Just had to take off 9800GTX HSF...

[Ichinisan]

I'm sure the answer to this is probably: "OF COURSE, YOU IDIOT!" ...but I'll ask anyway.

I just got my brand new eVGA 9800GTX in the mail today. I put it into my system and was halfway through installing the driver when the GPU fan started to make a loud noise. By the time the driver finished installing, I could hear the fan getting slower and slower until it was *nearly* stopped. I took it out of the system and could tell immediately that the fan was catching something as it was turning. The HSF design was such that I couldn't poke around anywhere or see through the fan at all. I called eVGA to see if it would void my warranty, and they encouraged me to go ahead and take it off to see if there was just a wire touching the fan.

At first, I thought I could simply remove the plastic shell, but it was actually designed so that you have to remove the whole HSF to get to the fan. When I had the fan completely removed, I could still feel it catching / grinding a bit as I spun the fan with my finger. The grinding stopped after spinning it a few times, and I can't get it to grind or catch any more.

It might start grinding again, but I have to put it all back together to find out. It is going to be a major pain to re-apply thermal compound, but I think it's probably necessary. I'm really eager to try out this card. Just in case, I thought I should ask:

If the card hasn't really been used, do I really need to reapply the thermal compound? Is Arctic Silver 5 appropriate for a 9800GTX GPU?

Thanks!

I can't wait to get started...so I'll check for replies as soon as I get back...

 

[ther00kie16]

If there's enough TIM left to cover the chip, then it should be fine. However, every time you remove a heatsink, it's recommended that you reapply thermal compound. As for AS5, I wouldn't recommend it as AS's website itself recommends keeping it away from traces, pins, etc.

 

[panfist]

About re-applying TIM, it's my belief that an individual with minimal investment and knowledge can do a far better job applying TIM than the factory job. I've never come across a product that had a good TIM applied in an ideal fashion. You can surely improve your temps by at least 1C by applying a quality material the right way.

I would only use arctic silver if you are experienced and confident in your ability to only get the TIM where you want it. If you want a good non-conductive TIM that's cheap I would recommend Thermalright Chill Factor. It might not be the best, but it's almost as good as AS5 and you get a ton of it, enough to last 20 applications or more.

 

[Ichinisan]

If I try it without re-applying, will the NVIDIA driver notify me if the card is overheating? I'm eager to try the card now, and it's too late to pick up any thermal compound tonight.

 

[ther00kie16]

You can monitor the temperature with a program like Everest. If you see artifacts before you get to monitoring the temperature, it's a sign it's overheating and needs to be turned off.

 

[SergeC]

Not an idiot by any stretch - but yeah, it's an "of course" really. You might get on without re-applying, but you'll see much better results if you do.

 

[Sylvanas]

Indeed. I always remove heatsinks on new hardware and re apply some quality TIM- the factory crap can easily be removed and I have seen 5c differences with just a new compound. I would particularly look at getting some Arctic Cooling MX2- it is non conductive (so if you get any on traces its okay) and it's top performing.

 

[error8]

Reapply the paste man, don't be lazy. Clean the surfaces with some alcohol first , mount the cooler and you'll see that it will work a couple of degrees lower then it did before.

 

[ShadowFlareX]

Hrm, I applied AS5 on my 9800GTX before reading all this. I was as careful as possible though, been running fine for a month so far. I hope it's good forever. Right after i got the card, I took the HSF off, clean the stock TIM, and apply thin layer of AS5.

I wouldn't know how much AS5 improves the temp, but it sits idle between 60oC - 65oC, and load wouldn't go over 80oC. All this in a room temp of 32oC (90oF). At least i'm happy with those temps.

 

[Ichinisan]

I am going to get some non-conductive TIM today. Last night/this morning, I tried it without reapplying the TIM and it seems to be working fine. I ran the demo for 3DMark06 once and it looked great. I ran it again at my native resolution (1920x1200) and it still ran great, with no artifacts. The fan hasn't started grinding again either.

I'm going to reapply TIM anyway, but I want to see what a difference it makes in temps. If I remember correctly, there used to be a stub in the NVIDIA Control Panel that would prompt me to install nTune for monitoring the status of the card or tweaking clock frequencies. I no longer see the stub with the 175.16 drivers that were released on 05/13. Strange.

 

[Cuular]

Originally posted by: ShadowFlareX
Hrm, I applied AS5 on my 9800GTX before reading all this. I hope it's good forever.

You should be good. In previous versions of AS they recommended replacing the compound every 6-9 months. With AS5 they claim "It never dries out".

 

[Ichinisan]

Do NVIDIA GPUs ever throttle themselves to avoid overheating?

 

[BlueAcolyte]

No, they shut off. 8800GT is usually shut off around 100C, the tolerance is about 120C.

 

[ShadowFlareX]

Originally posted by: Cuular

Originally posted by: ShadowFlareX
Hrm, I applied AS5 on my 9800GTX before reading all this. I hope it's good forever.

You should be good. In previous versions of AS they recommended replacing the compound every 6-9 months. With AS5 they claim "It never dries out".

That's good to know

 

[ShadowFlareX]

Originally posted by: BlueAcolyte
No, they shut off. 8800GT is usually shut off around 100C, the tolerance is about 120C.

I wonder if they forgot to add the shut off feature on the GeForce 7 series, particulary the Single-slot-cooled 7950GT 512MB that I had. Whenever I play UT3, GPU temp would peak at 114oC, seen on nVmonitor, without any sign of slowing down or shutting off. Or was it waiting for the 120oC tolerance -_-

Hence I decided to get a dual-slot-cooled nV GPU, and thought the 9800GTX would be a good upgrade. Turned out it was -more- than I've expected, happy with it

 

[n7]

Originally posted by: BlueAcolyte
No, they shut off. 8800GT is usually shut off around 100C, the tolerance is about 120C.

Don't think it's 100C.

AT did a review of a passively cooled 8800 GT & had it running 111C w/o issues, & i've heard of others over 100C as well.

I suppose it could vary, but i would have thought it would be set by nVidia, not the manufacturers.

 

[Ichinisan]

How can I monitor temps in Vista 64? Everest doesn't show any temps at all. RivaTuner and ATITool both try to install unsigned drivers, which are rejected by Vista64. How in the heck can I find my damn temps?!

I assume that, these days, temps can always be monitored from any card. However, I read something while google-ing for a monitoring utility which indicated that some card manufacturers disable temp reading to disable overclocking. Is that still the case?