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I just received my RMA XFX 5830 back. They gave me the older style with only 2 heat pipes. The newer one that I bought had about five. Anyway, in my machine, the new style consistantly stays at about 59-60c while the older style is always 10C (or more) hotter. The newer style is at 80% fan speed and the older one is at 100%. It's a pretty big difference.

I saw a thread somewhere about someone who took the older style heatsinc off and put artic silver on. I was wondering if anyone has done that and what results they got.

I've been able to reduce my fan speeds and the temp is in mid 60ies which is quite fine...  the fan may last longer for you at lesser speeds.

These have lifetime warranties so I'm not too worried about how long the fans last. That said, being able to keep it cooler would be a plus. XFX also has a clause that they can replace the GPU with nvidea or AMD as long as it's the same or greater performance.

If you open the card your warranty will be lost even if XFX states lifetime

XFX allows removing of the stock cooler to replace it with a waterblock or aftermarket TIM as long as you put the stock cooler back on if you send it in for warranty.

Good to know, because virtually all other manufacturers will void the warranty if you do so.

Been lurking this thread since you posted it. Been waiting for someone to say something but I guess I will be the one.

I recommend not to apply any "that is, if you are speaking of Arctic Silver 5 aka AS5" arctic silver to your GPU as it is electrically conductive.

Use a non-conductive TIM on your GPU.

What would you recommend and why not AS5?

The cooling that I have now does not have 'warranty void' stickers on the screws. I'm planning on asking XFX about it first because if they don't want to warranty a card that I make better, I won't. Then they can replace it when it burns out :)

AS5 is conductive and old technology.

I would suggest Shin-Etsu X23-7783D (http://www.frozencpu.com/products/8921/thr-57/Shin-Etsu_X23-7783D_Silicone_Thermal_Compound_-_1g.html?tl=c127s846b162) TIM. Nah bud, you may remove the heatsink to reapply new TIM or apply a new heatsink to the card. I've got an XFX 5830, I've already replaced my TIM a few times. It will not harm the warranty unless you slip some how and bust a component off the board, that is if you live in the USA, for other country's it might be different. XFX warranty (http://xfxforce.com/en-gb/help/support/warrantyinformation.aspx)

Why is shin-etsu better than AS5?

Shin etsu is non-conductive, meaning it you some how glob some on the electrical parts of the board of a card, it will not be ruined, on the other hand, AS5 will destroy a GFX if it were to get on any of the electrical parts. Shin Etsu is new technology, AS5 is old tech.  Google TIM Benchmarks. There are a ton of reviews that show great results. A lot of TIM manufacturers started to produce non electrical conductive TIM's a few years ago. I'm sure there are better TIM's than shin etsu like Indigo Xtreme but that is for CPU's.

Shouldn't matter if it's meant for a CPU or GPU. I figured AS5 was conductive seeing how it has silver in it. I'm not sure which would be better for conducting heat though, AS5 or some of the non-conductive ones.

AS5 is not conductive, it's slightly capacitive. It has silver in it but the silver is suspended particles in a non conductive base.

You can still *snip* up your board with it... This is why I suggested any non conductive. Sounds to me the above quote shows AS5 is still dangerous...

source (http://www.arcticsilver.com/as5.htm)

Edit:

pandemic, I believe AS5 has a 200 HR cure time as Shin Etsu does not have a cure time. Cure time is its maximum potential.

I used AS5 on one of my 6950s that was constantly > 90C, it's now running a nice chilly 80C overclocked slightly (885 gpu / 760 mem).

Applied properly, AS5 shouldn't give you any problems.  Applied improperly perhaps, but there shouldn't be anywhere to bridge gaps unless you get it on something outside of the GPU socket housing.

A 200hr cure time is ~8.3 days, to a miner that's not a long time.  I got cooler temps immediately, and they've gradually dropped to stabilize at 80C.  This was a huge improvement for me.

That's not to say there isn't better stuff than AS5, but when it's what you've got on hand it does do the job.

The 200 hour cure time consists of heating and cooling cycles.  With mining we only get heating cycles  ;D
With that said, I think, once cured, you only get another degree or two more than when freshly applied.

Very true, and such a pain. I recall using the stuff when I had my P4 back in the day, benching the processor for 200 hours and the cooling down times, awful procedure/process. New stuff, you dot it on, your ready to go.

I never cured any of my CPUs at all.  ::)

Take a look at these comparisons

http://skinneelabs.com/tim/comparison-2011/

I just recently lowered the idle temps 15 C and the load temps nearly 25C by applying AS5 to the stock cooler on a brand new Powercolor HD 6770.  Quality control must be a little lacking there because the cooler was actually not even snug against the chip on the PCB. :/  It's working great now.  As for Artic Silver 5, it may not be the best product on the market, but it still works great.  As long as you put the stuff where it is supposed to go you're risk free... I plan to keep using the tube I bought a few years ago until it's all gone. :)