Worth replacing the thermal paste on my 7950?

MyBrainz · 2 Oct 2012 at 17:31

So i have done this before on my previous 4850 and 4890 cards and did see a drop in average temps of around 5c so im wondering if my Sapphire 7950 Dual-X 950MHz Edition will see similar results. I have the feeling with it being a dual fan card it may be slightly more difficult taking this one apart but i think its worth the hassle if it lowers temps or.. do u guys think the paste on these cards is decent enough for me to leave it be?

I know it will void the warranty (if its noticeable) but another question i'd like to know is which thermal paste is best for a GPU if i go ahead with this. I have AS5,Zalman Thermal Grease 2 and IC Diamond 7-Carat at hand.

Any help appreciated..

Thanks

C64 · 2 Oct 2012 at 17:36

Non conductive paste for gpu so don't use arctic silver personally I use IC diamond just need a half grain of rice blob in middle.
I doubt you will see a huge difference it comes down to how much paste they put on but normally it's way too much.

psychodil · 2 Oct 2012 at 17:41

Its the first thing I do when I get a new GPU, but try and keep your warranty intact if you do. Some vendors put stickers on the screws so they know if the cooler has been removed.

MyBrainz · 2 Oct 2012 at 17:57

C64 said:
Non conductive paste for gpu so don't use arctic silver personally I use IC diamond just need a half grain of rice blob in middle.
I doubt you will see a huge difference it comes down to how much paste they put on but normally it's way too much.

Cool.. IC Diamond it is then.. so u put it on the same as CPU with just a tiny dot? I did this for my CPU. So NO spreading?

psychodil said:
Its the first thing I do when I get a new GPU, but try and keep your warranty intact if you do. Some vendors put stickers on the screws so they know if the cooler has been removed.

Yea will keep my eye on those stickers.. i voided my warranty on my HX 520 PSU a couple of weeks ago as a sticker was over one of the screws but damn i needed to get that dust out.. was more than 2 years worth of dust in that thing

Uncle Petey · 2 Oct 2012 at 18:22

Let us know how you go mate.
Same card here and temps could be better (when oc'ing). Trying to persuade myself to not get an Accelero Xtreme...

Defy Belief · 2 Oct 2012 at 18:33

Tbh you shouldn't really need to replace it after such a short period of time. If it doesn't void your warranty though may aswell give it a go if you think temps are a little high.

C64 · 3 Oct 2012 at 01:24

MyBrains said:
Cool.. IC Diamond it is then.. so u put it on the same as CPU with just a tiny dot? I did this for my CPU. So NO spreading?

Yea will keep my eye on those stickers.. i voided my warranty on my HX 520 PSU a couple of weeks ago as a sticker was over one of the screws but damn i needed to get that dust out.. was more than 2 years worth of dust in that thing

yea just a dot in middle and let the pressure spread it btw the Alpenföhn Peter range looks way better than the accelero's
also you'd easy get away with using an accelero twin turbo II it's cheaper but has a tdp of 250 watts

tommybhoy · 3 Oct 2012 at 02:27

Alpenföhn Peter is a beast of an air cooler, possible 4/5 slots- 1 above(due to the large screws) with 4 below, so CrossFire would be out.

The 79's need a shim with the AC2(the 79' Extreme doesn't) to level up the heatsink/core.

Also, while the core temp goes down, add about ~20c to the vrm temps using an AC Extreme, so I imagine it will be similar with the AC2 as well, possibly even more due to less fans.

MyBrainz · 3 Oct 2012 at 02:59

Whoa! Hang on guys i just wana replace the paste.. thats all

MyBrainz · 3 Oct 2012 at 17:39

Had my card out earlier while doing a little cable management.. Seems like i might break something if i take the cooler off. Does anybody know how many screws i need to take out? Is it just the 4 in the middle or is there more to be undone?

I was following this thread here which has pics of it with the cooler off in this post..

http://hardforum.com/showpost.php?p=1038777638&postcount=12

If its just the 4 screws then i'll give it a go but im wondering about the memory cooling and if i might screw it up. Never had that sort of memory cooling on the previous cards i messed with

555BUK · 4 Oct 2012 at 09:52

Not worth bothering. You may drop temps by a couple of degrees, but paste alone will not help overclocks or stability.

tommybhoy · 4 Oct 2012 at 13:18

MyBrains said:
If its just the 4 screws then i'll give it a go but im wondering about the memory cooling and if i might screw it up. Never had that sort of memory cooling on the previous cards i messed with

You don't need to take off the memory cooling or the vrm cooling as they have thermal pads to conduct onto the plates.

It should just be the 4 screws round the core along with the screws on the pci plate(if it has any) if it connects to the cooler.

If your not confident about doing the job, then leave it be-then you won't shed any tears.

Have a tub for the screws so you don't lose any or drop them on the floor.

Patience is a virtue-take your time.

@555BUK, even though it won't improve clocks/stability, if it can help stop the fan from ramping up that extra stage- ala the WF, it can make a huge difference to noise levels, the WF is very quiet until it hits 60c then the noise is abysmal.

The one I had sat about 62c under load but you didn't need AB to tell you the temps, if I kept it I no doubt would have tried different paste although I doubt itwould have stopped that extra ramp up as I put it down to the high rpms keeping the core@62c.

MyBrainz · 4 Oct 2012 at 17:38

Cheers for the replies guys..

Doing this on 2 previous cards and having around 5c temp drops just makes me wana do the same on this card. I used the Zalman TG2 on those 2 previous cards and seeing better temps on my 2700K using the IC Diamond 7-Carat compared to AS5 just makes me feel that the IC Diamond is sure to drops temps on the card. I was just thinking the dual fan arrangement may make it a harder when taking off the cooler.

Touching 70c in games (Sleeping Dogs for example) and then bringing those temps down to mid 60's is certainly a reduction in fan noise.

I'll take a look at it over the weekend.

Thanks

MyBrainz · 4 Oct 2012 at 23:51

Just remembered i changed the paste on my Sapphire 6870 too

Anyway i just went ahead and did the same with the 7950.. just booted up and letting the GPU warm up a bit by being logged into Second Life. Going to test on a game or 2 in a while. Does this paste (IC Diamond 7-Carat) need to cure at all? Think i read it doesnt but thought i'd better ask to be sure.

Cheers

MyBrainz · 5 Oct 2012 at 00:13

Heres how it looked after first taking it apart..

And after i cleaned it up (this pic is more for Uncle Petey's benefit)

It was just the four screws at the centre of the PCB that was needed to be removed.. was a bit stuck though and needed a bit of forcing to get it unstuck from the chip.

Uncle Petey · 5 Oct 2012 at 00:47

Cheers, that's pretty helpful actually

Some of those stock heatsinks look like they might be worth keeping.

Btw, I don't think they put enough paste on...

MyBrainz · 5 Oct 2012 at 01:19

Uncle Petey said:
Btw, I don't think they put enough paste on...

Lmao! Yea way too much on that me thinks.

Well the IC Diamond i used was just a tiny dot in the middle of the chip and holy moly i was having 5c higher temps than before :eek:

So i just whipped it out and replaced with Zalman TG2 but this time i spread a thin layer over the chip..

So far im a couple of degrees lower than the original paste that was on it but i'll probly know more tomorrow as its getting late now.

Cold_And_Miserable · 5 Oct 2012 at 01:53

C64 said:
Non conductive paste for gpu so don't use arctic silver personally I use IC diamond just need a half grain of rice blob in middle.
I doubt you will see a huge difference it comes down to how much paste they put on but normally it's way too much.

Arctic silver isn't conductive. :rolleyes:

Only Liquid metal Pro and Liquid metal ultra are conductive. I'm using the latter without any problems.

BrianB · 5 Oct 2012 at 02:19

Not Electrically Conductive:
Arctic Silver 5 was formulated to conduct heat, not electricity.
(While much safer than electrically conductive silver and copper greases, Arctic Silver 5 should be kept away from electrical traces, pins, and leads. While it is not electrically conductive, the compound is very slightly capacitive and could potentially cause problems if it bridges two close-proximity electrical paths.).

Arctic Silver is conductive. I got some AS5 on my X800 PRO when I installed some dodgey Zalman vga heatsink. Of course, it shorted. Card still works though.

Also apparently it doesn't matter much if you put too much TIM on a GPU. I think they put so much on to try make it last longer?

In my experience it is definitely conductive...I have 2 spare tubes of it just have no use for it since getting Gelid GC-Extreme, much easier to use imo.

MyBrainz · 5 Oct 2012 at 10:11

Done some testing this morning and have to say the Zalman TG2 is much better than the IC Diamond. Sleeping Dogs on Extreme setting never goes over 70c at all now and my idle temps are around 31c-32c even with the central heating on.. well pleased