GPU thermal paste

[ExalyThor]

Hi! My cousin's GTX 970 stopped working and I'm troubleshooting it. Can it survive for 10-20 seconds without thermal paste? The pc just powers on without showing anything so I don't think it will heat up the GPU too hard.

[Crunchy Dragon]

Theoretically, as long as the cooler can still dissipate the heat from the core, it should be fine for a bit.

 

What are the specs? It might be a problem with something else.

[G27Racer_188]

In theory it should be fine, but of course there are no guarantees.

 

If you do not want to waste thermal past, use toothpaste. I even did a full run of unigine valley on toothpaste.

[Tsar_Maple]

2 minutes ago, Pangea2017 said:

For temporary install you can use toothpaste or ketchup.

Mayo if you're feeling lucky 

[ExalyThor]

1 minute ago, Crunchy Dragon said:

Theoretically, as long as the cooler can still dissipate the heat from the core, it should be fine for a bit.

 

What are the specs? It might be a problem with something else.

Nah its the gpu. He swaped the gpu with another one and it worked fine so not even the pcie slot is guilty.

[Mira Yurizaki]

Almost anything is better than air gaps between the hardware and heat sink. Well, almost. But for a quick test, going commando between the heat sink and GPU should be fine for a bit.