Wanted to add a few data points that might help others in this thread.
Thermal pad thickness confusion: The pads that ship with this cooler are 0.5mm, not 1mm. The datasheet says 1mm, but the thermal pad paragraph says 0.5mm, the manual says 0.5mm, and the baggy in the box says 0.5mm (photo attached for proof). I initially trusted the datasheet, put in 1mm pads, and it caused real heat problems.
GPU: Gigabyte 4070 Ti Super Gaming OC (same as others here), cooler: Eisblock Eagle for Gigabyte.
Standoff issue: I had zero die contact out of the box. Stock standoffs measured ~3mm; I shaved mine down to 2.4mm (target was 0.025in / ~0.63mm reduction). I don't recommend doing this unless you have no other option; everyone else in this thread seems to be fine on stock standoffs. For me, without shaving, the GPU wasn't contacting at all and hotspot hit 110C instantly.
Repaste results: After repasting, hotspot wouldn't drop below 90C. Turned out to be the 1mm pads, since even fully compressed they only squished to about 0.5mm, still not enough to close the gap. Switched to Gelid 0.5mm pads (from Amazon) and temps dropped dramatically.
Temps, 1mm pads (room temp ~76F): GPU 75C, hotspot 90C, memory 45C
Temps, 0.5mm pads (room temp ~76F):
- Stress test: GPU 50C max, hotspot 67C max
- Cyberpunk 2077: GPU 50C max, hotspot 65C max, VRAM 68C max
0.75mm pads would probably shave a bit more off VRAM temps, but 68C is already fine and not worth chasing. They're also hard to find outside Amazon, or overpriced on Newegg (probably shipped from China either way).
If you're about to repaste, just buy the 0.75mm pads up front, why not. Others have been happy with them, and unless your standoffs are shaved, there's likely some lack of compression to make up for.