Good Thermal Paste Replacement?

[Suika]

So currently I have Arctic Silver 5 and the stock paste that comes with the 212 EVO, so if I can use either and get fair enough temps, I'd be cool.

 

The reason why I ask is because I'm getting 83C at full load, the throttling point of Nvidia GPUs if I'm not mistaken.

 

I'm running a GTX 780 SC by EVGA, reference design of course (it's too beautiful!). I figured taking off the heat sync and reapplying thermal paste isn't that difficult after some research, but I haven't a clue if the Arctic Silver 5 is a good idea. I've been told it it will leave scratches on the core. By that, of course, I don't know if the EVO's reference paste is good or not for the same reason, I just know the difference between the two is a few celsius.

 

As well, I don't know what to do with the formal thermal pads for VRAM and other things. Leave them on or what?

[AMD Lover]

I like IC Diamond, if im using it on a CPU ill use 7 Carat and i use 24 Carat for VRM because it doesnt spead as much. I was hitting 90 Celsius on my GPU and after applying IC Diamond i get 60-70 Celsius. If the pads are in good condition i would just leave them however mine tore and as long as its non-conductive paste it will be fine