Repasting my Gigabyte Aorus Master 16 BZH RTX 5090 with PTM and Putty
I picked up my Gigabyte Aorus Master 16 BZH (RTX 5090 / Intel Core Ultra 9 275HX) about six weeks ago. Compared to the competitors in my area (ASUS HP, Lenovo), it was about $900-$1000 cheaper brand new. I researched the laptop pretty well and knew of the not so great reviews due to the price point it was released at in contrast to the companies, but it was very hard for me to justify spending an extra $900-$1000 for a better reviewed laptop that essentially has the same innards.
After purchasing it and spending some time with it I observed some weird issues and that the performance wasn't where it should be. The GPU would downclock during sessions, and the CPU was hitting 105°C at only 20-30% usage would core thermal throttle a lot! I know these chips run hot, but those numbers were definitely not okay.
The Investigation
I started monitoring everything with HWInfo64. While the GPU core stayed under 87C (the thermal limit), the Memory Junction Temperature was pinning at 104°C every time I gamed or stress tested. This was causing the GPU to throttle down to 1700-1800MHz, even in Performance Mode with the fans at full blast.
I decided it was time to open it up. I couldn't find any specific teardown guides for the Aorus Master G16 on reddit or YouTube, so I had to fly a bit blind.
The "Smoking Gun"
After disconnecting the battery and removing the heatsink, the culprit was staring me right in the face: A factory assembly error. Gigabyte uses thermal pads for the memory, and one of them was folded over on itself. It wasn’t making any contact with the memory chips at all.
As for the factory paste, it wasn't liquid metal, but also not the typical thermal paste that's used. Maybe it was PTM? Maybe it was a type of mixture? I cleaned everything up using 99% ethyl alcohol (isopropyl is hard to find here) and coffee filters.
The Upgrade
CPU/GPU: Thermal Grizzly PhaseSheet PTM.
VRAM/MOSFETs: Thermal Grizzly Thermal Putty Advanced (the blue stuff).
The "Heart Attack" Moment
After putting it back together, the laptop wouldn't post at first. On the second try, it booted, but the dGPU was missing from the system. I panicked, thinking I’d used too much putty and prevented the heatsink from seating, so I opened it up and thinned it out. Same result.
The Fix: It turns out that disconnecting the battery and holding the power button clears the CMOS. My BIOS had defaulted back to integrated graphics only. A quick trip into the BIOS to re-enable the dGPU (and switching the MUX back in the Gigabyte Control Center) fixed everything.
The Results (After 2 days of "curing")
Please note that PTM requires about 10 cycles or more to reach max cooling potential and settle so that it can get to those microscopic areas on the surface of the die.
The results have been great.
Fan speeds: On Performance mode (very loud), I was previously seeing RPMS hit 6900, now they mad out at 5900. So a major improvement for acoustics there. I rarely ever play with Performance mode on unless I'm hooking up to a 4k display and want the extra power or benchmarking. I typically play on balanced and I'm sure that has gone down as well, but don't remember what the before was.
CPU: In Cinebench and gaming, it now stays around 80°C–90°C (down from 105°C).
GPU Memory: Maxes out at 84°C during stress tests (a 20°C drop!).
Clocks: The GPU now sustains its full boost clocks in both Balanced and Performance modes. My temps when stress testing with Furmark stay at 77c and lower in other games and stress tests. In the Furmark beach, I was getting 184-190fps and now I'm getting 208-210. 3DMark graphics score at 24,700 when it used to be 22k-23k
Choosing the Silenced mode undervolts the card down to about 685mv and the clock speeds to about 1800 max, so it doesn't get very hot and that's why it's so quiet, and also msi afterburner curves don't really work there since GiMate takes control. Never really had an issue with the GPU on Silenced pre-pasting since heat and clocks were already low. I will say though now, after the repaste my performance on Silenced is actually better. So I can game quietly (even quieter than Balanced) without sacrificing too much.
Because the thermal overhead is back, I was able to undervolt and overclock via MSI Afterburner. I’m currently running a curve at 785mv / 2300MHz. In Crimson Desert (1600p Max Settings), I’m seeing 70°C–74°C on Performance mode and 75c-82c in Balanced mode. I expect these to go down even more in the coming days when the ptm has settled.
Moral of the story: If your high-end laptop is throttling, don't trust the factory assembly. Check those pads!
(I’ve attached photos of the folded pad and the new putty application below.)