Question Would it be a good idea to just replace the paste on used RTX 2000 series cards? Or the pads?

Toggle sidebar Toggle sidebar
Cyber_Akuma

Cyber_Akuma

Distinguished
Oct 5, 2002
509
21
18,985
Probably vastly over-thinking this but, I have two 2018 era GPUS that I bought used off eBay. One is a... (who came up with this complicated name?) EVGA RTX 2060 Super SC Black ACX 3.0 (model number 08G-P4-3062-KR) and the other is a EVGA 2080 Super Black (Model number 08G-P4-3081-KR).

Considering these are from 2018, and I have no idea how they were previously treated, would it be a good idea to just go ahead and replace the thermal paste on these anyway? I tried to get temperature readings on the 2060 but it would vary wildly depending on what case it was in so I am not sure what baseline it should have. And if so, what about the pads? I am assuming I can just leave the pads alone unless there is something very clearly wrong with them, or would it be a good idea to replace these too? Trying to find all the exact thicknesses of pads, as well as good ones that won't be worse than the ones I am replacing, can be difficult to figure out at times depending on the card so if's generally not recommended to replace the pads I would prefer not to.

And if it would be a good idea to replace the paste, is Arctic MX-6 a good one to use? Yes I know that just about all modern pastes perform the same, but then I read that it's not their thermal conductivity but how thin they spread and fluid they can remain that matters a lot more for GPUs? I was looking into pastes and was going to go with Kryonaut... but then I saw people mention that it's not as good for GPUs since it's thicker and could dry out faster if you sustain temperatures of 80C for extended periods of time, and that H2 is ideal since it spreads thinner and doesn't have that drying up at high temperatures issue, while even H1 is apparently a bit on the thicker side and not as ideal for GPU dies even though it would barely have any difference over the H2 on CPUs. What about MX-6 then? Is it good for GPU dies or would it be like the H1 or Kryonaut and not as ideal? A 4g tube of MX-6 seems to be half the price of a 3.5 g tube of H2 currently on Amazon, and on CPU testing they perform more or less the same, but I can't find any information about using MX-6 on GPUs and how it compares like the H2 does vs Kryonaut.
 
It's my understanding pads are a one time use. It's like paste for the CPU. You can't break the seal and then just put the cooler back on. Pads come in many different thermal transfer rates and thicknesses. So make sure you get the right pads BEFORE taking it apart.

As for the paste, it's more or less the same. The big difference is the temps will be higher. If get the best you can afford.

Is it a good idea? Meh? Honestly if try them first. You might find they perform just fine the way they are.
 
That is the first I have heard of pads being one-time use. I know that thermal paste is, but the pads too? I have heard mostly the opposite, that as long as the pads aren't dried out or destroyed or horribly dirty that they can just simply be re-used. In fact, when I performed an official repair on my GTX 1070 about a year ago EVGA's official instructions were to re-use the pads.... while adding additional ones the defect repair kit included.

And I don't know how the card is supposed to perform temperature-wise (and if there are any hot spots that the average temeratures don't show) to know if it needs replacing or not.
 
Cyber_Akuma said:
Considering these are from 2018, and I have no idea how they were previously treated, would it be a good idea to just go ahead and replace the thermal paste on these anyway?
Click to expand...
I'm all for and have opened up many GPU to clean and repasted. Pads on ones that need replacements. But I would run them and get a good idea where they sit on temps using HWMonitor just turn on Hwmonitor and leave it up on desktop and than game on one of the two cards.

After your done gaming read the chart HWMonitor created, there you will get record of temps and stats on what you need to see if card is running normal or needs repasting.

Give yourself a reference of before and after.

If you have issues with card if the first thing you did was get card, re-paste than test you never know if the card really was the issue or something in the process of opening it up.

www.cpuid.com

HWMONITOR | Softwares | CPUID

HWMonitor for Windows® x86/x64 is a hardware monitoring program that reads PC systems main health sensors : voltages, temperatures, powers, currents, fans speed, utilizations, clock speeds ... The program handles : CPU and GPU-level hardware monitoring...
www.cpuid.com www.cpuid.com

and also MSIAfterBurner

It seems here lately lots of thread------------ I opened up my GPU------- to clean, re-pasted on and on and now GPU just black screens. Go slow lots of light and pay attention.
 
Well yes, I am going to test the cards before repasting, just wasn't sure how to get a good baseline. And I was wondering if since these are so old if it would just be a good idea to repaste anyway after testing.
 
Another thing I forgot about that I had someone recommend to me is that K5 Pro Paste/Putty. It's supposed to be used in place of thermal pads but it can be pretty messy, and I am not sure how well it would work, especially in regards to how precise the thickness of pads is supposed to be.

Has anyone tried to use that K5 Pro stuff in place of thermal pads for their GPU before? Do I have to worry about thickness or anything like I would with pads? Is it like thermal paste where if it's disturbed I have to clean it off and re-apply it, or can it be re-used like thermal pads can? What about some of the weirder places pads on EVGA cards can be like in between the backplate and back of the card's circuit board? Would it still work there too?
 
The gap is between my core temp and hotspot though, not core temp and max temp, isn't the hotspot being 11C over the throttle temp a problem? Or is it normal for a hotspot to be that much past the max temp?
 
Cyber_Akuma said:
The gap is between my core temp and hotspot though, not core temp and max temp, isn't the hotspot being 11C over the throttle temp a problem? Or is it normal for a hotspot to be that much past the max temp?
Click to expand...
1)No.
2)Approximately 20C and lower is typical. My 1080Ti(Kraken G12 + Celsius S36) core and hot spot have a gap of ~14C. I no longer remember what the gap was with the original cooler.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Cyber_Akuma
Ok, so at the suggestion of others I got a response back from EVGA about what kinds of pads my cards use... problem is, they are a bit all over the place and half of them are uncommon thicknesses:

https://imgur.com/a/PqoRevO
View: https://imgur.com/a/PqoRevO


Beyond standard thicknesses like 1, and 1.5, and 2 there are pads with thicknesses of 0.75, 1.25, and 1.75. What on Earth? The only pads I can find in those sizes are either total random Chinese sellers that I have no idea if they would work decently at all... or extremely overpriced ones from Kritical that cost $20-30 for a 100x100mm square of the stuff.

How much of a difference does an extra 0.25 make? If I were to round up by .25 and use a 1.5 in place of a 1.25, a 2 in place of a 1.75, etc would that work? I heard that if you use a pad that's too thick it can actually prevent the heatsink from making contact with the GPU die and make your temperatures much much worse, but would 0.25 thickness be enough to cause that? Or is that enough to just squish down in it's proper place? Come to think of it, I have no idea what hardness I am supposed to use either.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

Latest posts

Moderators online

Share this page

COMPANY
RESOURCES
FOLLOW
Top Bottom