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Thermal compound for graphics card

coopsjc21

coopsjc21

coopsjc21

Associate
Joined
22 Aug 2005
Posts
373
Location
Kent
Hi,
My graphics card appears to be over heating. Can someone confirm that this stuff... http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=TH-002-AK&groupid=701&catid=57&subcat=27 is suitable for reseating the fan/heat sink on the card?

Also can you suggest a budget fan for it should this not work? The card is a Asus ATI Radeon HD 4870 Glaciator+ 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express.. I was looking at this.. http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HS-047-AK&groupid=701&catid=57&subcat=787
 
I wouldn't use that Akasa stuff. I've never seen it recommended and it's probably conductive and may make your 4870 go pop.

A bit (lot) more expensive but I'd go for MX-3 or MX-4, both non conductive and good for GPUs.

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=TH-002-AR&groupid=701&catid=57&subcat=27

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=TH-003-AR&groupid=701&catid=57&subcat=27

I've never tried the cooler linked but there's plenty of OcUK reviews to get a feel for if it's any good, plus it has been recommended on hear before.
 
IC diamond is fantastic on graphics cards bit pricey but it outperforms 99% of other pastes, +1 for the vortex neo, great little cooler :D
 
Tealc said:
I wouldn't use that Akasa stuff. I've never seen it recommended and it's probably conductive and may make your 4870 go pop.

A bit (lot) more expensive but I'd go for MX-3 or MX-4, both non conductive and good for GPUs.

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=TH-002-AR&groupid=701&catid=57&subcat=27

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=TH-003-AR&groupid=701&catid=57&subcat=27

I've never tried the cooler linked but there's plenty of OcUK reviews to get a feel for if it's any good, plus it has been recommended on hear before.
Click to expand...

Will that cooler fit my card? It has good reviews yes so am happy to give it a go if the thermal paste doesnt solve the problem. I will got for the mx-4 stuff as I'm on a budget. Talking of which, what is a budget way of removing the old stuff? Wipe it off? Bit of white spirit? black & decker sander? :)

I'm assuming 97 degree c is too hot for a graphics card?
 
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97 degrees is a bit on the toasty side. Has it always been this hot? Is the fan set on Manual? Is the heatsink dusty?

Not sure if the Neo would fit as your card is a non reference design. I guess it all depends on whether you can leave your existing heatsinks on there. £16 isn't much of a risk though.
 
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Tealc said:
97 degrees is a bit on the toasty side. Has it always been this hot? Is the fan set on Manual? Is the heatsink dusty?

Not sure if the Neo would fit as your card is a non reference design. I guess it all depends on whether you can leave your existing heatsinks on there. £16 isn't much of a risk though.
Click to expand...


It only gets this hot playing certain graphic heavy games.. Crysis, Call of Juarez etc.., after a while the monitor goes into standby and it shuts down because I think the card is overheating.

Fan was on automatic, I changed it to manual at set it to 100% but had no effect, will have a check of the heatsink, but I played Crysis not long after building the PC and the problem was occurring then.
 
be careful when chaging the TIM on gfx cards , make sure it is the same colour as the one you are replacing or they will know it has been changed .
powercolor told me this , i have used mx-4 on my 6970 and had to reapply it after 5 weeks due to rising temps again . so try and not use mx-4
 
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i used mx4 on my 6870 and temps r abit lower than default paste but then again the 6870 isnt the hottest thing around. Been a month since i changed so b interesting to see if temps rise like chaotic says his did.
 
i used mx-4 on both my 470's and worked a treat i woudl recomand taking the heat sink apart cleaning it and if you can do the same with the fan then put it all back together with some mx-4
 
it worked a treat for me while it lasted , had to re-do it after 5 weeks . what i was saying though is make sure it looks the same or they will know
 
The temps on my Ati 5770 was reaching as hot as the low 90's when the GPU was maxed out on games like Crysis and Metro 2033 and when toucing the heatsink on the GPU, it wasn't even hot to touch so something was wrong.

After taking the heatsink apart and applying some OCZ Freeze Extreme thermal compound onto the GPU/heatsink, my temps averaged in the mid 60's for normal games and maxes out in the low 70's when playing Crysis/Metro. Thats the difference of 20 degrees!:eek:
 
hdpcgamer said:
The temps on my Ati 5770 was reaching as hot as the low 90's when the GPU was maxed out on games like Crysis and Metro 2033 and when toucing the heatsink on the GPU, it wasn't even hot to touch so something was wrong.

After taking the heatsink apart and applying some OCZ Freeze Extreme thermal compound onto the GPU/heatsink, my temps averaged in the mid 60's for normal games and maxes out in the low 70's when playing Crysis/Metro. Thats the difference of 20 degrees!:eek:
Click to expand...

thats high temps for a 5770 , had my 6970 reach 98.5 in avp before i replaced the Tim . my gtx480 reaches around 84-86 while gaming depending on room temp
 
Hi,
Just a quick update. I opened the case up and pulled the gfx card out and saw that the fan and heatsink were both covered in a thick layer of dust, could this be preventing it from cooling properly and causing the problems I've been having (on graphic intense games the screen suddenly goes into standby and a few seconds later the computer reboots).

I've taken the fan off, cleaned it, cleaned the heatsink and put it all back together. Will keep and eye on temps and see what happens.
 
yes it could, if three was dust in between the fins blocking th air flow, and dust coating the fins stopping it from transferring to the air, it iwll stop it cooling properly.

I use MX-2 on all my stuff, but thats cause I bought a massive 30g tube a while back (jut before mx-3 came out) and havent got through it all yet lol.
 
Ch3m1c4L said:
yes it could, if three was dust in between the fins blocking th air flow, and dust coating the fins stopping it from transferring to the air, it iwll stop it cooling properly.

I use MX-2 on all my stuff, but thats cause I bought a massive 30g tube a while back (jut before mx-3 came out) and havent got through it all yet lol.
Click to expand...


After a few heavy sessions on MW2 and Call of Juarez (both games that used to run up high gpu temps and crash) the temp maxed at 69 c and didn't seem to go higher. Before it'd reach upwards of 90 c without too much effort, so I think the dust was the problem.

I'll keep an eye on it in future and clean it every 6 months or so. Getting our new furniture soon anyway, including a computer desk that has a cupboard for the case to go in, so hopefully won't attract as much dust (and cat hair!).
 
pc in a closed compartment doesnt help heat, having the pc raised a little off the carpet helps a lot though.

To save on cleaning, if you can afford it get some demciflex fan filters that are magnectic. Just make sure you also have more intake air flow than extractors and it will effectively elimate dust inside your pc, you jsut clean the filters once in a while.
 
Buy a can of spray air and zap it every few months. Additionally, my 6950 was running much hotter than I liked so made a custom fan profile in Afterburner and it tops out at 84C now (compared to 94C before).
 
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