, (but) it seems to have just completely slid down and has barely deformed at all." We hope that GIGABYTE's slight adjustment of applied measures of thermal conductive gel has resolved these issues, going forward. In the interim, affected end users will need to keep a careful eye on their early batch units.