Igor's Lab finds hotspot issues on all RTX 50 cards

Tech news and review website Igor's Lab shared a new report highlighting serious heating issues on all partner RTX 50 series GPUs, including the RTX 5080, RTX 5070 (Ti), and RTX 5060 Ti.  

The report (via Tom's Hardware) finds the construction of the power delivery systems problematic, with all its components grouped too closely together. It causes high-temperature zones in the power delivery area, with reported temperatures as high as 107.3°C.   

The 5060 Ti, in particular, displayed tons of thermal anomalies in the power delivery area. The report cautions that high temperatures can kill the cards after a few years of extended use.  

The high-compact effect of packing components is at the expense of thermal performance. The report notes thin copper layers in the PCB, connected with power lanes, cause high thermal density on the board. These are most noticeable around voltage converters that power the GPU supply rails. 

The report mentions that Nvidia's thermal design guides for RTX 40 series cards measure parameters in ideal environments rather than worst-case scenarios. 

Of the cards tested by Igor's Lab, the Palit RTX 5080 Gaming Pro OC showed high temperatures between the rear display outputs and the GPU die, with temperatures as high as 80.5°C. The PNY RTX 5070 measured 107.3°C in the same area. 

The main issue is the inefficient cooling applied to the components. Igor's Lab retested the two cards after applying a thermal mod. The Palit 5080 reported 70.3°C after the mod, and the PNY 5070 dropped to 95°C. For reference, 80° is the cutoff after which "ageing effects" occur. The high temperatures will eventually kill these cards after just a few years of use.