GTX 660 getting too hot!

[refmon]

2 year old gtx 660. It's hitting 90C when I play something like Mean Greens. I want to remove its plate and dust and change its thermal paste. Should I use or avoid any specific type of paste?

I haven't done this before so will I have to remove it's thermal pads as well? I don't have any replacements.

 

[koffeeshop77]

no, don't remove the pads
just dust it out in he back and front and you will see a dramatic drop
those pads are for your ram and power converters so they need to stay in place and putting new thermal past on their never helped one bit once i got down to the chip and i used the high qulity glide extremstuff.
but yeah, there is a dust matt the formes oon the end of the finns, i just remove it with a tooth brush and your temps will drop back to like 67 -70 C.

 

[refmon]

Ok thanks! So the pads shouldn't tear on their own and would arctic silver be a good paste to use, I read something about how using the wrong one can damage the card but I am not sure.

 

[koffeeshop77]

non conductive!!! past arctic silver is fine just make sure its non conductive or you could get a short.
and don't use icy diamond because it will scratch the die.