Stock Thermal Paste - HD4870/50

[Grinja]

Has anyone had any experience re-applying thermal paste on their Radeons?
This is something I would like try but would like to know if anyone else has had any success before I void my warranty.




I came across a post by Gary_Coleman who claims to that the changing the thermal paste dropped temps by 10 degrees celcious.
http://discuss.extremetech.com...418612/ShowThread.aspx

 

[Bateluer]

The default paste on my stock solutions never very good, although some companies use Arctic Silver or MX-2. Applying it would be pretty straight forward, with the only real difference being the removal of the cooler assembly. Then its just a matter of cleaning off the old paste and applying the new paste the same way you would on a CPU.

 

[AmberClad]

What were you planning on doing with the thermal pads for the memory modules and the VRMs? Once you remove the cooler, the adhesive bonds on those pads are going to be broken. You can't just remove the pads and substitute thermal paste on those (height issues). The guy from the Extremetech thread seems to have glossed over that detail.

I also don't think it'll make a huge difference. The core uses a thin layer of thermal gunk anyway, not a thick thermal pad, so switching to aftermarket thermal paste won't make as much difference as upping the fan speed or switching to an aftermarket cooler.

That poster in the Extremetech thread mentions that his cooler seemed loose. It's possible that the difference in temps he saw was due to tightening up the screws on the back after reinstalling the cooler.

 

[shangshang]

I've replaced the thermal paste, and it made no difference on the temp. Nah, don't waste your time.

 

[Hauk]

Originally posted by: shangshang
I've replaced the thermal paste, and it made no difference on the temp. Nah, don't waste your time.

Ditto. I used Arctic Ceramique and it made no difference. It's not the stock thermal interface(s), it's the single slot cooler...

 

[Grinja]

Thanks for the input ... I think i will stick to the fan fix. Running fan at 30% seems to be a a good trade off between noise/temp.

 

[unr3al]

I would say "screw the warranty" and buy some aftermarket cooler. But thats just because I overclock everything I can the moment my system is stable with the new part fitted lol

 

[octopus41092]

Originally posted by: unr3al
I would say "screw the warranty" and buy some aftermarket cooler. But thats just because I overclock everything I can the moment my system is stable with the new part fitted lol

Yeah, I agree with that. I got an Arctic Cooling Accelero S1 and that thing does wonders. If you're not overclocking you could have a passive cooler on it and it'll probably load at what it was idling at before.

 

[PG]

Originally posted by: AmberClad
What were you planning on doing with the thermal pads for the memory modules and the VRMs? Once you remove the cooler, the adhesive bonds on those pads are going to be broken. You can't just remove the pads and substitute thermal paste on those (height issues). The guy from the Extremetech thread seems to have glossed over that detail.

I also don't think it'll make a huge difference. The core uses a thin layer of thermal gunk anyway, not a thick thermal pad, so switching to aftermarket thermal paste won't make as much difference as upping the fan speed or switching to an aftermarket cooler.

That poster in the Extremetech thread mentions that his cooler seemed loose. It's possible that the difference in temps he saw was due to tightening up the screws on the back after reinstalling the cooler.

Everyone has said that those thick pads go right back on as they came off. No damage occurs and there should be no issues.

 

[Elcs]

Originally posted by: PG

Originally posted by: AmberClad
What were you planning on doing with the thermal pads for the memory modules and the VRMs? Once you remove the cooler, the adhesive bonds on those pads are going to be broken. You can't just remove the pads and substitute thermal paste on those (height issues). The guy from the Extremetech thread seems to have glossed over that detail.

I also don't think it'll make a huge difference. The core uses a thin layer of thermal gunk anyway, not a thick thermal pad, so switching to aftermarket thermal paste won't make as much difference as upping the fan speed or switching to an aftermarket cooler.

That poster in the Extremetech thread mentions that his cooler seemed loose. It's possible that the difference in temps he saw was due to tightening up the screws on the back after reinstalling the cooler.

Everyone has said that those thick pads go right back on as they came off. No damage occurs and there should be no issues.

I was horrified when I saw those thick pads. What on earth kind of cooling do they provide?

Well, they provide decent enough cooling at stock with the stock cooler.

Glad I can run my HR-03 GT passive on my HD4870.

 

[envaloop]

I have 8800 GT?s in SLI and the first thing that bugged me was that one card always ran hotter than the other. Next issue was reading that some folks had much lower average temps at under idle and full load. Anyway, I removed the covers, cleaned off the stock thermal paste and replaced it with OCZ Freeze, a high end paste. Wow, it really made a big difference. Now both cards run at the same exact temp and ?hot? card now runs about 10 degrees cooler under load. The problem seems to be the amount of paste that was applied at the factory ? way too much. The cooler of my two cards had much less stock paste. I applied just enough to create a thin layer over the GPU using a plastic playing card.

 

[error8]

Originally posted by: Elcs

Glad I can run my HR-03 GT passive on my HD4870.

:Q Wow, that is very dangerous. Your power regulators are probably melting without air being blown on them.


To the OP: I've changed the thermal paste and it did help. There was a ton of that goo Sapphire applies on the chip. After putting some AS5, I could keep my old temps but at lower fans speeds, so yeah it totally worth it. It depends how lucky you are with your card. Maybe some companies use the thermal paste as it should be used, others don't.

 

[octopus41092]

I did it for mine but I also switched the cooler. I'm running a Accelero S1, it works passively on my HD4850 and does even better with a 120mm. I don't know about the HD4870 though... As for the warranty as long as it doesn't look like you changed your cooler I don't think they'll notice. It shouldn't be too big of a deal.