How much could new thermal paste on an old card help?

[notAfanOf]

I recently bought a used gtx 1080ti but a suboptimal model - namely the zotac gtx 1080ti mini. I was told that the low to mid 80s C are nothing to worry about too much. Still - could anyone share experiences if reapplying thermal paste could improve temps!? thanks in advance!

[RAS_3885]

Depending on that particular card's thermals and the case airflow low 80s could be reasonable. Trending high, but not danger territory. At the end of the day, the mini's heatsink is just physically smaller than most cards, so running hotter is expected.

 

If the thermal paste is totally dried you'll see an improvement with fresh paste and cleaning the fan/heatsink while it's apart. I'd say 5-10 C improvement realistically depending on how bad it is. Probably closer to the 5 number.

[Fasauceome]

13 minutes ago, notAfanOf said:

but a suboptimal model - namely the zotac gtx 1080ti mini. I was told that the low to mid 80s C are nothing to worry about too much. Still

Low/mid 80s is the default temp target for Nvidia cards, my Titan also operates around that point.

 

As you said, it's the model of the card that's gonna result in higher temps on account of the small heat sink, as opposed to the dry thermal paste.

 

Still, if you got some nice Thermal Grizzly paste, it could make a difference. The 10 series is getting on in age, after all.

[BondiBlue]

Replacing the thermal paste can help a bit, but a good cleaning can help as well if the heatsink is dirty. 

[notAfanOf]

34 minutes ago, RAS_3885 said:

If the thermal paste is totally dried you'll see an improvement with fresh paste

I haven't dared to disassemble the thing - while (I think) it was reasonalby priced, it wasn't exactly dirt cheap  and I'd hate to wreck it trying to appease my temp-angst.

[notAfanOf]

31 minutes ago, Fasauceome said:

if you got some nice Thermal Grizzly paste

unfotunatly not - it would just be fresh (probably) not better. 

[notAfanOf]

11 minutes ago, BondiBlue said:

but a good cleaning can help as well if the heatsink is dirty

it didn't look that way but I haven't opened it up, so the dirt could be hiding somewhere 

[BondiBlue]

Just now, notAfanOf said:

it didn't look that way but I haven't opened it up, so the dirt could be hiding somewhere 

Yeah, dirt and dust can hide pretty well inside of a heatsink. I pulled a GTX 680 apart a few months ago, and although it looked pretty clean from the outside the heatsink was filled with dust. Cleaning it and repasting it dropped temperatures a bit.