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Thermal paste upgrades to GPU..worth the hassle?
- Thread starter eco_bach
- Start date
- Joined
- Oct 11, 2002
- Location
- The Empire State
Sure, nothing wrong with swapping out TIMs. Just be sure your GTX's don't have a warranty sticker that you have to break off thus voiding warranty. I've always swapped TIMs on all my cards. I've used MX4/AS Ceramique and Noctua's NT-H1.
- Joined
- Sep 19, 2015
You are wasting time and risk the warranty of your GPU's for 3/4c drop max, maybe nothing...
Manufacturers do a proper job nowadays, and even better job on high end cards.
Manufacturers do a proper job nowadays, and even better job on high end cards.
- Joined
- Oct 11, 2002
- Location
- The Empire State
Not true my brutha. Most of my card's factory TIM was horrible and temps to match. Once I swapped out the TIM, temps improved by quite alot. I got into the habit of redoing the TIM on all my cards because of that. I have yet to get a card that the TIM used actually works as it should and is not globbed on by some 5 year old in a sweat shop.
- Joined
- Sep 13, 2015
Op, what three video cards do you have and what do these cards do, game, mine, fold? The other thing I would be interested in knowing is have you had these cards since new or are they second hand.
I have found it necessary to romance thermal paste on some of my gpu especially older cards that I picked up second hand. This was more due to the age of the paste and it drying out mire than anything else.
So as far as replacing the paste, if the card runs fine under normal conditions and is not over hearing it is probably not worth the hassle especially if your card employs thermal pads that have to be messed with as well.
If on the other hand your card is overheating normally or if you compare the card to others with the same exact card and your temps are unusually high than it may be a candidate for a thermal paste replacement.
Lastly, if these cards are mining or folding 24/7 than it may be worth replacing the thermal paste even if it only gets you 3-5 degrees. The cards will benefit by any heat reduction when used under these circumstances.
I have found it necessary to romance thermal paste on some of my gpu especially older cards that I picked up second hand. This was more due to the age of the paste and it drying out mire than anything else.
So as far as replacing the paste, if the card runs fine under normal conditions and is not over hearing it is probably not worth the hassle especially if your card employs thermal pads that have to be messed with as well.
If on the other hand your card is overheating normally or if you compare the card to others with the same exact card and your temps are unusually high than it may be a candidate for a thermal paste replacement.
Lastly, if these cards are mining or folding 24/7 than it may be worth replacing the thermal paste even if it only gets you 3-5 degrees. The cards will benefit by any heat reduction when used under these circumstances.
- Joined
- May 22, 2011
- Location
- USA
- Thread Starter
- #9
Agree with Loch.
Thanks for the reply!
1 TitanXP 1 yr old
2 new GTX 1080 FE's
Used almost 100% for GPU rendering.
Air cooled so rendering temps high 60's even with maxed fan rpm.
Not maximum 24/7 , but on average 12 hour renders 2-3 times a week
- Joined
- Dec 14, 2010
This isn't technically a mod. I just call it replacing the thermal compound.
For new GPU's, I wouldn't bother, they have decent compounds on recent cards. For used cards that are 4+ years old, I tend to always replace the compound, mainly because when I buy used GPU's they tend to be dusty or have heat sinks that are covered in hair and I pretty much always have to take them apart and clean them.
That said, I have seen 6-8°C temperature drops on older cards with old thermal paste after its dried up.
For new GPU's, I wouldn't bother, they have decent compounds on recent cards. For used cards that are 4+ years old, I tend to always replace the compound, mainly because when I buy used GPU's they tend to be dusty or have heat sinks that are covered in hair and I pretty much always have to take them apart and clean them.
That said, I have seen 6-8°C temperature drops on older cards with old thermal paste after its dried up.
- Joined
- May 13, 2006
I pretty much always replace mine and all but once it helped. My 5870 looked like crap but I never even got as good of temps as the stock application the entire time I used it somehow.
specialedge
New Member
- Joined
- Oct 20, 2017
- Location
- Where the West begins...
I wound up doing this unintentionally the other night, when I was picking apart my pny 1050 ti for cleaning. It was already past the point of no return (with this little red NO circle sticker on the final philips screw), and then i realized I had disturbed the TIM when the two glops fell apart between the heatsink and die. It was particularly sloppy in its stock application, so I cleaned it up and replaced it with Noctua's compound, though for the card I doubt there will be much motivation for its users to mess with its stock config.
- Joined
- Oct 11, 2002
- Location
- The Empire State
Yeah there are cards that have some sort of warranty sticker over one of the screws. Once you damage that, it's all over. Might as well go all the way and finish the job.
specialedge
New Member
- Joined
- Oct 20, 2017
- Location
- Where the West begins...
Thats what I thought. PNY had a pretty poor warranty on it when I checked, it's the kind of card you pickup at Best Buy 15 min before they close for the holiday weekend 
