What type of thermal compund for my graphics card?

[SaiZo]

Ok, so I have a 250 GTS (nVidia) graphics card, and what I plan to do is remove the heatsink etc. and clean it. I do know that I would need new thermal compound over the GPU.

What I don't know is what type. Also, is there anything else I need to know before removing things?

Thanks

 

[BarbaricSoul]

Use the same thermal compound as you would use for your CPU. Personally, I've always used Arctic Silver Céramique. Not saying it's the best, it's just what I have available locally.

 

[Kaynar]

yeah any normal thermal compound will do as you would use on CPU. Additionally, you may need new sticky thermal pads for the ram modules.

If you are careful enough when removing the heatsink, you will not damage them and you will be able to re-use them (dont even touch them actually, just hope they wont fall off). If you are finding it hard to get the heatsink and card separated, heat the card by running something on your pc for 5 minutes and then shut it down, unscrew everything and the thermal paste should be softer and easier to remove.

 

[SaiZo]

Use the same thermal compound as you would use for your CPU. Personally, I've always used Arctic Silver Céramique. Not saying it's the best, it's just what I have available locally.

Thanks! Well, I can get my hands on both Arctic Silver 5 and the one that you mentioned.
Which one should I get? I read that the Arctic Silver Céramique does not contain silver, but somehow has a higher price tag than the Arctic Silver 5.

Also, I noticed that I can the stock cooler to a "Arctic Cooling Accelero Twin Turbo II". They do not have any in store at the moment, but it's cheap and I was thinking - would it perform better than the cooler that the graphics card has right now? It's the 250W version, not the 160W.

yeah any normal thermal compound will do as you would use on CPU. Additionally, you may need new sticky thermal pads for the ram modules.

If you are careful enough when removing the heatsink, you will not damage them and you will be able to re-use them (dont even touch them actually, just hope they wont fall off). If you are finding it hard to get the heatsink and card separated, heat the card by running something on your pc for 5 minutes and then shut it down, unscrew everything and the thermal paste should be softer and easier to remove.

Thanks for the tip! I have written it down, so I know what to do. It's actually the first time I'm doing this on a graphics card..

 

[jboydgolfer]

AS5 yields Me 22-23C on idle/ 58C Max
My recommendation
Just Dont get it anywhere but the chip

Dont need google, I have a Tube, a PC, and a Brain. My recommendation is out of experience.
Do what You will, But for an aging Powercolor HD 6950, running all the newest games, those temps are VERY good.
With a stock dual fan shroud. Dont believe all these people who just look @ a chart done by some guy, and then they go " oh- well that MUST be the best". If You can , test what works best for YOU, NOT some guy in a tech lab. or in some other different Enviromental condition.Then lastly, I dunno about where You live, but AS5 is available @ any radioshack here, and is Fairly cheap.

 

[Kaynar]

AS5 is old and many cheaper and newer compounds will do better. check some graphs easily found on google.

 

[TRWOV]

I've used MX4 for GPUs, IC Diamond for CPUs.

 

[Octopuss]

Just use something that doesn't dry up too fast, like the Noctua paste.
Doesn't matter if GPU or CPU.

 

[de.das.dude]

i use good ol CM white stuff. its cheap. and it works well.

just remember to wipe the previous one off with alcohol.

 

[VulkanBros]

I have tried AS5, MX4, IC Diamond, Noctua NT-H1, ThermalTake TG1 and CooLaboratory Liquid Ultra...
There is very small diff. in temp between these compounds .... 1-4 degrees celcius ....
However there is a huge diff. in the viscosity - especially after months/years of use.

My recommendation would go to the Liquid Ultra - easy to apply and does not dry out (made of liquid metal) and is, maybe, the best performer of the above mentioned TIM´s.....

@Note: Do not use Liquid Ultra with aluminium.......

 

[Brusfantomet]

an Arctic Cooling Accelero Twin Turbo II shuld work werry well with that card, used one on a ATi HD4850 passively, can't remember the temps but it worked like a charm, slapped to 120 mm fans on it and used it on a hd5870 afterwards.

 

[SaiZo]

Ok, thanks everyone for the input. I'll pickup a tube of Arctic Silver 5 this week.
The Arctic Cooling Accelero TwinTurbo II, I'll just have to wait until they have it back in stock.

So, after I have cleaned the surface of the GPU, I just add a little thermal paste in the middle of it, and let the heatsink spread it out??

 

[de.das.dude]

yup. little as in the size of a grain of rice.

 

[natr0n]

I use Arctic Alumina / Ceramique 2 both very similar.

Don't bother with that IC diamond shit. It leaves holes in metal.

 

[Beertintedgoggles]

I know this is a tech forum and therefore supposed to support and encourage discussions but how can you have over 300 posts and not know shit about thermal paste on a GPU?

Edit: I know my post isn't helpful but it appears that you've received all the help you need from the above responses.

 

[VulkanBros]

Don't bother with that IC diamond shit. It leaves holes in metal.

ehhhh....I have used IC Diamond for some time - on CPU and GPU - never had any problems, or holes, - or are your heatsinks made of lead?? :shadedshu

 

[SaiZo]

I know this is a tech forum and therefore supposed to support and encourage discussions but how can you have over 300 posts and not know shit about thermal paste on a GPU?

Edit: I know my post isn't helpful but it appears that you've received all the help you need from the above responses.

Mostly since I have never done any modifications to it. Hope that helped, also, there is no harm in asking, I prefer to have everything in order before I jump on to something I have never done before, it's in my nature, and yes, I know it seems odd. But it's just me.

 

[Beertintedgoggles]

I've just had a shitty week... trying my best not to take it out on others but as I'm sure you can see it's a work in progress.

 

[SaiZo]

I've just had a shitty week... trying my best not to take it out on others but as I'm sure you can see it's a work in progress.

What I meant is, I often have bad luck meaning - I once tried to change the fan on an ATI card I once had.. Well, let's just say I'm a person with a short fuse, and when things don't work as I want them to... That graphics card is in two pieces (the older ATI one).
The fun part was that I didn't read the box for the new fan - my card was unsupported.

Believe me, I do not want to mess up this one as well.

 

[natr0n]

ehhhh....I have used IC Diamond for some time - on CPU and GPU - never had any problems, or holes, - or are your heatsinks made of lead?? :shadedshu

Nickel platting on copper.

There is a Thread on ICD here somewhere. I have pics showing what I said if curious.

 

[Brusfantomet]

What I meant is, I often have bad luck meaning - I once tried to change the fan on an ATI card I once had.. Well, let's just say I'm a person with a short fuse, and when things don't work as I want them to... That graphics card is in two pieces (the older ATI one).
The fun part was that I didn't read the box for the new fan - my card was unsupported.

Believe me, I do not want to mess up this one as well.

In that case, bee aware that it is a bit fiddly to put some of the arctic cooling coolers on, also, is it a stock PCB or a spercial pcb? if so check here first: height restrictions for the Accelero Twin Turbo II

sidenote, interesting that most of the arctic cooling stuff for GPUs fits the AMD HD 8000 series...

 

[SaiZo]

In that case, bee aware that it is a bit fiddly to put some of the arctic cooling coolers on, also, is it a stock PCB or a spercial pcb? if so check here first: height restrictions for the Accelero Twin Turbo II

sidenote, interesting that most of the arctic cooling stuff for GPUs fits the AMD HD 8000 series...

Yes I have checked. But I'm a bit sceptic, the stock cooler does cool, and when I have applied thermal paste I guess I'll see the difference. If it runs good with stock - I'll stay with stock.

What do you mean that the arctic cooling "stuff" fits the AMD HD 8000 series?
I don't have an AMD GPU, I have an nVidia GPU.. Or did you mean the older ATI card I was talking about? That one was an AGP card.

 

[KainXS]

on my cpu's and gpu's with heatspreaders I use ICD, it stains a little but it cools well so oh well, on others that don't have it I use MX4, on my older laptops and other devices I use Cremique because its thicker.

 

[t_ski]

I have not read this thread completely, but I'll give my two cents. The compound you use should depend a little on the type of mounting for the GPU. If you have push-pins and springs, use a thinner compound. If it mounts with screws, you can use a thicker one. Using a tick compound requires more pressure to spread it out properly, and springs & push-pins won't do that for you.

 

[TRWOV]

ehhhh....I have used IC Diamond for some time - on CPU and GPU - never had any problems, or holes, - or are your heatsinks made of lead?? :shadedshu

It does in certain cases:

http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/showpost.php?p=2813319&postcount=332
http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/showpost.php?p=2854433&postcount=550
cadaveca and sneekypeet also reported light damage on their heatsinks.

Of course, as it was a TIM test I guess that IC got contaminated with remains of other TIM and made a chemical reaction or something, if you apply it to a "fresh" CPU you shouldn't have any problems. I've used IC for a long time and that was the only instance in which I had a problem but again, I think it was due to all the TIM shuffling.