[SOLVED] Pitted GP104 on GTX 1070

[NothingbutLuck0]

I have an EVGA GTX 1070 SC with the ACX 3.0 cooler on it. I bought it brand new many years ago (can't remember exactly). My temps have been getting higher slowly over time and I finally decided it's time to repaste it. Note that the temps have always been acceptable, I don't think I've ever seen it go over 80C but it was getting into the mid 70's gaming at 100% gpu load. I have never had it apart before, it's never given me any problems. I opened it up and cleaned off the thermal paste with 90% isopropyl using a paper towel and q tips. The top up the gpu and the heatsink appear to have maybe a dozen very small pits on them. Picture what the corner of your phone looks like after you drop it on concrete. I could feel them with my finger and I couldn't scrape them off with my fingernail. The heatsink plate had some fairly rough machining marks also. I grabbed some 400 grit sandpaper and smoothed out the heatsink, applied new paste, and put it back together. It's running nice and cool now, but I am very curious why it was like that in the first place? Was it metal chips or burrs from poor machining/ part cleaning that got sandwiched between during assembly or plating? That seems unlikely. Could it be galvanic corrosion? I assume the heatsink plate is either nickel coated or aluminum, it was not bare copper. Chemical reaction to the thermal paste or acid etching? I wish I'd taken pictures or put it under my son's microscope but i had to get to work. Has anyone else seen this before? I tried googling it but could find anything. Thanks.

 

[popatim]

I was thinking of thermal compound corrosion myself. I cant see nvidia shipping out gpu chips that haven't been properly lapped.
I also wonder if you got a repaired unit instead, some vendors are pretty shady like that.

 

[NothingbutLuck0]

I was thinking of thermal compound corrosion myself. I cant see nvidia shipping out gpu chips that haven't been properly lapped.
I also wonder if you got a repaired unit instead, some vendors are pretty shady like that.

I've never heard of thermal compound corrosion, I'll have to look it up. Is that common? And I bought the card new from jet.com after it was acquired by Walmart so it should be legit. I don't think there were 3rd party sellers on it back then but I could be wrong. I found my receipt, it was in March, 2017.

 

[popatim]

Common, it was with some compounds due to difference in heat spreader materials. Liquid metal compounds are known for this; again depending on the type of IHS.