Replacing the thermal paste on a Sapphire Pulse 5700xt

I may still do a single ziptie at the very end of the card/fanbracket. Just something at the end linking the two together for stability purposes. Glad I don't have a soundcard
 
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Id either full coverage block it, or G12 bracket with Be Quiet fans.
Remember to replace the g12 92mm bracket fan with a silent wings 3 also.
Yes, I own bunch of noctua product.
No, in the case of silence chasing + chasing low temps do I think noctua at 50%+ are less perceptible than Silent wings 3 140mm fans.
 
Curious, can I use liquid metal like TG conductonaut on this sapphire heatsink? I am already going to be deliding my 6700K so I have some of this stuff on the way. They make it a point to tell you NOT to use this on aluminium heatsinks/coolers. Which is why for the cpu delid this is fine, this stuff is being applied between the die and the copper IHS, not between the copper IHS and the cpu cooler. But for the gpu, there is no IHS, there is just die and HSF.

Looking at this teardown, you can see a copper plate where the heatsink makes contact with the die. So really, I could use it here right?

1597334047268.png
 
Curious, can I use liquid metal like TG conductonaut on this sapphire heatsink? I am already going to be deliding my 6700K so I have some of this stuff on the way. They make it a point to tell you NOT to use this on aluminium heatsinks/coolers. Which is why for the cpu delid this is fine, this stuff is being applied between the die and the copper IHS, not between the copper IHS and the cpu cooler. But for the gpu, there is no IHS, there is just die and HSF.

Looking at this teardown, you can see a copper plate where the heatsink makes contact with the die. So really, I could use it here right?

View attachment 269647
yes
 
hmm would there be a huge drop in temp? From stock to Noctua NT-H1 there was maybe 1C Core, 7C junction improvement at best
 
In my experience liquid metal can leave behind pretty nasty stains. I wouldn't use it if you are concerned about being able to revert your card to stock to send in for warranty, if the need arises.
 
I wanted to chime in and mention that once you repaste a card you'll need to keep an eye on it and re-do it every year or two. The GPU die and the heatsink expand/contract at different rates, and that causes the "pump out effect" where your thermal paste will eventually migrate out from where you applied it. That's why OEMs always use that thick, dry-looking paste. It's not faulty, it's not as good as the enthusiast stuff, but they select that to reduce RMAs and give a card that has been running for 3+ years on the original paste a fighting chance of keeping thermals in check.
 
I have used liquid metal for everything the last ten years. Laptops, GPU's, CPU'us, delids, etc...

LM absolutely makes huge differences, and it's easy to apply.
Just don't use it with anything aluminum (copper and nickel are fine), and paint the surface mounted components on the chip with some a few applications of conformal coat, and you're golden.
 
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I only have 1 application of LM coming up (cpu delid). 2 if I really want to (GPU). After that, I was actually thinking of selling the LM locally because I don't see me using it over the next few years. Modern I7s (10/11gen) and Ryzens don't benefit all that much from delids right?
 
So the bracket,5 pack of Arctic P12s, and gpu-mini adapter cable, came in from Amazon and I was able to assemble the fan bracket. Only 2 fans are needed, so 3 are being put up for sale. I assembled everything and closed up the pc case and my temps were extraordinary high. After some research, apparently, little did I know, that gpu fans don't pull hot air from the heatsink, they actually push cool air. So yeah, I had the fan orientation wrong. Oops.

Try #2: After taking apart everything and putting the fans in the correct way (fan grill faces heatsink, open fans face bottom of pc case), I actually really like it. They plug in straight to the GPU. These 2 fans are extraordinary quiet, and it took 2-3 hours of COD before I could hear anything from my pc. Even then, I had to put my ears up against it. This is with my headphones being off and my ceiling fan being off, all to reduce extraneous noise. Whats best is that this solution doesn't void my wtty, is very easy to do, and can be used for all future GPUs. Even if future GPUs have a massive 3 slot heatsink, I still have 2 slots extra, so I can just place it down one. Of course, the GPU (2 slots) and fan bracket (2 slots) now take up 4 slots, but I never had anything there, so that's fine with me. The OEM sapphire fan shroud, screws, and slot insert will go into a ziplock bag and stored in my generic pc parts box for RMA, or years down the line I want to sell this.

Quite happy, I now have a 99% dead silent pc under full load. Temps/noise will only get better when I delid the 6700k in a few weeks. Maybe i'll put the LM on the gpu too.

Stats during COD sessions:
90% PWM: 66C, 76C
70% PWM: 69C, 78C
50% PWM: 73C, 83C
45% PWM: 76C, 85C
40% PWM: 80C, 90C
 

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So the bracket,5 pack of Arctic P12s, and gpu-mini adapter cable, came in from Amazon and I was able to assemble the fan bracket. Only 2 fans are needed, so 3 are being put up for sale. I assembled everything and closed up the pc case and my temps were extraordinary high. After some research, apparently, little did I know, that gpu fans don't pull hot air from the heatsink, they actually push cool air. So yeah, I had the fan orientation wrong. Oops.

Try #2: After taking apart everything and putting the fans in the correct way (fan grill faces heatsink, open fans face bottom of pc case), I actually really like it. They plug in straight to the GPU. These 2 fans are extraordinary quiet, and it took 2-3 hours of COD before I could hear anything from my pc. Even then, I had to put my ears up against it. This is with my headphones being off and my ceiling fan being off, all to reduce extraneous noise. Whats best is that this solution doesn't void my wtty, is very easy to do, and can be used for all future GPUs. Even if future GPUs have a massive 3 slot heatsink, I still have 2 slots extra, so I can just place it down one. Of course, the GPU (2 slots) and fan bracket (2 slots) now take up 4 slots, but I never had anything there, so that's fine with me. The OEM sapphire fan shroud, screws, and slot insert will go into a ziplock bag and stored in my generic pc parts box for RMA, or years down the line I want to sell this.

Quite happy, I now have a 99% dead silent pc under full load. Temps/noise will only get better when I delid the 6700k in a few weeks. Maybe i'll put the LM on the gpu too.

Stats during COD sessions:
90% PWM: 66C, 76C
70% PWM: 69C, 78C
50% PWM: 73C, 83C
45% PWM: 76C, 85C
40% PWM: 80C, 90C
Awesomely [H]ard in tackling and succeeding on this. Cool!
 
Curious. I know that the Junction max is 110C, but does the Core temp have a max as well? Or is it irrelevant since Junction will always be higher, and if that hits 110C, that is the only thing that matters?
 
Ok so I used Kapton tape to tape off the gpu cooler and the gpu die, then I added a dot of TG Conductonaut on each (cooler and die). Using the supplied microfiber qtip, I spread it around the cooler and die. I put everything back to together and now my temps are way worse. Like my pc shuts down due to overheating (junction 116C) because I opened up a youtube. Funny enough, my wifes laptop did the same thing when I had to fix it last week because I didn't put thermal paste on the cpu heatsink, I only put it on the die. As such, it didn't have enough paste and it was overheating. Here, I did put TG C. on both die and heatsink, but maybe I didn't put enough?

If this is true, and I didn't use enough, how do I fix this? If I open it up again, what happens to the existing LM? Do I just add a drop? half drop? Remove everything with Acetone and start anew?

Pics attached
 

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Ok so I used Kapton tape to tape off the gpu cooler and the gpu die, then I added a dot of TG Conductonaut on each (cooler and die). Using the supplied microfiber qtip, I spread it around the cooler and die. I put everything back to together and now my temps are way worse. Like my pc shuts down due to overheating (junction 116C) because I opened up a youtube. Funny enough, my wifes laptop did the same thing when I had to fix it last week because I didn't put thermal paste on the cpu heatsink, I only put it on the die. As such, it didn't have enough paste and it was overheating. Here, I did put TG C. on both die and heatsink, but maybe I didn't put enough?

If this is true, and I didn't use enough, how do I fix this? If I open it up again, what happens to the existing LM? Do I just add a drop? half drop? Remove everything with Acetone and start anew?

Pics attached

It could quite likely not be making proper contact. The heatsink is likely not touching the die.
 
I assure you I tightened the heatsink to the board as I usually do, cross diaganol. All screws were re used and fully hand tightened

Is that what you are saying?
 
I assure you I tightened the heatsink to the board as I usually do, cross diaganol. All screws were re used and fully hand tightened

Is that what you are saying?

Yeah, it sounds like there's a major error somewhere. Maybe a thermal pad fell off?
Or it's not making contact. Or it's fake copper and is rapidly deteriorating like some sort of gallium nightmare?

Honestly, I've repasted GPUs before, but it went fine for me.
Is it authentic liquid metal? I dunno why it wouldn't be, but still, this is a critical error, and not even using toothpaste should cause this level of heating.
 
People had said that they LM their sapphire 5700xts before with no problems so I'm not sure
 
take the tape off the heatsink and the metal die surround. i bet its holding the heatsink up.
 
Get the tape off of the shim on the chip, get it off the heatsink(it's not needed). That is enough to screw some things up. You've created a fairly large gap
 
Yeah, it sounds like there's a major error somewhere. Maybe a thermal pad fell off?
Or it's not making contact. Or it's fake copper and is rapidly deteriorating like some sort of gallium nightmare?

Honestly, I've repasted GPUs before, but it went fine for me.
Is it authentic liquid metal? I dunno why it wouldn't be, but still, this is a critical error, and not even using toothpaste should cause this level of heating.

It's not "fake copper".
 
take the tape off the heatsink and the metal die surround. i bet its holding the heatsink up.
These are excellent ideas and I will do them tomorrow. My PC will not be turned on in the meantime.

When I open up the gpu, can I reuse the same LM?
 
These are excellent ideas and I will do them tomorrow. My PC will not be turned on in the meantime.

When I open up the gpu, can I reuse the same LM?
idk, i dont use LM. since its not a paste it might be fine as it should just meld back together without air pockets.
 
Word. This is exactly why I did the gpu first. As of now the cpu would have crazy glue curing.
 
Lol well I just closed up the gpu. Both surfaces look the exact same as before. I'm kinda tired and it's going to be some work to reapply. What is the worse that will happen?

Newest pics, post trim and heatsink tape removal
 

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Lol well I just closed up the gpu. Both surfaces look the exact same as before. I'm kinda tired and it's going to be some work to reapply. What is the worse that will happen?

Newest pics, post trim and heatsink tape removal

You don't need to do a second application on the heatsink. Applying some LM to the contact area, and then using the black qtip or a cotton ball to "rub" some in on the heatsink is all that is needed on that side
 
Ok so I used Kapton tape to tape off the gpu cooler and the gpu die, then I added a dot of TG Conductonaut on each (cooler and die). Using the supplied microfiber qtip, I spread it around the cooler and die. I put everything back to together and now my temps are way worse. Like my pc shuts down due to overheating (junction 116C) because I opened up a youtube. Funny enough, my wifes laptop did the same thing when I had to fix it last week because I didn't put thermal paste on the cpu heatsink, I only put it on the die. As such, it didn't have enough paste and it was overheating. Here, I did put TG C. on both die and heatsink, but maybe I didn't put enough?

If this is true, and I didn't use enough, how do I fix this? If I open it up again, what happens to the existing LM? Do I just add a drop? half drop? Remove everything with Acetone and start anew?

Pics attached

Next time I'd just buy some clear nail polish/liquid electrical tape and coat the area around the die. Then you don't have to use all that tape.

Edit: looks like you may be using too much CLU on the die as well.
 
If I had to remove all of the LM, would I use acetone? Would 99% rubbing alcohol work?
 
yay im typing this from my pc. Removing the tape around the die shim, and the heatsink, so far has fixed it. I'm in Windows and im seeing idle temps of 35C, and not the 70C it was earlier today. Its too late for a COD session, I can do that Monday, but I can run furmark and see what I get. thanks all!*

*so far
 
Fwiw,

My 5700xt is very fickle with mounting. I just redid my loop and core temp was ~60c at load with junction hitting ~100c (furmark). I remounted block and it hits ~55c and ~75c in furmark, like 45 and 60 in games. No idea why either as contact looked very good when I took the block off.
 
So the bracket,5 pack of Arctic P12s, and gpu-mini adapter cable, came in from Amazon and I was able to assemble the fan bracket. Only 2 fans are needed, so 3 are being put up for sale. I assembled everything and closed up the pc case and my temps were extraordinary high. After some research, apparently, little did I know, that gpu fans don't pull hot air from the heatsink, they actually push cool air. So yeah, I had the fan orientation wrong. Oops.

Try #2: After taking apart everything and putting the fans in the correct way (fan grill faces heatsink, open fans face bottom of pc case), I actually really like it. They plug in straight to the GPU. These 2 fans are extraordinary quiet, and it took 2-3 hours of COD before I could hear anything from my pc. Even then, I had to put my ears up against it. This is with my headphones being off and my ceiling fan being off, all to reduce extraneous noise. Whats best is that this solution doesn't void my wtty, is very easy to do, and can be used for all future GPUs. Even if future GPUs have a massive 3 slot heatsink, I still have 2 slots extra, so I can just place it down one. Of course, the GPU (2 slots) and fan bracket (2 slots) now take up 4 slots, but I never had anything there, so that's fine with me. The OEM sapphire fan shroud, screws, and slot insert will go into a ziplock bag and stored in my generic pc parts box for RMA, or years down the line I want to sell this.

Quite happy, I now have a 99% dead silent pc under full load. Temps/noise will only get better when I delid the 6700k in a few weeks. Maybe i'll put the LM on the gpu too.

Stats during COD sessions:
90% PWM: 66C, 76C
70% PWM: 69C, 78C
50% PWM: 73C, 83C
45% PWM: 76C, 85C
40% PWM: 80C, 90C
you will likely get even better temps, if you zip tie the fans tight to the heatsink. That gap matters.
 
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