Is this amount of thermal paste enough on a GPU?

[undercooked spaghetti]

Is this amount ok or too much? It's an MSI Gaming X GTX1070. I have closed the GPU now and there is a noticeable decrease in temps. If it's too much, i can open it back up and clean it and re-apply.

[schwellmo92]

I mean technically it doesn't matter if you put too much it'll just make a mess, but yes that is way too much.

[undercooked spaghetti]

6 minutes ago, schwellmo92 said:

I mean technically it doesn't matter if you put two much it'll just make a mess, but yes that is way too much.

So i should just leave it as is? Not worth opening, cleaning and re-applying?

[FEAR_malik]

2 minutes ago, undercooked spaghetti said:

So i should just leave it as is? Not worth opening, cleaning and re-applying?

maybe like take the tiniest bit offf but it really dosent matter

[NZKshatriya]

Well, its enuff to cause inefficiency in thermal transfer if thats what you are aiming for

[DoctorNick]

You only need a thick blup of this size, no need to spread. You can check and adjust if it doesn't make a thin layer on the entirety of the GPU heat spreader.

[Mark Kaine]

What are these, two full tubes of thermal paste?

[Shlouski]

You will be surprised how much you need sometimes, but in this case it looks much more than enough.

 

Recently cleaned up an old gtx 470 and gtx 480 reference model, the coolers don't come close to touching the die, I spread a thick layer of paste on and found no contact with the cooler, terrible cooler, thought it might be a thermal pad issue, but it was the same results with no pads.

[Mark Kaine]

On 9/28/2020 at 11:29 AM, Shlouski said:

You will be surprised how much you need sometimes, but in this case it looks much more than enough.

 

Recently cleaned up an old gtx 470 and gtx 480 reference model, the coolers don't come close to touching the die, I spread a thick layer of paste on and found no contact with the cooler, terrible cooler, thought it might be a thermal pad issue, but it was the same results with no pads.

I think this is generally an issue when users do this (removing the cooler of a GPU) they're often not easy to reattach and it's difficult to get proper contact.

 

I don't think it's an issue with the coolers per say, just requires a lot of fiddling .

 

I've seen this a couple of times in videos, usually it's some small part being in the way which can be hard to see .

[Morrie Sells Wigs]

I thought this was a joke.

[Shlouski]

4 hours ago, Mark Kaine said:

I don't think it's an issue

 

 

I have dismantled and clean every card in this picture, and that's just a few of the cards I've done, I promise you there are some poorly made coolers out there. 

 

I do agree that it is easy to mess up sometimes, especially when replacing thermal pads. Irrespective of how many times I've done it, I  do occasionally end up having to do it again, so people with less experience are of course going to run into more problems.

 

3 hours ago, Maury Sells Wigs said:

I thought this was a joke.

 

It really takes that much for my gtx 470 and 480. Even test fitting without thermal pads, which if too thick can cause the die to be pushed away from the cooler, there is still a large gap. To improve the contact I would have to shave down all of the screw mounts and use thinner thermal pads.

 

From my experience it's the full card coolers, ones that cover all the components in one solid piece that suffer more often from poor die contact.

[Morrie Sells Wigs]

9 minutes ago, Shlouski said:

 

 

I have dismantled and clean every card in this picture, and that's just a few of the cards I've done, I promise you there are some poorly made coolers out there. 

 

I do agree that it is easy to mess up sometimes, especially when replacing thermal pads. Irrespective of how many times I've done it, I  do occasionally end up having to do it again, so people with less experience are of course going to run into more problems.

 

 

It really takes that much for my gtx 470 and 480. Even test fitting without thermal pads, which if too thick can cause the die to be pushed away from the cooler, there is still a large gap. To improve the contact I would have to shave down all of the screw mounts and use thinner thermal pads.

 

From my experience it's the full card coolers, ones that cover all the components in one solid piece that suffer more often from poor die contact.

I don't doubt you know what you are doing. 

 

It's just anytime I've seen paste applied in a video it's always very small, pea sized drops, placed at specific points on the item in question. 

 

 

[Mark Kaine]

52 minutes ago, Shlouski said:

have dismantled and clean every card in this picture, and that's just a few of the cards I've done, I promise you there are some poorly made coolers out there

Haha, wow nice! well I don't doubt there are poorly made coolers I just meant IF it fit before then it should fit afterwards, and that these cards usually aren't made for maintenance aka easy user access . And yes totally possible some coolers actually don't fit, I dunno how common that is though

 

41 minutes ago, Maury Sells Wigs said:

It's just anytime I've seen paste applied in a video it's always very small, pea sized drops, placed at specific points on the item in question. 

That's for CPUs, GPUs will generally require a lot more.

 

just saw this recently in the GN video showing liquid nitrogen cooling a 3090 (I think?) , they put a lot of thermal paste, but nothing excessive either, they made an X, pretty thick, but that's it, wayyy more than a CPU would require however.

[RAS_3885]

On 9/28/2020 at 3:43 AM, undercooked spaghetti said:

Is this amount ok or too much? It's an MSI Gaming X GTX1070. I have closed the GPU now and there is a noticeable decrease in temps. If it's too much, i can open it back up and clean it and re-apply.

 

If the temps are noticeably better then there's really no need to open it up again. Even if it is too much, which I agree with others it is.

 

Just use it as a reference for next time.

[Morrie Sells Wigs]

1 hour ago, Mark Kaine said:

Haha, wow nice! well I don't doubt there are poorly made coolers I just meant IF it fit before then it should fit afterwards, and that these cards usually aren't made for maintenance aka easy user access . And yes totally possible some coolers actually don't fit, I dunno how common that is though

 

That's for CPUs, GPUs will generally require a lot more.

 

just saw this recently in the GN video showing liquid nitrogen cooling a 3090 (I think?) , they put a lot of thermal paste, but nothing excessive either, they made an X, pretty thick, but that's it, wayyy more than a CPU would require however.

Liquid nitrogen cooling?

 

I thought that was like a meme, a joke?

 

I didn't think it was actually used for cooling. 

 

 

[Mark Kaine]

9 minutes ago, Maury Sells Wigs said:

Liquid nitrogen cooling?

 

I thought that was like a meme, a joke?

 

I didn't think it was actually used for cooling. 

 

 

 Really?