TIM for RAM

[Jeff7181]

Should I put some of that non-conductive white TIM on it, or would AS5 be ok? There's no TIM at all, not even those little tape strips on my BFG 6800GT OC. Thinking that's pretty inefficient. 🙂

 

[Matthias99]

1) GDDR3 runs very cool relative to DDR. It probably doesn't need any cooling at all.

2) Any TIM is fine. The only "danger" with AS5 is that if you get it on the pins (if they are exposed, as with older TSOP RAM), it could cause stability problems. You'll need a heatsink, too -- TIM by itself will just act as an insulator.

 

[Killrose]

Originally posted by: Matthias99
1) GDDR3 runs very cool relative to DDR. It probably doesn't need any cooling at all.

I thought only at the same freq's it runs cooler?, but because it is capable of running at higher freq, will actually be hotter than DDR1 due to high freq spec usage, ie., 1100MHz for DDR3 vs 700MHz for DDR1 as an example.

Read it somewher on teh intranent 🙂

 

[Jeff7181]

Well yeah, of course I need a heatsink. 😀 BFG's heatsink has little "pads" in the copper that are supposed to touch the RAM... but it seems awefully inefficient with just a piece of copper touching the chips... especially since the surface of the chips is pretty rough.

 

[Matthias99]

Originally posted by: Killrose

Originally posted by: Matthias99
1) GDDR3 runs very cool relative to DDR. It probably doesn't need any cooling at all.

I thought only at the same freq's it runs cooler?, but because it is capable of running at higher freq, will actually be hotter than DDR1 due to high freq spec usage, ie., 1100MHz for DDR3 vs 700MHz for DDR1 as an example.

Read it somewher on teh intranent 🙂

It's like 25-50% of the heat output, and it only runs ~50% faster than 350Mhz DDR1. 😛

So usually it's *still* cooler, even at a higher speed.

 

[Jeff7181]

Well I was mistaken about the RAM things... they're not copper pads... they're little rubbery pads. I didn't know what AS5 might do to them, like attack the rubber... so I cleaned off the old dried up white crap, and put some new white crap, then put some AS5 on the core and it dropped the temp of the GPU by 5 degrees while playing HL2... pretty significant difference I'd say.