Replacing thermal paste/watercooling ZOTAC 980Ti Amp?

[iraserei]

Okay so I posted on here last week about my 980Ti which has been running pretty damn hot for my liking. It consistently hits mid-80's despite an aggressive fan curve set to max the fan speed out at 70c. I emailed ZOTAC support and they had me run tests but have been unresponsive since then, and i'm unsure of it they'll actually be able to help me out aside from an RMA. I am certain it is most likely an issue with insufficient heat dissipation, so I was planning on replacing the thermal paste or buying an HG10 and a CPU AIO cooler or something similar to put on it. The issue is, if I open up the card, the warranty is immediately void. What would you do in my situation? Thanks!

 

[Eximo]

Mid 80s isn't too bad for a GPU, really. They probably stopped responding because it is well within specification.

If you plan on water cooling and voiding your warranty, you should go ahead and get something worthwhile like a full cover block.

 

[WildCard999]

Warranty depends on manufacturer, are there any stickers covering the screws? On a older XFX R9 290 reference design I had there were stickers over the screws stating that if they were tampered with then the warranty would be void. Contact Zotac and ask them about taking the card apart.

If they allow it then I would thoroughly clean out the card for any dust buildup. From there I would replace the thermal paste with MX4 then retest.

Water cooling would be the last resort but as Eximo stated the temp is still within safe ranges.

 

[coozie7]

That card was known to be cool running, if a bit noisy: https://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Zotac/GeForce_GTX_980_Ti_Amp_Edition/34.html so if it has always run so hot it would suggest you need better case ventilation.
If it has slowly been running hotter it's likely you need to clean it out, those big heatsinks are a magnet for dust and airborne fibre/animal fur a few minuets work with a can of compressed air should do the trick.
If you are unsure as to how to clean it out, pop us a note or check out YouTube. 😉

 

[iraserei]

The card surprisingly isn't noisy at all! I can barely hear it even when on 100% fan speeds. I contacted ZOTAC and they suggest I RMA the card, but I really don't feel too keen on not having a card for weeks so idk..

 

[WildCard999]

The card surprisingly isn't noisy at all! I can barely hear it even when on 100% fan speeds. I contacted ZOTAC and they suggest I RMA the card, but I really don't feel too keen on not having a card for weeks so idk..

Replace the thermal paste with MX4 and clean the card as it should improve temps. Looking at the back of the card it looks fairly easy to get that back-plate off and replacing the thermal paste is pretty easy. If your not sure there's quite a few videos online on how to change it over.

https://www.zotac.com/us/product/graphics_card/gtx-980-ti-amp-extreme