GPU Thermal Paste

[Debeant]

So, I'm not happy with the performance of my GPU's cooling solution. The fact that I can hear the fans over my sound bar (and even through my earphones sometimes) is disturbing, especially considering I've got some mild hearing loss. (~35 db loss in both ears in low range hearing)

 

If I leave the cooler fan curves stock, the GPU stays mostly silent but will get up over 80, and won't boost past about 1860 MHz (eVGA 2070 XC Ultra, for the record). So now that we've covered why I'm water cooling (performance increase with noise reduction), here's what I'm concerned about. I don't know what kind of thermal paste to use. I've got an EK-Classic RTX 2080 +Ti water block coming in (it's supposedly compatible, the eVGA card uses a reference 2080 board) and I don't know if it comes with a thermal paste solution pre-applied or if I'm going to have to buy some.

 

And if I should have to buy some, what kind should I get? The best my research can tell me is Thermal Grizzly Kryonaut should be good enough, but I really have zero experience with water cooling, and the only experience I have with disassembling a GPU was purely so I could scavenge the copper from the cooler/screws for another project I was working on.

[Moonzy]

3 minutes ago, Debeant said:

The best my research can tell me is Thermal Grizzly Kryonaut should be good enough

it should do just fine

[Bombastinator]

That should do it.  If it doesn’t the next traditional step is pull the fan shroud off the cooler and put 120mm case fans on the cooler with zip ties or rubber bands or something.  It’s ugly and it’s a lot thicker either of which may be non starters.  If THAT doesn’t do it look at aftermarket air coolers ( which are only useful if you bought a minimum cooler card.  Iirc they’re not even commonly sold anymore) or go to a hybrid water AIO where the AIO cold plate goes on the gpu die and the memory a mosfets and whatnot all get heat sinks put on them and are cooled by a 120mm fan.  Kinda hardcore though.  Doubt you’ll need it.

[Biohazard777]

1 hour ago, Debeant said:

Thermal Grizzly Kryonaut

Thermal Grizzly Kryonaut and Noctua NT-H1 will break down at 80c, especially when in contact with the bare die they will evaporate and move out of the place it is supposed to be quite quickly.

I personally had to re-apply every month (not kidding repasted twice with NT-H1 and twice with Kryonaut) because the temps were only good for a couple of weeks, though my case was extraordinary... Rog laptop with an Intel CPU that likes to get very toasty (above 85c). Ended up using less thermally conductive with higher breakdown temp, but still better than no-name paste, the "Be Quiet - DC1" and it has been over a year without needing to replace the paste, no thermal throttling, even when under 100% load on CPU & GPU for an hour. Sure I had better results with Kryonaut and NT-H1, approximately 4c less... but that only lasted for a few weeks and then they performed 10c worse than DC1...

So to conclude, if your GPU never goes above 80C then it will be fine, if it does well then you will have to consider different paste that can handle higher temperatures better or re-paste a lot more often.
 

[Debeant]

1 hour ago, Moonzy said:

it should do just fine

Thanks. I wasn't certain.

53 minutes ago, Bombastinator said:

That should do it.  If it doesn’t the next traditional step is pull the fan shroud off the cooler and put 120mm case fans on the cooler with zip ties or rubber bands or something.  It’s ugly and it’s a lot thicker either of which may be non starters.  If THAT doesn’t do it look at aftermarket air coolers ( which are only useful if you bought a minimum cooler card.  Iirc they’re not even commonly sold anymore) or go to a hybrid water AIO where the AIO cold plate goes on the gpu die and the memory a mosfets and whatnot all get heat sinks put on them and are cooled by a 120mm fan.  Kinda hardcore though.  Doubt you’ll need it.

I'm going with a custom water cooling system with an EK Water Block. Heat isn't the issue, noise is. I can get the temps down in the 50s during heavy gaming workloads, but that requires a very aggressive and noisy fan curve--loud enough I can hear it while wearing headphones.

17 minutes ago, Biohazard777 said:

Thermal Grizzly Kryonaut and Noctua NT-H1 will break down at 80c, especially when in contact with the bare die they will evaporate and move out of the place it is supposed to be quite quickly.

I personally had to re-apply every month (not kidding repasted twice with NT-H1 and twice with Kryonaut) because the temps were only good for a couple of weeks, though my case was extraordinary... Rog laptop with an Intel CPU that likes to get very toasty (above 85c). Ended up using less thermally conductive with higher breakdown temp, but still better than no-name paste, the "Be Quiet - DC1" and it has been over a year without needing to replace the paste, no thermal throttling, even when under 100% load on CPU & GPU for an hour. Sure I had better results with Kryonaut and NT-H1, approximately 4c less... but that only lasted for a few weeks and then they performed 10c worse than DC1...

So to conclude, if your GPU never goes above 80C then it will be fine, if it does well then you will have to consider different paste that can handle higher temperatures better or re-paste a lot more often.
 

I doubt it will be an issue. The only time it gets that hot is when I'm playing something like CP 2077 with ray tracing on and using the stock fan curve. 

[Moonzy]

Just now, Debeant said:

I wasn't certain.

I use the same stuff to repaste my 3090 gigabyte card, it's working ok so far

Just make sure u get full die coverage, but don't use too much that it makes a mess

[Debeant]

Just now, Moonzy said:

I use the same stuff to repaste my 3090 gigabyte card, it's working ok so far

Just make sure u get full die coverage, but don't use too much that it makes a mess

Right. I'd be a nervous wreck working on a 3090. I'm scared to mess up my $600 2070. (the darn thing is going for more now used than I paid new for it!)

[Moonzy]

4 minutes ago, Debeant said:

Right. I'd be a nervous wreck working on a 3090. I'm scared to mess up my $600 2070. (the darn thing is going for more now used than I paid new for it!)

i actually broke mine, a fan header broke

i fixed it though, so it's all good

5 minutes of soldering