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I opened up my 7970 to put on new thermal paste *(Artic Silver 5) and now temps are 10C higher.. wth? Do I have to wait until it's cured?

1. As5 is horrible paste by todays standard and isn't ideal for use on gpus.
2. the paste on the 7970/6990 is the best you can get.
3. you probably fucked up remounting it

I swear by Ceramique,10c drop on most all applications.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835100018

Lolz.  The paste on my (granted only one) 6990 was the worst pieces of shit I have ever seen, plus it was applied so thick it looked like someone was making a peanut butter and thermal paste sandwich.

Every 5970 I have opened up looked exactly the same and I doubt the 7970 is any better.

Using AS5 on a bunch of 6950s with good results. The trick is not to put gobs of it and prior cleaning of the mating surfaces with IPA.

I had decent results w/ AS5 but there are likely better TIM today especially for use on a GPU.  I just kept using AS out of habit.  You are right.  TIM higher thermal conductivity than air but worse than metal.  Putting too much on acts as an insulator trapping heat in.

It should be thin, very thin layer.  If someone is unsure it is best to do a trial run, where you apply it, attached heat sink, then remove and take a look at how thin it was.  Be sure to clean and re-apply.

Nope.
http://skinneelabs.com/2011-tim-results/
http://skinneelabs.com/wp-content/uploads/TIMCPUTemp3.png





http://icrontic.com/discussion/95001/radeon-hd-7970-qa

Thanks!  :)


Thanks again! :)

Yeah I don't care what a marketing guy from AMD says.  I have opened the cards and seen with my uses they look like ass.  Literally the worst TIM application I have ever seen which is kinda hard to believe given we are talking about ultra high end prices.

Now "maybe" the 7970 is better but that would mean they are finally getting their act together ONLY on the 7000 series because 5000 & 6000 are horrible.  Since I am curious 1 BTC open ended bounty to the first person to post a high resolution screenshot of 7970 right after heatsink is removed.

http://itlounge.eu/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/5a93a__P1020757.jpg I don't want your BTC though. :p

And, my 6970's had excellent TIM application too...

Since everyone seems to be posting their favorite thermal goop benchmarks, let me hop into the fray:
thermal compound roundup @Hardware Secrets (http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/Thermal-Compound-Roundup-January-2012/1468/5)
AS5 kicking some major butt here.
On a more serious note, the Arctic Silver 5 needs up to 200 hours to fully cure,  RTFM at leisure (http://www.arcticsilver.com/as5.htm).

Here's a pic 7970 Heat sink (bottom) and the 7950 heatsink removed from production cards.
http://www.expreview.com/img/news/2012/01/29/Radeon-HD-7950-3.jpg
P.S. The Sapphire 7950 has a vary crappy heatsink fan combo IMO . I have a HIS 6950 card with this same heatsink / fan and it sucks as hell.  

Pic of the 7970 chip.

http://www.expreview.com/img/news/2012/01/29/Radeon-HD-7950-2.jpg

Thanks. Is this a pic of a card with the reference cooler?

Why would someone use chocolate as a TIM is beyond me!

That's actually a 6970 on the bottom and a 7950 on the top.

Yup you are right. Here's a reference design 7970, with cooler and card. TIM application doesn't look out of the world here.
http://www.hardwareheaven.com/reviewimages/amd-radeon-hd-7970/amd-radeon-hd-7970_cooler-removed.jpg

Guess you didn't read my link. If you did you would see that with a great contact mount(which is rare), it actually does rather well.

I don't recommend it for use on GPUs mainly because its a capacitive paste and shouldn't be used anywhere near traces or SMD's.

EDIT: Also, all of your results are pretty much invalid because they tested at widely different core and room temps. We all know that the temp diodes in a cpu aren't linear right? I hope so...

Thanks for the tip! Very interesting fact. Actually I would imagine most TIMs would be capacitive when compared to air.  I would be interested in looking at any scientific tests or anecdotal evidences of TIM's dielectric constants.

For what it's worth (from Tom's Hardware):

"Concerned about a possible heat sink seating issue, I took the card apart and put it back together again with fresh thermal paste. Now, AMD doesn’t recommend this because it claims the phase-changing thermal interface material it uses enables a few-degree advantage over normal thermal paste. In light of our negative results, though, we had little to lose by at least trying. In the end, my surgical procedure made no difference, and we recorded the same acoustic output playing through Battlefield 3."

I'd wager that reassembling the card with some decent thermal paste would cause you to end up with something very close to stock though (certainly not 10 degrees higher).

Guess Skinneelabs (http://skinneelabs.com/as5-asc-asc2-review/3/) didn't read Arctic Silver's manual. That TIM requires up to 200 hours of curing which they never bothered with. A shame really as it blows the objectivity of their tests out of the water.

Never have I managed to use quantities excessive enough for the goop to squeeze out from where it belongs and onto the surrounding components. Therefore, I can hardly accept that as a valid argument against that paste. That having been said, it's a valid data point.

Remember, we're trying to help OP, not argue about world's best TIM ;)

People do use paste on the memory modules and vrms depending on what waterblocks they use too.

I don't see how that is pertinent to OP's issue?
+10°C may suggest OP botched the application somehow but we'll only know for sure when the TIM has fully cured.
OP asked a question whether he should let the TIM cure. I addressed this question directly by linking to manufacturer's recommendations.
He probably needn't have touched the heatsink in the first place but that's another sack of ferrets.

You won't get a 10c decrease from as5 curing.. It's more like 1-2c tops...

...which is precisely why I said that might mean he botched the TIM application somehow and that he needn't have messed with the card.
That's pretty consistent with what you wrote in your first reply, isn't it?

Roadhog, I'll just call it a night, ok? We're going way OT with this conversation and there's precious little to be added.

hmm.. this is the first I've heard about the curing process (I know, I know, RTFM) can you use the card/cpu while it's curing? Should you put the heatsink on and let it sit for 200 hrs unused?

Quite the contrary, in fact. Curing progresses faster in high temperatures. Just use the machine like it's supposed to be used, the temperatures will slowly drop by a few degrees.

No it requires heat.  So you use the card but expect temps to be higher for first 200 hours.  BTW all TIM have a curing time but most acheive lowest temps in 2 to 10 hours.

Some people recommend putting the chip under a reduced thermal load during curing time.

I might have put too much thermal paste :( I'm so greedy!!! URGH

it's back down to 64C now

*KNOCKS ON WOOD*

So............... Has anyone actually tried mayonnaise long-term?

She didn't like it.

I see what you did there ;)