[SOLVED] Advice on replacing thermal pads and paste on graphics card ?

[omegaglory1]

Hi all, looking for a bit of advice. I’m doing some maintenance on my graphics card (Asus rtx 3070 dual).

Long story short, I had a mould problem in my bedroom and the PC has been moved to a safer place and unplugged for the past couple of months. Renovation is underway and I’ve given my whole PC a thorough clean up using a compucleaner and ipa where appropriate.

I want to replace the thermal paste and pads on my card. I have ample experience with changing the paste on my cpu but it’ll be my first time doing something like this on a gpu. Any pointers? Main questions are:

1. What kind of paste is compatible and what kind to avoid?
2. Best way to apply paste?
3. Can I use Arcticleaner to prep?
4. Do surfaces need cleaning prior to applying new pads?
5. Does the brand of pad make a difference?

 

[Lutfij]

1| Any high end thermal paste used for CPU's will do the job. Arctic MX-5, Thermal Grizzly conductonaut, Noctua NT-H1 or H2.
2| YT has a number of them, dot, line cross, just don't put too much on the GPU's surface.
3| You can use isopropyl alcohol to wipe the surface off of the factory thermal paste.
4| Yes, it's better to remove a prior layer or residue to ensure proper contact and heat transmission.
5| Yes, they do. Fujipoly is the highest pedigree pads money can buy but they also cost a pretty penny. I've worked with them, made life very easy for my VRM's.

You're going to need a slider/Vernier calliper or a simple ruler/scale to understand the thickness of the pads that you currently have on the GPU.

 

[omegaglory1]

1| Any high end thermal paste used for CPU's will do the job. Arctic MX-5, Thermal Grizzly conductonaut, Noctua NT-H1 or H2.

Should it be non conductive paste? Are there any I should absolutely stay away from? A friend of mine had his card fried after using the incorrect paste 😟

 

[geofelt]

May I suggest that you first exercise your graphics card to see if there is any overheating issue.

Do not fix anything that is not broken.

 

[revodo]

May I suggest that you first exercise your graphics card to see if there is any overheating issue.

Do not fix anything that is not broken.

This. I've seen people screw up their video cards from attempting this. Don't do it unless you have good reason to.

 

[Eximo]

Kryonaut or Hydronaut would be the better choices from Thermal Grizzly. Liquid metal is not a proper long term solution and does run the risk of shorting things out if it gets on anything. Kryonaut is relatively stable, but you are paying a premium for sub-ambient capability. Hydronaut is designed for water coolers, but works just fine.

Not often easy to get thermal pad thickness in advance, usually have to track down someone that has already taken the card apart. If you are buying fujipoly, best to just buy several sheets at various thickness. 1mm and .5mm should cover most applications. (Chokes sometimes have the thin pads, but memory and VRMs generally use thicker pads)

Calipers only if you want to be exacting and get perfect pad thickness for every surface. As long as the pad you use is thicker than the compressed sections, it will make contact. More thermal pad thickness is better than an air gap. Unnecessary thickness is bad, but you aren't likely to encounter extremes. Doubling up pads is okay on the lower power components, I would say you really want single pads on the memory and primary VRMs if possible. Chokes and secondary VRMs are not as critical since they deal with a lot less power.