Reapplying a fresh layer of thermal paste to a graphics card's GPU is quite easy but dealing with its thermal pads is another matter altogether. Thermal Grizzly reckons it has the perfect solution, in the form of a thick putty that you can slap onto the VRAM and VRM chips, instead of worrying about what thickness of pad you need to buy.
Thermal interface materials (TIMs) are required because the contact surface between a chip and a heatsink/cooler isn't a perfect match—there are always microscopic gaps between them and the trapped air acts as an insulator. TIMs fill in the gaps, improving the heat flow between the two parts, and come in many different forms, such as a paste, liquid, or even a soft pad.
