4870 cooler - does it break in?

[sonnygdude]

Hey all - just curious to see if anyone has observed this as well. The idle and load temps on my Visiontek 4870 have dropped by about 3-4 degrees C since I started using the card about a month ago - could this indicate that the (reportedly crappy) TIM is settling in?

Using CCC 8.6 with the profile fan mod at 40%, used to idle about 52 and now it's at 47-48. There shouldn't be anything going on electronically that would be lowering performance, should there? I don't notice a difference and I'm not complaining about lower temps, but I still think it's an interesting phenomenon to observe

 

[BTRY B 529th FA BN]

has your ambient temperatures dropped!? has the weather dropped lately?! lol

 

[airhendrix13]

Hmmm... the only thing I can think of is the thermal tape finally adhered to the heatsink properly.

 

[sonnygdude]

Originally posted by: BTRY B 529th FA BN
has your ambient temperatures dropped!? has the weather dropped lately?! lol

Nah, I probably can't attribute it to this. I live in the desert, AC keeps the temps and humidity pretty much constant from May until October when I can turn it off.

Originally posted by: airhendrix13
Hmmm... the only thing I can think of is the thermal tape finally adhered to the heatsink properly.

Makes me curious what the thermal tape is... heat transfer is something I deal with a lot, so the time dependence aspect of the material is interesting from a chemistry and process standpoint