XFX 7850 Double Dissipation Cooler
 

Ive been having problems with artifacts around windows aero bars under low load states in windows 7 while doing two monitors on my XFX 7850. I decided to remove my HSF. Half of the VRM Ram modules are covered by the heat sink frame. Do you think this could cause it?

http://i.imgur.com/omuQXUS.jpg

Any thoughts?

The heat sink's frame is metal with black paint. Could I just thermal paste between the VRM and that black area (circled red)?

Those are memory chips and the contact is needed for heat dissipation, thermal paste is not needed.

These are the voltage regulator modules:

http://www.ozone3d.net/public/jegx/2...ng_pcb_vrm.jpg


Artifacts on desktop usually means bad video memory.
You can test your VRAM with MemtestCL at http://folding.stanford.edu/English/DownloadUtils

Doesn't it suppose to have thermal tape between the memory chips and the heatsink?

yeaaa mine has and the one before that...chunky stuff?

The white stuff on these memory chips

http://webpages.charter.net/discover...d/DSCN4731.JPG

that's not thermal compound that's...........lol

Okay thanks for clarification on VRM versus memory, wasn't sure about it. Do you guys think I should try thermal paste between that black painted metal on the shroud/frame and the modules?

It most definitely should have, I assumed the "black area" is black thermal tape. If not, no wonder artifacts started to show.

Nope, its just painted metal. No thermal tape or paste. With the metal painted, it should still conduct okay right? no need to sand the paint off?

slap some on and give it the kiss of life!

No use in sanding it off, best if you can buy one of those sticky/spungy thermal tapes and cover the "black area".

Or you can slap some thermal paste on memory chips as d1nky says, and give it a go.

Okay I arctic silver 5'd the core and the memory modules. GPU temperatures seem higher than before. Kind of annoying. I used a very small amount of thermal paste, didn't spread it on the core just put it in the center and clamped it. I am running furry cube in GPU caps viewer to heat it up, current temp is 77*C :(

Its taking a long time to get back down to idle temperatures. Maybe I fucked that up huh?

Umm no this could damage the memory chips and almost glue them to the cooler after it cures. Be careful taking the cooler off or you may have a memory chip go with it.

If I were you I would just get a RMA and get it replaced.

If he took the cooler off then the warranty is gone. XFX puts a sticker on the screws holding the heatsink on newer cards such as my 6950.

http://img.techpowerup.org/130220/Capture112.jpg

good to know. hmm in that case may be get an after market cooler which will seat best on GPU as well as give some protection to the mem modules.

lol maybe, hopefully it just needs some time. BTW does it even have enough pressure to be done that way?

Okay guys, removed it, the ram didn't even end up transferring paste to the black metal so I gave up on that idea and just re-pasted the core. I used a bit more paste and spread it around so as to be similar to the stock arrangement.

I will let it idle for a few hours before I do anything this time. As far as warranty goes, I saw somewhere that XFX is okay with it if you tell them you removed the screws. If not, oh well.

Thats another thing I figured as well since thermal tape is pretty thick and pillowy. I would order some thermal tape and test it out before going full custom cooler

Okay, I'll order some. In the mean time this card is gonna idle for a bit, then maybe I'll run unigen heaven for an hour on loop or something (with full fans just to be sure) to get the temps around 50 and cook it in before any gaming. I have only messed with the cooler on a x800xl and a 7800GT back in 2007, but for what its worth this was the simplest cooler I have had to remove, no hidden screws...

You will end up killing the card if you over heat the GPU, VRAM

Right now its basically stock. It didn't have any paste or tape on the vram to start with. So it would have died anyway if thats the case. I haven't noticed any artifacts except in windows 7, 2D mode I assume.

Artic Silver is conductve, might want to get some "Thermal Paste"(non conductive) for the contacts of the memory when you get the thermal pads.

I rma'd a xfx 7870 single fan version same cooler with 4 pipes. Had no thermal pads at all. no vrm cooling either. Had artifacts and issues maybe cause of this same issue.

not necessary, samsung chips usually dont get hot. the ones on the gts450 i have are 4000mhz, and arent sinked.