Awhile ago I took apart my 4090 since the delta between the average temp and hotspot was nearly 40c! Average temp was 75c while the Hotspot was 112! So I decided to repad it and put in some PTM7950. Issue is there was also no teardown guide of this exact model. I went into this blind and documented everything as seen in my post history.
I also wanted a while GPU, but it made 0 sense financially to side grade to another 4090 or upgrade to a 5090. So I thought that cerakote would be a great idea since my other expensive hobby is collecting knives and getting them customized. I found a shop an hour away and the guy did it, as well as laser markings. I think the final outcome is great and matches the rest of the build.
Why cerakote over painting? I was slightly afraid of doing a bad job of painting myself, and cerakote is made to withstand higher temperatures. Is it overkill? Yes. But there are probably thousands of colors to choose from and only requires a thin layer. I like it on my knives, so why not my GPU?
So far after 30 minutes the max temp in FurMark 2 are now 83c average and a hot spot of 100c. The average temp is much hotter, but the hot spot did come down a lot. Also it is now pushing 2,865 MHz, while before my GPU clocked down a lot. Memory is also maxing out at 66c.