Repasting a GTX 970

[exboxchansan]

I have an old ASUS Strix Directcu ii GTX 970, which I want to reuse with my new build, at least until the Nvidia 3000 series cards come out. So I started dusting it off, pulled out a few screws, one thing led to another and the whole thing had to come apart, because I couldn’t put it back together again. Thankfully, I managed to lay my hands on an even older 670, so my new ryzen PC is running on that for now.

 

This stupidity aside, I need some good advice on repasting and reassembling this 970. The following are pictures of my heat sink and the GPU chip with my attempt to remove the old paste.
 

1. Is this paste removal good enough? As you can see, there is still some old paste remaining in between the pipes of the heat sink, and on the components surrounding the GPU chip. Do those also have to go at any cost?
2. For the thermal paste, I have some NT-H1 remaining. Can I use this for GPUs, or is it not recommended?

3. The factory paste application was all over the chip and the surrounding components. Do I also have to do the same thing for the repasting?

4. Also, you can see a pretty big "ding" on one of the heat sink pipes. This was there from before. I don’t know what to do about this.

[Niklos]

I am no expert about graphics card. But here is what I think (remember that I might be wrong so wait for the experts) :

1 :  Is this paste removal good enough? YES
As you can see, there is still some old paste remaining in between the pipes of the heat sink, and on the components surrounding the GPU chip. Do those also have to go at any cost?

No

2 : I'd use thermal grizzly as it is one of the best. But, yeah, I think the Noctua is good enough and probably better than the stock thermal paste

3 : No, only the gpu it self should have some paste on it

4 : Then do nothing. Do as if it was not there

[exboxchansan]

36 minutes ago, Niklos said:

I am no expert about graphics card. But here is what I think (remember that I might be wrong so wait for the experts) :

1 :  Is this paste removal good enough? YES
As you can see, there is still some old paste remaining in between the pipes of the heat sink, and on the components surrounding the GPU chip. Do those also have to go at any cost?

No

2 : I'd use thermal grizzly as it is one of the best. But, yeah, I think the Noctua is good enough and probably better than the stock thermal paste

3 : No, only the gpu it self should have some paste on it

4 : Then do nothing. Do as if it was not there

Ok. Thanks.

[That90sKid]

looks as clean as it needs to be and Noctua thermal paste is great stuff.