Paste, Pads or Putty?

[fraps]

Been a while since I’ve Repasted a GPU and when I did, I just put on some MX-6 on the die and called it a day.
Pretty similar situation whenever I swap out a CPU, but I’ve been reading around about thermal phase change pads, and people are saying that you don’t need to replace them as often, and they perform better. What’s the view on phase change pads or paste for both CPU and GPU usage?
Also, is thermal putty better than traditional pads for VRAM and VRM cooling for GPUs?

 

[Jamin280672]

Been a while since I’ve Repasted a GPU and when I did, I just put on some MX-6 on the die and called it a day.
Pretty similar situation whenever I swap out a CPU, but I’ve been reading around about thermal phase change pads, and people are saying that you don’t need to replace them as often, and they perform better. What’s the view on phase change pads or paste for both CPU and GPU usage?
Also, is thermal putty better than traditional pads for VRAM and VRM cooling for GPUs?

Im literally just about to do my Power Colour red devil 7800XT funny enough, but after a long day at work it probably wont be tonight, i'll leave it until tomorrow now, however, after using Gelid Ultimate Extreme thermal pads on my ASUS X670e Gene chipsets and reducing temps by 25c on one of them, I wasnt going to chance any other pads for the VRMs and Mem, so ive picked up 1mm and 1.5mm as no one seems to know what thickness they are, I also read some other reviews about people changing the paste on the GPU and using MX6, they said I was a bit too thick and wernt getting very good results with it, a couple of people used Gelid GC-4 instead and got much better results, so thats what ive gone for, like I said though, ive still yet to try it, im more interested in getting the Hot spot and memory temps down rather that the GPU die as thats not really getting above 65c under heavy load like furmark, hotspot is hitting 90 and at one point I got a reading of 80c on the GDDR.

Just to give an idea of stock pads over Gelid Ultimate Extreme pads, heres how it changed my chipsets temps on my motherboard.

Before:

After:

Before:

After:

 

[fraps]

Im literally just about to do my Power Colour red devil 7800XT funny enough, but after a long day at work it probably wont be tonight, i'll leave it until tomorrow now, however, after using Gelid Ultimate Extreme thermal pads on my ASUS X670e Gene chipsets and reducing temps by 25c on one of them, I wasnt going to chance any other pads for the VRMs and Mem, so ive picked up 1mm and 1.5mm as no one seems to know what thickness they are, I also read some other reviews about people changing the paste on the GPU and using MX6, they said I was a bit too thick and wernt getting very good results with it, a couple of people used Gelid GC-4 instead and got much better results, so thats what ive gone for, like I said though, ive still yet to try it, im more interested in getting the Hot spot and memory temps down rather that the GPU die as thats not really getting above 65c under heavy load like furmark, hotspot is hitting 90 and at one point I got a reading of 80c on the GDDR.

Just to give an idea of stock pads over Gelid Ultimate Extreme pads, heres how it changed my chipsets temps on my motherboard.

Before:

After:

Before:

After:

Wow, that is a big difference, I have heard good things about GeLid Extreme. Its most likely what I'll be using when I next repaste a GPU. I was tempted by putty but it just seems a little messy for my tastes. Any interest in using a phase change material for your GPU die? PTM 7950 has people raving.

 

[Jamin280672]

Wow, that is a big difference, I have heard good things about GeLid Extreme. Its most likely what I'll be using when I next repaste a GPU. I was tempted by putty but it just seems a little messy for my tastes. Any interest in using a phase change material for your GPU die? PTM 7950 has people raving.

With the die im not so sure if a pad is a good idea, I think any thickness would be too thick, I did consider using a thermal grizzly kryo sheet, ive tried one on my CPU before, but they are a bit of a PITA to keep in place whilst trying to refit the cooler, and because they are electrically conductive, you dont want it moving whilst trying to put the cooler back on, also considered using liquid metal as I have a tonne of that laying around for my CPU, but just decided to go with the easy and safe option, if you did try a thermal pad you would have to find something pretty thin, like 0.2mm, its the same with paste really, too thick or too much and you get the pump out effect.

Ive read good things about PTM7950 too, but also read theres a lot of fakes around, including places like the rain forest, so unless you can buy it from somewhere reputable like OCuk then I wouldn't trust it from anywhere else.

 

[fraps]

With the die im not so sure if a pad is a good idea, I think any thickness would be too thick, I did consider using a thermal grizzly kryo sheet, ive tried one on my CPU before, but they are a bit of a PITA to keep in place whilst trying to refit the cooler, and because they are electrically conductive, you dont want it moving whilst trying to put the cooler back on, also considered using liquid metal as I have a tonne of that laying around for my CPU, but just decided to go with the easy and safe option, if you did try a thermal pad you would have to find something pretty thin, like 0.2mm, its the same with paste really, too thick or too much and you get the pump out effect.

Ive read good things about PTM7950 too, but also read theres a lot of fakes around, including places like the rain forest, so unless you can buy it from somewhere reputable like OCuk then I wouldn't trust it from anywhere else.

It is something I would really like to try. I like the idea of just throwing the pad on there and not worrying about a repaste for the next couple of years or so. And I’ve heard it massively reduces the delta from core to hotspot temp. Fakes do worry me as well, but I’m a little too curious to avoid it completely.