[SOLVED] Advice about thermal paste application. Does my GPU still runs too hot?!

[Rufusam]

Hello there, my Gigabyte GTX 970 Windforce 3X card which I've had since May 2016 have been performing somewhat poorly a couple of months ago. The temperature would hit 80c and the fans would spin at 80% during relatively undemanding games such as Dark Souls 3. I did some research and tried some soft solutions such as reinstalling the driver after using DDU or turning ShadowPlay off but the problem remained. Eventually I decided to replace the card's thermal paste and pads.

Knowing nothing about the process, I bought the first thermal paste I could find and some thermal pads (which were very difficult to find!), watched some videos about it, opened up the card, thoroughly cleaned the shroud and the heatsink, replaced the paste and pads and put the card back together. I was playing Remnant: From the Ashes, so I fire it up while running GPU-Z to monitor the temps, which I did not need because I suddenly hear what sounds to be an airplane trying to take off! I check GPU-Z to find the fans running at 100% and the heat sits happily at 95c...!

I live in Egypt and quality paste and pads are expensive and/or hard to find. I determined the problem to be with the paste after I closely inspected the tube to find that it has a thermal conductivity of 1.93 w/mk! So I ordered a Cooler Master MasterGel Pro from an online seller for 25 times the price I spent on the original paste!

I understand that most people recommend the "pea shape" method for paste application, however the MasterGel tube has a curious shape as if you're supposed to paint the die with "stripes" which seemed like too much paste for such a small die. I ended up applying the paste with a glove then I "streamlined" it with a small wooded stick which was the closest thing I had akin to a spreader. I made sure the die is completely covered, I tried to use just enough paste to cover the die and not create a "hill" of paste.

I tried firing Resident Evil 3 Remake running at 1080p with most settings turned on, I'm getting 55-60 fps. The card is mostly running at 80c and some times it hits 82-83c, the fans never go past 81%. The card seems to be very stable and although I'm not used to it running at such high temps/fans %, I understand I'm using a 2014 card in 2020 and I'm long due for an upgrade. However pc components here in Egypt are extremely pricy.

Remnant: From the Ashes seems to be hitting 80c+ as well, so it's on par with pre-paste reapplication. Dark Souls 3 however runs at 55-56c now and it shot to 67c only once, so there's al least an improvement. The card never went past 84c in 2 days of testing.

Should I reapply the paste?! Is there a better way to apply it on a GPU die with that specific MasterGel Pro line-shaped tube?! Do you think these temps are acceptable?!

Thanks.

 

[jay32267]

Hello there, my Gigabyte GTX 970 Windforce 3X card which I've had since May 2016 have been performing somewhat poorly a couple of months ago. The temperature would hit 80c and the fans would spin at 80% during relatively undemanding games such as Dark Souls 3. I did some research and tried some soft solutions such as reinstalling the driver after using DDU or turning ShadowPlay off but the problem remained. Eventually I decided to replace the card's thermal paste and pads.

Knowing nothing about the process, I bought the first thermal paste I could find and some thermal pads (which were very difficult to find!), watched some videos about it, opened up the card, thoroughly cleaned the shroud and the heatsink, replaced the paste and pads and put the card back together. I was playing Remnant: From the Ashes, so I fire it up while running GPU-Z to monitor the temps, which I did not need because I suddenly hear what sounds to be an airplane trying to take off! I check GPU-Z to find the fans running at 100% and the heat sits happily at 95c...!

I live in Egypt and quality paste and pads are expensive and/or hard to find. I determined the problem to be with the paste after I closely inspected the tube to find that it has a thermal conductivity of 1.93 w/mk! So I ordered a Cooler Master MasterGel Pro from an online seller for 25 times the price I spent on the original paste!

I understand that most people recommend the "pea shape" method for paste application, however the MasterGel tube has a curious shape as if you're supposed to paint the die with "stripes" which seemed like too much paste for such a small die. I ended up applying the paste with a glove then I "streamlined" it with a small wooded stick which was the closest thing I had akin to a spreader. I made sure the die is completely covered, I tried to use just enough paste to cover the die and not create a "hill" of paste.

I tried firing Resident Evil 3 Remake running at 1080p with most settings turned on, I'm getting 55-60 fps. The card is mostly running at 80c and some times it hits 82-83c, the fans never go past 81%. The card seems to be very stable and although I'm not used to it running at such high temps/fans %, I understand I'm using a 2014 card in 2020 and I'm long due for an upgrade. However pc components here in Egypt are extremely pricy.

Remnant: From the Ashes seems to be hitting 80c+ as well, so it's on par with pre-paste reapplication. Dark Souls 3 however runs at 55-56c now and it shot to 67c only once, so there's al least an improvement. The card never went past 84c in 2 days of testing.

Should I reapply the paste?! Is there a better way to apply it on a GPU die with that specific MasterGel Pro line-shaped tube?! Do you think these temps are acceptable?!

Thanks.

Being you say "the card seems to be very stable" I would leave it be.
I don't find your temps out of the ordinary.
I am running 3 NVidia GPUs.
All three peak at 82C.
GTX 1060, GTX 1080, RTX2080Ti