Do you recommend to reapplying GPU heatsink thermal compound?

[GundamF91]

Just got a Sapphire Radeon 5870, it's a very nice card with a big cooler. The cooler appears to be bolted down with 4 screws. It appears to be easily removable. This got me thinking, when installing CPU, even if using stock cooler, I would use my own thermal compound (ie. Arctic Silver) on the cooler. I've never done that with GPU, but but this one appears to be easily taken apart.

Has anyone taken off factory GPU cooler, and then reapplying your own thermal compound? How has it worked out for you? Would this gain anything in cooling efficiency?

Also, is this a risky thing to do since the cooler is already attached to GPU? This is a brand new card, has not been heated up yet, so it may be easy to take off, but I figure I'd ask here first.

 

[WaTaGuMp]

I have done it on cards before, but if it aint broke don't fix it. I doubt you are going to be saving the card from anything. People worry way too much about temps IMHO.

 

[GundamF91]

I just realized it'll most likely to void warranty so I'm just going to hold off on taking down cooler until I have a good reason to do so.

 

[WaTaGuMp]

The card that I last did it to was my EVGA 8800 GTX. I had to RMA that card down the road and did so without issues. I still have no reason to do it, if they build the cards with crappy coolers etc, I just wouldn't buy one. I just feel its a waste of time, and you never know, they might end up refusing to RMA a card if they can prove you did something to void the warranty. In the end you are making the right decision IMHO.

 

[Anarchist420]

Use AC-MX2. If you mess up with it, it won't short the card out, and it cools better than Arctic silver anyway.

 

[Anarchist420]

it should lower temps by about 6-10 C from the stock thermal glue.

 

[RaistlinZ]

I have a 5870 as well and thought about doing it too, but temps seems low enough with the stock paste they use. I don't think it's worth risking messing up the card, especially when I paid $350.00 for it.

 

[Rifter]

I do this to every GPU i buy(since my original nvidia TNT). I also lap the GPU heatspreader and the heatsink, i dont know if i would spend the time just to do the thermal paste. I have seen a average 10c drop in load temps, i had a radeon from 6 years ago that had such a crappy thermal paste and very rough heatsink the load temps dropped close to 20c when i was done.

This better cooling contact obviously will allow you to increase your overclock too which is the only reason i spend the time to do it.

 

[soccerballtux]

I burned out 2 cards when I got the smallest amount of Arctic Silver on some capacitors next to the die on the 9800GTs.

It's not conductive, but it is capacitive. Cost me $200.

I won't do that again, just going to buy one with a better cooler that exhausts out the back to begin with.

 

[Painman]

I reapplied TIM to my current card's VPU (Cypress) because I threw a waterblock on it. Otherwise, I probably would have left it alone.

Cypress VPUs don't have heatspreaders. It's basically a smooth chunk of glass containing the chip that contacts the HSF with only whatever TIM is present as a buffer. In this sort of situation, the stock TIM seems to do a decent job.

nV chips are a different matter. They do have heatspreaders. If you wish to gank the crap out of one of theirs, I'd go with a lower viscosity TIM than the stock stuff. Takes a lot more contact pressure to close the gap when the surface area is half dollar sized rather than dime sized.

 

[Seero]

Just got a Sapphire Radeon 5870, it's a very nice card with a big cooler. The cooler appears to be bolted down with 4 screws. It appears to be easily removable. This got me thinking, when installing CPU, even if using stock cooler, I would use my own thermal compound (ie. Arctic Silver) on the cooler. I've never done that with GPU, but but this one appears to be easily taken apart.

Has anyone taken off factory GPU cooler, and then reapplying your own thermal compound? How has it worked out for you? Would this gain anything in cooling efficiency?

Also, is this a risky thing to do since the cooler is already attached to GPU? This is a brand new card, has not been heated up yet, so it may be easy to take off, but I figure I'd ask here first.

Check with the brand you are using, replacing heatsink does not void warranty.

Lapping the stock HS or GPU will void your warranty.

I reapply TIM after about a year from purchase. Once you see the condition of the TIM, you won't question whether if it is necessary. Older design of heatsink requires user to take the entire off the GPU to be able to clean it, so replacing TIM + cleaning often bring temps down by a lot.

I burned out 2 cards when I got the smallest amount of Arctic Silver on some capacitors next to the die on the 9800GTs.

It's not conductive, but it is capacitive. Cost me $200.

I won't do that again, just going to buy one with a better cooler that exhausts out the back to begin with.

There are non-capacitive TIM, like MX2, which is good for GPU.

 

[AyashiKaibutsu]

I did it to my 9800GT and it runs cool, but I did it before I ran it once so I don't know if it really made a difference. I don't know how people get the stuff on the rest of their cards...