Trying to get an idea about how many people here immediately remove the heatsink, clean off the stock paste, and reapply with aftermarket paste. Is this something people recommend doing immediately when you purchase a new GPU? I've read some stories of companies using way to much thermal paste, crappy thermal paste, etc..
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Cleaning and Reapplying Thermal Paste
- Thread starter Cod
- Start date
does anyone have a link or explanation of how to remove it?
I personally think the old "Manufactures don't apply the TIM properly or use crappy TIM" is a thing of the past. They are looking for the their products to test well and perform as well thermally as possible these days. I've never noticed anything other than a trivial upgrade in cooling performance when replacing TIM on graphics cards.
octoberasian
2[H]4U
- Joined
- Oct 13, 2007
- Messages
- 4,081
I do the same thing.
I reapply at least once a year and clean out the heatsink fins and fan blades of dust. And, it helps a lot.
- Joined
- Feb 28, 2009
- Messages
- 187
For the most part, that simply isn't required anymore. Although the application can still be sloppy, most manufacturers are now using high quality pastes on their cards. The only time I bother now is if I notice my temps seem to be notably higher than the average owners. I realize case and airflow have a lot to do with that as well, but you can generally tell.
The last card I tried it on was a 670 FTW I had purchased. It ran quite a bit hotter than the first card I owned, but it seems as though my first card was simply more efficient and produced far less heat. Changing out the TIM didn't affect my temperatures at all.
The last card I tried it on was a 670 FTW I had purchased. It ran quite a bit hotter than the first card I owned, but it seems as though my first card was simply more efficient and produced far less heat. Changing out the TIM didn't affect my temperatures at all.
I always do this at day one. What I do it put the new videocard in. Disable VSYNC and start a game. Leave the video card running at the title screen. Come back in 30 mins. shut down the PC remove the videocard (unless it's so damn hot that will it give you third degree burns). unscrew the the screws and glenly remove the heatsink. Because the videocard was warm when you unscrewed it there will be little effort on your part in seperating the heatsink and the GPU. Use 99% isopropyl alcohol to clean the thermal paste off. If the paste is one of those solid white paste. Put a damp soaked isopropyl paper towl on the GPU socket and come back in 10 minutes. It should have loosen the hard white crush from the socket and should be easily removed. DO NOT USE EXCESSIVE FORCE TO REMOVE HARD THERMAL PASTE.
Put a nice pea size dot (this can be subjective depending on if you have a gpu core or a gpu heatspreader) on the GPU socket. and let the heatsink spread it out. I use IC Diamon 7, it's great for GPUs!
Every time I've tried it, my temps have only actually gone down by 1-3 degrees C. Check into your warranty policy as you will likely be voiding it. The suggestion to do this after a year or so is probably a better plan than immediately after unboxing. Imo, the only reason for the performance of the paste to degrade is if it's become very dried out and the card has endured some kind of shock to loosen the bond. If paste is applied correctly most of the thermal conduction happens through metal on metal contact anyway. +1 to using alcohol for cleanup.
jojo69
[H]F Junkie
- Joined
- Sep 13, 2009
- Messages
- 11,427
you break all those plastic tabs and then the shroud just falls off and never goes back on right...at least that is what I did.