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Thermal paste replacement on 4870's?

J

Jayham

Gawd
Joined
Nov 25, 2008
Messages
964
Is it worth it to change the paste on the VisionTek HD4870? (Temp wise) I would like to but not sure how much of a difference it would make, also I don't want to void the warranty. Will VisionTek look past the thermal paste being replaced or will they be anal enough to void my warranty in the chance of an RMA? I have AS5 or Arctic Silver ceramique which should I use if I choose to change paste? Cards right now are @825/4000 and idle at 48c on 30% with bios flash I have a pretty good profile for the fan setting in bios They don't go past 60c load and that's with fan pushing no more than 46-53%
 
thanks! one of my cards does 850/4400 no problems tried and tested ran crysis warhead and grid for hours not a single hitch, but the other card will not do over 825/4000 with usable clocks. Same temps on boths cards.
 
Agreed, there's no reason to change the TIM unless your card is overheating (which it doesn't appear to be.)
 
I applied my usual extremely thin layer of AS5 on my 4870's core after I tried an after market heatsink. To be honest, I don't think it made that much of a difference in temps.
 
I don't have a 4870, but I did clean off and re-thermal compound my 3870x2 cores. Turns out in my situation the temps dropped about 2C at idle and about 4C at load on the warmer of the 2 cores. The colder of the two cores dropped 1C and 2C respectively. Since your card is newer, the compound that's on there may not be frizzle-fried yet so it may not make a difference (mine was). If you're overclocking them extensively, though, you may want to consider it.

In my opinion, it would only make sense that if ATI builds an overclocking utility into its drivers that a *correct* application of thermal compound would not void your warranty. Also, does putting on an aftermarket heatsink void your warranty? If not, you can bet your ass that re-thermal compounding your core won't, either. It simply wouldn't be logical.
 
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