MSI 6600GT heat issue solved!

I just got mine today, and took off the heatsink to replace the included TIM pad with AS5. After scraping off the original TIM, I noticed that the surface of the heatsink was incredibly rough. I took out the 150, 300, and 600 grit sandpaper and lapped down the area of the heatsink that contacts the GPU. I put a conservative ammount of AS5 on the GPU core and put the heatsink back on, put the retention clip on, then took the heatsink back off, to check for contact. There was NO AS5 on the heatsink. The thermal pads placed on the heatsink to make contact with the ram (a nice gesture by MSI, few other manufacturers have done this with the 6600gt) were too tall.

In lieu of being able to find the USB cable for my digital camera, I will draw you a picture. (Mind you, I have Photoshop, I just want to use MSPaint)

what's up with the massive ads on imageshack?

anyway, I dealt with this with a razor blade. I sliced off a razor thin layer of the TIM that was spanning the RAM gap. A short while later, I had a flat heatink making contact with the GPU.

Give it a try, and somebody for the love of god post pictures!

Have fun with your 6600. The Msi Cooler is accually pretty good once you get some decent contact. I switched to a Vf700-Cu. I put the Msi cooler on my Geforce4 Ti4200. Overall I am loving my Msi. Also something you might want to consider is enabeling the Temp probe by flashing and editing your cards Bios.

That's the next step.

Daegon, some XFX's do this also....i'm using an 700cu tho...thanks for the tip, i'm sure the MSI folk will like it =)

i have a MSI 6600gt and mine has good contact with the ram and gpu... is it a common problem with msi?

Only on the early models. Anandtech got a fluke and gave it a very bad rating on thier 6600GT roundup so most people are avoiding the Msi 6600GT. The later versions are fixed and preform quite well even with the stock cooler.

damn, i forgot to disassemble mine before i put it in today...guess i got a project tomorrow...

do BFG's cards have this problem. the 6800GT at all?

I higly doubt it. The cooler on the MSI card is proprietary, as in only on the MSI cards. I have not seen another MSI 6600GT, so I can't speak to others cards, but I heard that the MSI 6600GT was getting terrible temps in comparison to the other manufacturers, and in my case anyway, this was to blame.

BTW, does anyone have any information on the TIM they used for the ram? It's the same stuff that was on my Playstation 1's processors. it's kinda rubbery, and always feels cold. Consistency of soft cheese.

mudpark41 said:

Only on the early models. Anandtech got a fluke and gave it a very bad rating ... The later versions are fixed and preform quite well even with the stock cooler.

Click to expand...

From what I understand, the early models used plastic pins instead of the current metal band to hold the cooler to the card. It was quite common to have your cooler fall off the card! They came up with a new "retention mechanism."