Update (25/04/25): Gigabyte has acknowledged reports of leaking thermal gel as seen in its GeForce RTX 50 Series cards. In a lengthy statement, the brand explains that early batches of some models used a higher volume of gel which has since been reduced.
Gigabyte states that any visible excess gel presents no danger to the performance, reliability, or lifespan of any affected cards. Any affected customers that have further questions are advised to contact their local service center.
Original article (24/05/25): Going against the grain, Gigabyte uses thermal gel in place of pads to cool components such as MOSFETs and memory modules in its flagship Aorus Master GeForce RTX 5080 and RTX 5090. While this approach does come with advantages, it seems it’s proving problematic for at least one owner of the card.
Quasar Zone community member ‘Rolling around’ has shared images of their Aorus RTX 5080 Master Ice where its thermal gel appears to be leaking out. Troublingly, should the grey goo continue down its current path, it’ll eventually make contact with the PCIe interface.
The user claims they’ve only had the GPU a month, gaming for around two hours per day, and exclusively use it for World of Warcraft. While it’s possible that thermals contributed to this exodus of paste, it doesn’t seem likely given the amount of stress the card’s faced.
More importantly, the user highlights they’ve paired their Aorus RTX 5080 Master Ice with a riser kit. This goes some way to explain why the gel is flowing towards the PCIe interface, i.e. downwards.
The gravity of the situation (pun intended) is easy to understand but its scale is less so. As far as we know, this is the only instance of this problem which could point to a defective unit rather than a design flaw.
Gigabyte is already working with distributors to establish the cause of the problem and any potential policies that need apply to card moving forward, according to a further Quasar Zone post. I’ve contacted Gigabyte and requested a comment from the manufacturer.
In the meantime, it seems the safest option for this user and other owners of Aorus Master cards is to mount the card horizontally. Not an ideal situation for a flagship model which should be fuss-free, but better to play it safe until we get an official word.
If you’re hungry for an alternative white pixel pusher, it’s worth giving Gigabyte GeForce RTX 5080 Aero OC SFF a look. Fair warning, though, it’s as pricey as it is pretty.
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