Thermal Grease, its your friend
-
Well I finally got all the hardware and have started to mine/play with settings. Not happy with the temp the cards were running (no spacers, didn’t come in yet) I decided to re-grease my GPU’s and was able to lower the temps 5-8 degrees Celsius. Moral of the story is factory has no idea the proper amount of grease needed and haven’t for years. Using AC MX-4 I put a correct amount on and low and behold temps dropped. I was planning on doing this anyway but not so soon in the beta test phase. For those not familiar with what thermal grease (also called thermal gel, thermal compound, thermal paste, heat paste, heat sink paste or heat sink compound) its the interface material that sits between the CPU/GPU and heat sink which increases the thermal conductivity of a thermal interface by filling microscopic air-gaps present due to the imperfectly flat and smooth surfaces of the components; the compound has far greater thermal conductivity than air but far less than metal. This is why AS5 was such a big deal in mid-2000’s, it contains among other metals silver, which is the best conductor of heat.
This link will help if you don’t know how to apply thermal grease properly.
[url=http://www.maximumpc.com/article/howtos/howto_install_cpu_and_apply_thermal_paste]http://www.maximumpc.com/article/howtos/howto_install_cpu_and_apply_thermal_paste[/url]-Spec
-
Thanks for the info!
-
On my gts 450 I can run 3 c cooler by using artic silver after it breaks in. It’s also important to clean your heatsink from dust every once in a while
-
i another trick to is you can lap the heat sink. some heat sinks are poorly machined are not completely flat. i use to be into overclocking and lapping a heat sink and good thermal compound always drooped the temps
-
It really depends on your location and manufacture if you want to do this without voiding your warranty. Always check first if you want to be able to return the card(s) if they break. There are multiple ways to get a few C cooler, another is on cards that exhaust out the back to remove every other bar with metal cutters on the exhaust of your video card(s).
-
[quote name=“RIPPEDDRAGON” post=“43838” timestamp=“1386951762”]
It really depends on your location and manufacture if you want to do this without voiding your warranty. Always check first if you want to be able to return the card(s) if they break. There are multiple ways to get a few C cooler, another is on cards that exhaust out the back to remove every other bar with metal cutters on the exhaust of your video card(s).
[/quote]
Cutting out the back is a bit too extreme. Also as long as you buy a good video card (reputable brand) it shouldn’t break. -
[quote name=“roman1234” post=“43904” timestamp=“1386966018”]
[quote author=RIPPEDDRAGON link=topic=5924.msg43838#msg43838 date=1386951762]
It really depends on your location and manufacture if you want to do this without voiding your warranty. Always check first if you want to be able to return the card(s) if they break. There are multiple ways to get a few C cooler, another is on cards that exhaust out the back to remove every other bar with metal cutters on the exhaust of your video card(s).
[/quote]
Cutting out the back is a bit too extreme. Also as long as you buy a good video card (reputable brand) it shouldn’t break.
[/quote]
Its not extreme if the cards use a blower style cooler like the stock R9 290s and 290xs. I did it several years ago with some GTX 480s and cutting every other vent slat out resulted in a 4c drop on every card. Decreased resistance = increased airflow -
[quote name=“colsteel” post=“43826” timestamp=“1386950068”]
i another trick to is you can lap the heat sink. some heat sinks are poorly machined are not completely flat. i use to be into overclocking and lapping a heat sink and good thermal compound always drooped the temps
[/quote]I agree, lapping a HS is another great way to drop temps.
-
Instead of going all out cutting up the heatsink, lapping the gpu and heatsink I prefer to just turn up the fan speed. My gpu sits at under 60c all day.
-
[quote name=“roman1234” post=“43925” timestamp=“1386968799”]
Instead of going all out cutting up the heatsink, lapping the gpu and heatsink I prefer to just turn up the fan speed. My gpu sits at under 60c all day.
[/quote]No cutting required, just a few screws, and lapping is just sanding the HS flatter.
-
Or just buy a watercooled setup ;D