HELP ! R9 390 Temps soaring high after applying Arctic Silver 5

ZARIFF · August 18, 2017

Hello ! Good day to you all ! My Gigabyte Gaming G1 R9 390 has been giving me quite the service and it has been over 1 year now, the temperature reached 88 easily nowadays on heavy load so i decided that it is time to change the thermal paste, I have changed thermal pastes successfully over the past years on other graphics cards so I decided to do exactly what Linus did. But my GPU temps reach soaringly high ! To 94 DEGREES ! The Thermal LIMIT of the GPU! OMG. I reapplied, didn't work, still the same. Changed to a Cooler Master Thermal Paste, still the same. Now I'm worried.Can anyone tell me what went wrong ? And can anyone give me a video link to apply thermal paste on Gaming G1 R9 390. Help me. Please. TIA

cj09beira · August 18, 2017

one thing about gpus: always cover the entire gpu with paste, dont use any of the other methods (line, dot ect)

my guess is the cooler might not be monted well

JakeNTech · August 18, 2017

1- Get some thermal paste, I have found artic silver 5 gives the best results, and some TIM cleaner, You could probably go with out, the TIM cleaner that is, it but it makes the job easier. Make sure you have an anti-static strap and your using it, its unlikely to matter anyway but better be safe then sorry.

2- Disassemble you computer then remove the heatsink.Once you have taken the heat sink off, put some TIM remover onto some tissue, toilet paper will be fine, and gently wipe over the CPU/GPU/North bridge(Select as appropriate). until there is no paste left, not even a trace should be left. If the TIM isn’t coming off easily then you can put some directly onto the chip.

3- Wait 2-3 minutes, this lets the tim cleaner lifts what has been missed.

4- Wipe all the surfaces you have just cleaned with a material like your t-shirt, a first run of this stage could be done with some tissue then your t-shirt but it doesn’t really matter as long as it is gone.

5- Apply a line of thermal paste in a parallel line to the longest edge on the CPU/GPU/North bridge.

6- Spread it out most TIM kits include a spreader but you can always use some cling film over the end of your finger, I found the spreader easier but your milage may vary; you want a thin layer over the whole die, making sure that you can't see the die, if there is some on the socket latch (or on the green part,Mobile chips) then its not too important but some people may remove it, I personally don’t bother.

7- Place the heat sink down at a one or two degree angle and then turn it so that the mounting holes are all align, then wait a few minutes, this allows the air to escape.

8- Tighten the screws down in a star like pattern, make them all finger tight and then go around with a screw driver, the heatsink shouldn’t move at all.

9- Make sure that it is all tight and reassemble you computer.

Thermal paste doesn’t last long and should ideally be replaced yearly.