Best way to clean my GPU?

[Shantanu08]

So, in 2016, I saw a video in which ZOTAC GTX 1060 3GB variant was recommended for a decent gaming GPU for my first ever gaming PC Build's budget, so I bought it.

 

However, I keep feeling like the performance is a bit off in 2019. I want to change its thermal paste but I'm too afraid to accidentally damage the PCB. So should I contact Zotac to re-apply the thermal paste? or should I go to a computer hardware shop and ask them to do it for me? I already do have 99% Isopropyl and Arctic Silver 5 thermal paste but I purchased them for CPU which I feel like is easier to replace compared to GPU's thermal paste.

[star_pilot475]

15 minutes ago, Shantanu08 said:

So, in 2016, I saw a video in which ZOTAC GTX 1060 3GB variant was recommended for a decent gaming GPU for my first ever gaming PC Build's budget, so I bought it.

 

However, I keep feeling like the performance is a bit off in 2019. I want to change its thermal paste but I'm too afraid to accidentally damage the PCB. So should I contact Zotac to re-apply the thermal paste? or should I go to a computer hardware shop and ask them to do it for me? I already do have 99% Isopropyl and Arctic Silver 5 thermal paste but I purchased them for CPU which I feel like is easier to replace compared to GPU's thermal paste.

Changing thermal paste is not going to help performance unless your card is thermal throttling. You might see a few degrees difference temperature-wise.. 

 

edit: what’s the rest of your system specs? It could be bottlenecking??? The 3gb variant of the GTX 1060 is not a great card (it’s not terrible though) , seeing as it has kind of a small amount of VRAM compared to other budget options nowadays. 

 

Edited May 26, 2019 by star_pilot475

[Shantanu08]

35 minutes ago, star_pilot475 said:

Changing thermal paste is not going to help performance unless your card is thermal throttling. You might see a few degrees difference temperature-wise.. 

 

edit: what’s the rest of your system specs? It could be bottlenecking??? The 3gb variant of the GTX 1060 is not a great card (it’s not terrible though) , seeing as it has kind of a small amount of VRAM compared to other budget options nowadays. 

 

Thanks for the reply.

 

My Rig:

CPU: Intel Core i3 6100

GPU: GTX 1060 3GB

RAM: Crucial 8GB DDR4 2133MHz

PSU: Corsair VS Series VS450 - 450 Watt

Motherboard: MSI H110M Pro-VH Socket LGA 1151

 

And I came to know years after that the 3GB variant is one of the most disliked GPUs of all time (at least from what I've heard) I somewhat understand why, because the GPU is indeed capable of playing AAA games at "High" or maybe even "Very High" settings but always gets limited by VRAM, which is very frustrating especially while rendering in blender using "GPU Compute" option as I can't render the image as I run out of memory, If I use CPU for rendering (which is crazy stupid if you have an i3 6th gen) then it makes use of system memory (8GB)

 

I should've built a productivity-oriented PC as I edit videos more than I play games; editing on i3 is not so pleasing, might switch to R7 3rd gen and Navi GPU in Q4. Sorry for going off-topic but which PSU do you recommend if I go for Ryzen 3700X with RTX 2070 or Ryzen 3700X with GTX 1660 Ti?

 

And what's the best way to clean the GPU except the compound replacing procedure? Like, since 2016, I've been just blowing out all the dust from the GPU using a Rubber Air Pump from the sides and from the face of its fan while it is connected to the motherboard (still a lot of dust gets removed that way) but I want to confirm if it is a good enough method to clean your GPU if you're cleaning once every 1 or 2 months.

[Lord Mirdalan]

Go for it... Not as hard as it seems:

And before you do that, hit the card with compressed air to get the dust off.