PNY 5070Ti Backplate Model

Disclaimers:

1. The maximum core temp of the 5070 Ti is ~88C while the maximum GDDR7 temp is ~95C. This is to say that my temperatures at stock were perfectly fine and there was no real reason to do this. I suffer from the 'lower number at all costs' sickness. Even after leaving the watercooling scene I cant shake it. Plus this seemed like it'd be a fun and easy project (which it was for the most part).
2. I know Furmark is not a good test of real world gaming performance & temperature. I use it because its the highest heat generator, which, in my opinion, is best to judge a cooling change/"upgrade".
3. My technical writing skills are quite rusty, so I apologize for any wonkiness. I only kind of know what I'm doing.

I recently got a PNY 5070Ti, and while the card runs great it does tend to run a little warm especially when compared to competing vapor chamber models. But it was available at MSRP (thanks buildapcsales), so I figured I would get it over the others anyway and see if I could spruce it up.

My only idea was to increase the size of the flow through area. I'm already at a disadvantage, as I'm using this card in a SFF case. Space and airflow are at a premium. Even moreso for me, as my PSU cuts off most of the flow through area of the card:

I started by scanning the stock plate with my printer, importing it into Fusion360 as a canvas, and creating a baseline/first version. From there I would:

1. 3D print a thin template
2. Test the screw hole alignment on the stock plate
3. Adjust the design based on step 2 fitment
4. Repeat from step 1 until it was accurate enough

I went through this process ten times:

The tenth version fit super well, so I finalized it and placed the order. I ended up going with 1.6mm thick 5052 aluminum as it was cheap and fast to make. For production I went to SendCutSend. Shout out to them (this isnt sponsored in any way btw) their site is super easy to use and their prices are way lower than I thought. Their turnaround time was also way faster than I thought. It took about a week from ordering to getting delivered at $40 for 3 pieces. Really awesome stuff!

I then got some silicone standoffs, thermal pads, 8mm M2x0.5 screws, and kapton tape. The stock plate had plastic insulation above the board area, so I copied that with my kapton tape. I dont have any pictures of that, unfortunately. I do have a picture of the stock plate with the insulation on it seen below. Imagine mine with kapton tape in the same area with the same cutouts.

I have some strange clearances in my case, due to using an ATX power supply. The trimmed pieces you see in the bottom two photos are to deal with that clearance. I forgot about it in the initial design (theres always something!).

If you end up making this dont forget to print out 8x2.5mm spacers and 2x2.3mm spacers. These are a bit of a pain to install but are important as they mimic the stock plate height. 

The large flow through area on my backplate is ~3.7 times that of the stock flow through area. I didnt count my tiny vent holes, so its probably a tad bit more.

I tested this mod with 20-30min runs of furmark and 30min - 1hr sessions of FF7: Rebirth. Fan curves were set for the case via FanControl and kept factory for the GPU.

One thing to note is the number next to each data series, i.e. stock 1, mod 1. I did multiple runs of each configuration, each number denotes said run.

The other stock runs were within error of the first making it a good candidate for comparison. No changes were made from stock run to run.

There was one change from mod 1 (not shown) to 2, and that was switching from soft mounts to hard mounts. Mod 1 had the backplate secured to the GPU via silicone standoffs. I switched those for 2.4mm plastic spacers to more closely align with the rigid stock plate config. I think the lack of rigidity with the silicone spacers may have made the cooler contact not as good, leading to a temperature increase of 2C across the board. Not really sure what else it'd be, but the harder mount points seemed to have resolved it.

FurMark

Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth

The big question: Does some rando know more than the multi-million dollar PC component maker?

Turns out no, not really. (I really thought I did tbh lmao)

Overall temperatures seem to be within one deviation of each other. At face value that sucks; I thought I would see a 3-4C drop in temperatures with this flow through area opened up. Obviously that was not the case!

However, there is a little bit of a silver lining: It seems that there is substantial improvement in the fan speed/noise. In the stock configuration, the GPU fans would ramp to about 70-80% during my furmark runs. With the modded plate installed, the fans now only ramp to 50-60%. Unfortunately I didnt record fan data, so this is anecdotal evidence and therefore bad science at best.

All that being said, this backplate also just fits my build better. I have clearance issues with the 12VHPWR connector coming off of my PSU, but the little cutout I made negates that which is just nice peace of mind. I'll keep the stock plate around for when I sell this card, but for now its gonna rock my own design!

Overall I had fun making it and learned a bit in the process. Though I do wish it was better lmao

I'll probably end up listing these two other backplates on the hardwareswap subreddit in the future. If you want one let me know!

Here are some pics I tried to take of it in the case, but its so tight its hard to see.

Hopefully this was a fun read and gave you some ideas!