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c/used-gadgets-club•richard137richard137•27d ago

Swapping thermal pads for paste on my old GPU actually dropped temps by 12 degrees

I had an old GTX 970 that was running hot at 88C under load. Everyone said to just replace the thermal pads but those things cost $20 for a set. Figured I'd try some $8 Arctic MX-4 paste on the memory chips instead since I had it laying around. After 2 hours of careful application and running FurMark for 30 minutes, it dropped to 76C and has been stable for 2 weeks now. Anyone else gamble on using paste where pads should go?
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2 Comments
charlesowens
Yeah my buddy tried that on his old 980 and it worked fine for months.
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patel.daniel
...and the thing is, it's not like those old cards are super picky about power delivery either, so you can get away with a lot of janky setups.
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