Sapphire's thermal compound application. Normally this sloppy?

Over the past 2 months, I've noticed my GPU temps (7950 OC, reference cooler) gradually rising regardless of static room temps, fan additions or compressed air dusting.

I was tempted to RMA, but after a nightmare return process years ago with a x1950xtx, I didn't feel like waiting / dealing with a temporary replacement (card was dirt cheap when I bought it, so I risked it knowing my past experience with Sapphire).

Bit the bullet and opened her up. Sure enough I saw the culprit right away: A nasty, dried out, poorly applied mountain of thermal paste.


As you can see: there is more compound along the sides and valleys than on the actual GPU
After a cleaning and reapplication using some MX-4, my temps dropped 10C at load.



My question is this: Is paste like this normal for certain manufacturers?

Sapphire prices in my area are often too tempting to pass up. If I know procedures like this are standard, I may just have to avoid them from now on.

Every gpu ive EVER pulled apart looks like this since my 8800 and up :/

CharlesLam said:

im with pliskin. seems like most manufacturers just slap a huge dab of tim and then go.

Click to expand...

That is depressing . It has been quite some time since i've had to replace the TIM on a GPU. Last time was on a Diamond 2900xt and it was nowhere near this bad.

Shucks..

Their thermal pads leave a lot to be desired as well.

First thing I do these days is remove the thermal paste and apply my own. My Sapphire 5850 wasn't as bad as your pics, but there was some overflow. XFX DD 270x wasn't too bad either, but a bit more paste than I'd normally use.

if they don't void your warranty.....its a good practice to do....might not get super gains but 3-5 degrees is not usually not hard to get....I do it on mine when i can