[SOLVED] After applying new thermal paste to my GPU, temperatures are rising to 80C°

bobbyboi

Prominent
Jan 4, 2021
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It's a GTX 960 and I noticed it was very dusty. I took it out to clean the dust as well as applying new thermal paste. The paste I used has a thermal conductivity of 6.5 w/mk and was produced by Duratech. I normally sat on 65C° while gaming on Fortnite however now it's a consistent 80C°. I spread out the paste on my GPU with a credit card and put more on than the 'pea' size. What should I do because it's really worrying me.
 
Solution
Have you checked if you changed your fan profile ? My other thought is you put too much and should open it once more and reapply but use less (less is better here). Also make sure the screws are tightly fit.
Have you checked if you changed your fan profile ? My other thought is you put too much and should open it once more and reapply but use less (less is better here). Also make sure the screws are tightly fit.
 
Solution
Have you checked if you changed your fan profile ? My other thought is you put too much and should open it once more and reapply but use less (less is better here). Also make sure the screws are tightly fit.
I opened it back up and reapplied less. However, I think the main issue was that the thermal pads actually fell off. There are two screws on my GPU that go through a little hole in the thermal pad holder however when I first screwed everything in I think I screwed in little too far which causes the pads to fall off without me noticing. This time I screwed everything back in like normal however I didn't use the last two screws that went through the thermal pad holes as I couldn't correctly position it. In the end, I'm now sitting on a minimum of 65°C to a maximum of 70°C. Still not the best performance but this is a massive improvement compared to a consistent 80°C.

Edit: Lowering my in-game settings also reduces temperatures to a consistent 60°C. I don't think it's smart leaving out the remaining two screws but I think the thermal pad glue has gotten a little weak and if this is my best bet, I'll take it. I'm just thankful my PC doesn't sound like a jet engine!

I'll select your comment for 'Best Answer' because of the helpful tips you provided.