Changing Thermal compound = 20C Cooler (X1900XTX)

H

H-street

Supreme [H]ardness
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Most everyone already does this, but for the few who done.

Consider redoing the thermal compound..

i have the Saphirre X1900XTX,

i thought something was odd as i was Idling @ 61C and gaming @ 91C..

so i decided to just pull the HSF and have a look and sure enough the thermal compound was just gooped on and not doing a very good job at all (it was sortof a crusty thermal goop, not a nice paste)..

its normally the first thing i do, but i was hoping with the X1900XTX they would have done it right from the factory.

no need for lapping, unless you are really serious, but most of the time just redoing the thermal compound will do your temps wonders..

This was the worst case i've seen , my 6800GTs i only gained 5C with just thermal compound (and another 10C with Zalmans)..

this is with just regular Radio Shack Heatsink compound, i'm sure if you used some fancy artic silver or something you may even get it lower..
 
Thats great news for you, I just got my 1900xt put back together after reapplying the TIM that came on it, with the old stuff I had 50-51 idle right now granted my machine has only been on for about 5-10 min, its sitting nice at 47. I am going to game in a minute and I will see how this is going to work.
 
I reapplied thermal compund to my radeon 9800 pro, factory paste was grainy and i think was not doing a good job, replaced it with artic silver 3 with no problems at all ;)

oldmx
 
With such high differences in temp "gains" when applied new thermal compound, isn´t it most likely that the biggest factor is case cooling?

I mean if the fan already sucks in hot air, it cant do very good job in cooling the card?
 
I think there is something to this.

My Connect3D X1900XTX had some nicely applied silver looking compound and was idling at ~45C.

Going by another thread I sanded and polished the cooler (checked for flatness and removed all trace of polish).

I put it back on with Arctic Ceramique (a bit paranoid about silver compounds near all those links on the GPU) and my temps has GONE UP. Now seeing idle of around 50c and lower OCs. Load is now @ ~90 where it was 80 before.

I'm tempted to redo it with AS5 but Innovatek are SUPPOSED to be sending me a cool-matic so I don't really want to take it all apart yet another time.

I have it clocked lower at the moment (680/780 instead of the 720/810 I had before) for now as I can't stand the noise any higher than 70% (which is bad enough). :mad:
 
a-lamer said:
With such high differences in temp "gains" when applied new thermal compound, isn´t it most likely that the biggest factor is case cooling?

I mean if the fan already sucks in hot air, it cant do very good job in cooling the card?
Click to expand...

for overall cooling you are correct..

you will never cool below the ambient temperature of your case no matter how good your contact is or how fast your fan is going..

but you have to start at the bottom and work up..

1. how well is your heatsink transferring heat from the chip to the copper sink? in my case not very well
2. how well is your fan transferring the heat from the copper to the air? in most cases its about as good as it will get, the solution is obviously upgrading the fan to a higher CF (Cubic Foot ) or by. This also plays into the case cooling, good airflow (Cool in, Hot Out) is very important.. with HeatPump type that ATI uses its a little easier, because you are physically moving the inside air to the outside, instead of like other solutions that just circulate the air around.

if #1 is poor though, #2 won't do you a whole lot of good..
 
I'm not gonna risk my XTX, oh no...

Ati tool helps alot ; setting fanspeed profiles.

Idle temps are about 43C/44C
Load temps are about 65C/66C
 
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