High 8800gtx temperatures, replace GPU thermal paste and pad?

By Draconian Guppy
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Grand Master

Draconian Guppy

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So i've got a 8800gtx from 2006ish... I was playing hitman absolution and it crashed, this never had happened, so I checked the temperature and it's currently idling around 74c and getting to around 98c and i'm supposing higher cause it crashed.

My q6600 idles around 40c and ambient temperature is 25ish, maybe higher during hot days. Case air flow isn't the best either, but it's a generic case and all I could add was a 20mm (I think?) fan blowing air in, anywho.

I've never replaced a GPUs thermal paste nor pads, I google some videos and found out that it has pads on some parts ( 8 I think) and thermal paste on the GPU, videos show it's fairly easy I just don't know what to buy exactly and what brands and if doing so, will lower my temperatures?

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Daedroth

Posted
Posted

Graphics cards tend to have a much higher temperature threshold than CPUs or motherboards. I think my old 8800GTX had a threshold of 120C. Actually my 8800GTX started dying last year after owning and using it for years and then it finally gave up the ghost. It kept crashing in games and ultimately not being able to boot the operating system, with lots of graphical glitches. Replacing the card fixed it...so I determined that the 8800 was on its way out.

Grand Master

Draconian Guppy

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Graphics cards tend to have a much higher temperature threshold than CPUs or motherboards. I think my old 8800GTX had a threshold of 120C. Actually my 8800GTX started dying last year after owning and using it for years and then it finally gave up the ghost. It kept crashing in games and ultimately not being able to boot the operating system, with lots of graphical glitches. Replacing the card fixed it...so I determined that the 8800 was on its way out.

Well, I think in this case it has more to do with the bad airflow in my case, because it shutdown after playing for a while (2+ hours), so I guess, heat build up caused it to overheat and shutdown.

Curiously I get those same symptons, it starts to artifact, then won't boot until it cools down I guess.

Also I plan to replace my whole system, so I don't want to spend on another video card.

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Daedroth

Posted
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Well, I think in this case it has more to do with the bad airflow in my case, because it shutdown after playing for a while (2+ hours), so I guess, heat build up caused it to overheat and shutdown.

Curiously I get those same symptons, it starts to artifact, then won't boot until it cools down I guess.

Also I plan to replace my whole system, so I don't want to spend on another video card.

I can see where you're coming from. I bought a cheap ?60 AMD graphics card (6770 I think), which scores about the same according to GPU benchmark.

Proficient

a1ien

Posted
Posted

You can if you want... Take the cooler off and get the dust out real good. Buy thermal pads if you don't want to re-use the ones on there. The paste on there is very good - so you need to replace it with one of the very best off this list: http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/coolers/display/thermal-interface-roundup-1_12.html#sect0

It's only liable to buy you 5C, as a wild guess. It's a really big heat spreader and a big die underneath, so you'd want to be sure to use enough paste to cover it.

That's a pretty old card... a GTX 650 Ti Boost (but NOT without the boost) would be a nice upgrade with about 2x the performance at the same power usage.

Grand Master

Draconian Guppy

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I can see where you're coming from. I bought a cheap ?60 AMD graphics card (6770 I think), which scores about the same according to GPU benchmark.

You can if you want... Take the cooler off and get the dust out real good. Buy thermal pads if you don't want to re-use the ones on there. The paste on there is very good - so you need to replace it with one of the very best off this list: http://www.xbitlabs....1_12.html#sect0

It's only liable to buy you 5C, as a wild guess. It's a really big heat spreader and a big die underneath, so you'd want to be sure to use enough paste to cover it.

That's a pretty old card... a GTX 650 Ti Boost (but NOT without the boost) would be a nice upgrade with about 2x the performance at the same power usage.

Yeah like I said above, don't really plan on upgrading just video card...

Well if adding tg-1 thermal grease will make my idle temperature drop from 79*c to 50*c, that would make me a happy camper.

How can I tell if I can still reuse the pads?

Proficient

a1ien

Posted
Posted

Only way to find out is to try it... 79C does seem like a very high idle. You've removed the dust already? If the little voltage regulator chips make don't make good contact with a thermal pad your stability could suffer... so make sure that part makes good contact. 2mm thick pads should be enough.

Grand Master

Draconian Guppy

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  • Author
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Only way to find out is to try it... 79C does seem like a very high idle. You've removed the dust already? If the little voltage regulator chips make don't make good contact with a thermal pad your stability could suffer... so make sure that part makes good contact. 2mm thick pads should be enough.

Yup blew that mother to hell, after blowing it went from 79 to 74/76...

the current pads seem soft still, I was just asking if they needed changing, i've done thermal paste on cpus' but never thermal pads?

Straight from bootup.

fdb4L4S.jpg

  • 2 weeks later...
Veteran

YounGMessiah

Posted
Posted

Older GPUs used pads as well? Anyways, have you applied new TIM yet? If not, I suggest Tuniq TX-4.

And just replace your pads, might as well do both since you plan on keeping this card for a while.

  • 2 weeks later...
Grand Master

Draconian Guppy

Posted
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Can you post a picture of the thermal pads? Also, I do believe that you'll need new thermal paste for that card. It's unbelievable that you had that card for almost 7 years and didn't need a thermal paste replacement!

Older GPUs used pads as well? Anyways, have you applied new TIM yet? If not, I suggest Tuniq TX-4.

And just replace your pads, might as well do both since you plan on keeping this card for a while.

As per this http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/coolers/display/thermal-interface-roundup-1_12.html#sect0 I just bought Thermaltake Tg-1, it takes about 2 weeks to get here ( Honduras, Central America).

Also on the pads, I wouldn't know what brands and specs to get? Could you guys help a fellow out and point me what pads would be the best (sold on amazon.com)

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