Thermal Paste on gpu?

[blake0812]

My GPU is getting hotter and hotter each day, (around 70C when playing FF14 and 40C when idle) I already cleaned out the dust bunnies in it but should I replace the paste on it? (if there is any)

 

[OVerLoRDI]

I've found it makes a solid difference especially if the graphics card is over a year old or so. It could void your warranty, and be careful with all the tiny screws.

 

[AntonioHG]

I've found it makes a solid difference especially if the graphics card is over a year old or so. It could void your warranty, and be careful with all the tiny screws.

If there was uprank, I would uprank.

My only thing to add is that if you're in the northern hemisphere and you've got some summer heat -- well, your temps would be just about inline with what you have now. All three of my PCs are at that temp right now. No AC.

 

[Deders]

My GPU is getting hotter and hotter each day, (around 70C when playing FF14 and 40C when idle) I already cleaned out the dust bunnies in it but should I replace the paste on it? (if there is any)

What make and model is it?

I found that replacing the paste on my EVGA 560TI made a big improvement on temps and noise, on the other hand my Asus 670 only improved by 1c so not really worth it.

This was with MX4.

 

[blake0812]

What make and model is it?

I found that replacing the paste on my EVGA 560TI made a big improvement on temps and noise, on the other hand my Asus 670 only improved by 1c so not really worth it.

This was with MX4.

MSI gtx760.

If there was uprank, I would uprank.

My only thing to add is that if you're in the northern hemisphere and you've got some summer heat -- well, your temps would be just about inline with what you have now. All three of my PCs are at that temp right now. No AC.

I live in Louisiana.

 

[MongGrel]

I killed a HD4870x2 doing that once.

Just all I'm saying.

Other than I'm not a complete n00b at doing things along those lines.

 

[MTDEW]

What make and model is it?

I found that replacing the paste on my EVGA 560TI made a big improvement on temps and noise, on the other hand my Asus 670 only improved by 1c so not really worth it.

This was with MX4.

+1 on the MX4, Ive had great results with it on all my GPUs.

I killed a HD4870x2 doing that once.

Just all I'm saying.

Other than I'm not a complete n00b at doing things along those lines.

Agreed, even if you're knowlegeable/experienced in these kind of things, it certainly helps to ALWAYS take your time and have the proper tools. (ie: eyeglass screwdriver kit usually helps a lot! )
And be careful to take the time and torque the screws in steps, in a cross pattern similar to how you should torque lug-nuts on a car wheel in a cross pattern config. (And DO NOT over-tighten!....allow the springs to do their job! )

 

[deathBOB]

Why bother? 70C is not hot for GPU.

 

[Deders]

I killed a HD4870x2 doing that once.

Just all I'm saying.

Other than I'm not a complete n00b at doing things along those lines.

I thought I'd killed my 560TI but it turned out my computer just needed to be left off for half an hour with the bios battery out.

 

[Phil L]

Although 70 deg. C doesn't sound so bad, I also don't play FF14 so I don't know how demanding it is. On top of that your graphics setting and resolution also matter. A better test would be say Furmark at fullscreen (whatever resolution you run at), and see what that's like. Personally I had to do a re-pasting job for my own GPU (MSI Radeon 7850 Twin Frozr) because it couldn't even run Furmark @ 1680x1050 at stock without thermal throttling, even though it should be able to.

What I found was that the factory pasting job can be too thick sometimes. As I said, my MSI 7850 Twin Frozr couldn't run Furmark @ 1680 x 1050 at stock without thermal throttling, even though the fans were already running at max and way too loud (as seen and set by Afterburner). I specifically point out Furmark in here because although it's more taxing than gaming, it is a more controlled test that doesn't depend on the game and graphics setting you are playing at. Anyway, for regular gaming the fans were still a bit too loud for my taste if I want to keep the temperature below 75 deg. C or so. Finally after trying to lower the supplied voltage to lower temperature without significant success, I thought maybe I should check the thermal paste.

The process itself was simple enough, just had to be careful not to lose any screws. I was surprised by how thick the thermal paste was on this brand new card (on the order of 1~2 mm [0.04~0.08"]), so I cleaned it off and applied some new one. I didn't have anything fancy, just a tube that comes with my Cooler Master Hyper 212+, but which worked just fine. Then I reassembled the whole thing and plugged it back in. Right away I was able to run Furmark at full screen without thermal throttling, and the fan didn't even need to run at max. For general gaming, I was able to adjust the fan profile so I could game while barely hear the fan at all (the case fans are louder now), and still stay under 65 deg. C if ambient temperature is below 25 deg. C.

I recently did a similar re-pasting job for my brother's GPU also, Again, the factory applied paste was also a bit thick (I think it was an XFX), and he got more than 10 deg. C improvement while under Furmark load as well. Idle temp. improved slightly too but as expected not as dramatic. Anyway, he doesn't play game on PC so the improvement didn't really matter to him (he uses his computer for digital photography), but since we were re-applying TIM to his CPU, we thought we might as well try.

Anyway, just to share my experience, hope it can be of use to some.

 

[Lorne]

Always, As soon as its out of the box it get parted and repaste, Once it goes in it will be a long time before it comes back out.
And now I even started moding the fan and shroud to avoid cavitation which many of my previous cards suffer from.

 

[blake0812]

I'll give it a go when I get home then.

 

[BonzaiDuck]

Innovative Cooling "IC Diamond." We went through a lot of exchanges about the product on the threads for de-lidding a 3770K processor. The IC folks were adamant that the nano-diamond bits wouldn't damage a processor, but veteran posters were just as adamant.

Before the topic ever came up on de-lidding, I'd put diamond paste on my NVidia GTS 8800 GPU die. At that time, it wasn't of much concern, because I was replacing the entire heatsink assembly with a TR VGA cooler. [As far as I know, that system is still running at my other brother's house across town.]

 

[blake0812]

Came home to find the PSU completely shot so i'll have to wait until tomorrow to try to apply the paste.