Will replacing thermal paste help temps? (reference 970)

[Bearded_Ed]

Pretty much title. 

 

I have a Palit GTX 970, with a reference style cooler.  It's loud and hot.  Whilst it's performed is more than adequate, I'm a bit of a tinkerer.   

 

Anyone got any thoughts as to whether it's worth the hassle? 

[W-L]

3 minutes ago, Bearded_Ed said:

Pretty much title. 

 

I have a Palit GTX 970, with a reference style cooler.  It's loud and hot.  Whilst it's performed is more than adequate, I'm a bit of a tinkerer.   

 

Anyone got any thoughts as to whether it's worth the hassle? 

It'll help a little but very marginal in most cases, if your paste is old or dried out then it will have a greater effect. 

 

[Bearded_Ed]

3 minutes ago, W-L said:

It'll help a little but very marginal in most cases, if your paste is old or dried out then it will have a greater effect. 

 

Ah thanks for the link, somehow haven't seen this one!  

 

The GPU is second hand, I highly doubt the original owner took it apart, so who knows what it's like in there.  I've got some good paste so I might as well.

[W-L]

Just now, Bearded_Ed said:

Ah thanks for the link, somehow haven't seen this one!  

 

The GPU is second hand, I highly doubt the original owner took it apart, so who knows what it's like in there.  I've got some good paste so I might as well.

Probably not a bad idea to clean out the heatsink also if it's never been opened up, if so you should see a reasonable improvement. 

[Bearded_Ed]

1 hour ago, W-L said:

Probably not a bad idea to clean out the heatsink also if it's never been opened up, if so you should see a reasonable improvement. 

So I just popped the cooler off, very easy 8 screws! 

 

The actual heat sync looks mostly clear but still a bit dirty.  The paste was relatively dry. There was also a reasonable helping of it.  

 

I suspect that, like in the video it was a square of pre applied stuff. 

 

Will see how it goes after picking up some compressed air tomorrow evening after work.  

My bench mark is 80 degrees in Overwatch.  (yes I know its not particularly scientific but this is mostly just for fun!) 

[Kc7vwc]

3 hours ago, Bearded_Ed said:

Pretty much title. 

 

I have a Palit GTX 970, with a reference style cooler.  It's loud and hot.  Whilst it's performed is more than adequate, I'm a bit of a tinkerer.   

 

Anyone got any thoughts as to whether it's worth the hassle? 

My MSI R9 390 always ran hot, going all the way to thermal throttle. After pulling it apart, found a tiny corner that had no paste. I put down an X pattern of Mx-4 & now it's 80°c tops. Best part is it no longer fluctuates. Constant temps. 

I'd say it's always worth a look, then you know. 

[Bearded_Ed]

@Kc7vwc @W-L

 

So the results? 7 degrees colder!! And I think I'm getting about 5-10 fps more. 

 

Wow. I'm actually amazed at how different that is.  Only using Arctic MX-2

[Damascus]

If you want to send some more for a longer term investment pretty much every accelero GPU cooler and the raijintech Morpheus 2 are fantastic, and can transition between GPUs no problem.

[Bearded_Ed]

37 minutes ago, Damascus said:

If you want to send some more for a longer term investment pretty much every accelero GPU cooler and the raijintech Morpheus 2 are fantastic, and can transition between GPUs no problem.

This is actually something I've been looking at already. Mainly from a noise perspective, probably only need the Twin Turbo 2 or something 

[Damascus]

46 minutes ago, Bearded_Ed said:

This is actually something I've been looking at already. Mainly from a noise perspective, probably only need the Twin Turbo 2 or something 

The s3 + 120mm fan is the best entry level option

[Snikerdoodlz]

5 hours ago, Bearded_Ed said:

@Kc7vwc @W-L

 

So the results? 7 degrees colder!! And I think I'm getting about 5-10 fps more. 

 

Should I repaste my reference RX 480? Will it likely yield similar/noticeable results?

[Bearded_Ed]

3 hours ago, Snikerdoodlz said:

Should I repaste my reference RX 480? Will it likely yield similar/noticeable results?

Are you regularly hitting high temps? If so it's worth considering. How old is the card?

It might also just be a case of, that's just how hot they run! 

[Snikerdoodlz]

4 hours ago, Bearded_Ed said:

Are you regularly hitting high temps? If so it's worth considering. How old is the card?

It might also just be a case of, that's just how hot they run! 

While playing Overwatch I usually hit 80 to 81, maybe as high as 85. The card is probably about a year and a half old, but the previous owner used it only for about 20 hours total. I'm going to put more hours on that

[Damascus]

2 hours ago, Snikerdoodlz said:

While playing Overwatch I usually hit 80 to 81, maybe as high as 85. The card is probably about a year and a half old, but the previous owner used it only for about 20 hours total. I'm going to put more hours on that

Card use doesn't have as much to do with dry paste as age.  Get some nh-t1 and rrrrepaste!

[Bearded_Ed]

21 hours ago, Snikerdoodlz said:

While playing Overwatch I usually hit 80 to 81, maybe as high as 85. The card is probably about a year and a half old, but the previous owner used it only for about 20 hours total. I'm going to put more hours on that

Well, my 970 always hit 80 in Overwatch.  Now it hit's 73 max!   And theoretically that means you could get higher FPS with GPU Boost 3.0 as I think that goes as high as it can before hitting temp limits.