Dude, thank you for the info! Really, I hate the RGB on the FE card. I think I'm gonna go for it, probably Sunday afternoon. When you replaced the pads, did you just replicate whatever pads they had already installed. It looks like a lot of bits aren't covered by pads and I'd be tempted to cover those too.
I did get this heat sink, and generic 1.5mm thermal pads, and stick it on the backplate. Took me down from 110° to 104°. Good, but not enough. The auto fan goes up to 80+ and is super loud snd annoying. I gotta get that dialed in.