Hd 6990m - Thermal Paste

[sg90]

Got my Replacement card with heat sink for my M17x r3. It runs fine except I notice after about 30 minutes it gets warm in the upper middle around where the graphics card is. It is cold where the cooling fan for the gpu is and is partly warm to the right of the gpu.

I have a feeling it is the thermal paste that came with as it seemed a bit dried out on the strip it came on.

What would be the best paste to get for the heatsink and gpu?

I was thinking of the Arctic Cooling MX-2 or Mx-4 paste . Any other recommendation would be appreciated.

 

[InvalidError]

I would be more worried if your laptop's GPU area was cold since that would indicate that there is no heat transfer from the GPU to HSF.

Changing the paste won't make your laptop's corner any cooler since the same amount of heat has to be removed from it regardless of how good the paste is. What the paste may affect is the GPU's core temperature and how fast the fan needs to run to keep that in check assuming the thermal transfer from GPU to HSF is at least good enough to handle that much.

 

[sg90]

I would be more worried if your laptop's GPU area was cold since that would indicate that there is no heat transfer from the GPU to HSF.

Changing the paste won't make your laptop's corner any cooler since the same amount of heat has to be removed from it regardless of how good the paste is. What the paste may affect is the GPU's core temperature and how fast the fan needs to run to keep that in check assuming the thermal transfer from GPU to HSF is at least good enough to handle that much.

So it will still be fine after a few hours of running if I don't replace the thermal paste?
The main reason I think the paste should be replaced is that before I replaced the broken gpu with this one it never seem to give off the heat this one does.

 

[InvalidError]

So it will still be fine after a few hours of running if I don't replace the thermal paste?
The main reason I think the paste should be replaced is that before I replaced the broken gpu with this one it never seem to give off the heat this one does.

You could run FurMark or similar for a few minutes and see how hot the GPU gets. That would give you a good indication of how well the HSF does its job.

If your previous GPU did not get as hot, I see two possibilities:
1- your new GPU uses more power (defect?) or
2- the HSF on your original GPU was never put on right, which could explain why it failed

 

[sg90]

So it will still be fine after a few hours of running if I don't replace the thermal paste?
The main reason I think the paste should be replaced is that before I replaced the broken gpu with this one it never seem to give off the heat this one does.

You could run FurMark or similar for a few minutes and see how hot the GPU gets. That would give you a good indication of how well the HSF does its job.

If your previous GPU did not get as hot, I see two possibilities:
1- your new GPU uses more power (defect?) or
2- the HSF on your original GPU was never put on right, which could explain why it failed

I ran furmark for 5 minutes the gpu temp at the start was 76 degree celisus,
Minute, - Degrees
1 - 97
2 - 100
3 - 101
4 - 103
5 - 102
There was a drop to 98 degrees in between 4 and 5 minute for about 10 seconds.

I also ran 3d mark - results at - http://www.3dmark.com/3dm11/6867370

 

[InvalidError]

While GPUs are designed to handle high temperatures, 100+C would be problematic.

Since you said the GPU HSF area is getting hotter than before, you obviously have a heat accumulation issue. If your new GPU uses the same amount of power as the one it replaces, this means your HSF is having a harder time getting that heat out of the chassis. Slower or defective fan? Misaligned fins and chassis openings? Dust or other obstruction clogging intake/exhaust/fins?

If everything checks out clean and you still get the same hot-corner problem, you might want to call the manufacturer and ask what the temperatures should be like. While the chips may be spec'd for over 100C, nobody wants to run them quite that hot.

 

[sg90]

While GPUs are designed to handle high temperatures, 100+C would be problematic.

Since you said the GPU HSF area is getting hotter than before, you obviously have a heat accumulation issue. If your new GPU uses the same amount of power as the one it replaces, this means your HSF is having a harder time getting that heat out of the chassis. Slower or defective fan? Misaligned fins and chassis openings? Dust or other obstruction clogging intake/exhaust/fins?

If everything checks out clean and you still get the same hot-corner problem, you might want to call the manufacturer and ask what the temperatures should be like. While the chips may be spec'd for over 100C, nobody wants to run them quite that hot.

I took the heat sink out to check for dust and replaced it back didn't see any dust but it doesn't seem to be heating as much so it might be it wasn't lined up correctly when i put it in the first time.

Thanks for the help.