I just bought a cheap used 7900GS over the weekend. It has Zalman cooler on it. The temp reaches more than 70c when I play intensive games. I'm thinking of applying a thermal paste on the GPU. Can I use the thermal paste designed for CPU?
I just bought a cheap used 7900GS over the weekend. It has Zalman cooler on it. The temp reaches more than 70c when I play intensive games. I'm thinking of applying a thermal paste on the GPU. Can I use the thermal paste designed for CPU?
yes,it is possible and that should be fine as the paste is designed to effectively do the same thing - aid heat transfer to the cooler - so the only difference is that you are GPU cooler instead of a CPU Cooler. Should not be any problems, also most thermal pastes are designed for use on GPUs, CPUs, chipsets and so on. anyway.
I applied the paste, set the fan speed to 90% and reoriented the 80mm side case fan to blow into the case. Now my GPU temp dropped by around 10c
Make sure you only applied a bit.
Also: Do you have a decent airflow in your case?
Have you cleaned your fan properly?
And: Are all the important parts cooled? (Look up some 7900GS cards similar to yours and see if any parts are not there)
I applied a thin layer of the paste.
I used to have an HTPC-like box that had a very good airflow (120mm fan blowing on the GPU section, 80mm blowing on CPU section, and 120mm rear fan). But it was designed in such a way that the PSU was mounted on the front and accepted only standard size PSU.
In anticipation of the 850W be quiet and X1900XT, I bought a used Asus Vento case that's fairly standard in configuration. It has two 80mm fans blowing in front, one 80mm on the rear and I placed another 80mm on the side blowing air in over the 7900GS.
When I applied the paste on the 7900GS, I totally cleaned the Zalman cooler.
I'm looking at past reviews of 7900GS to see the average time. So far, mine's on average, I think. Prior to applying the past, it reached 79c. Last night, the hottest I got was 69C. Oh, I also increased the fan speed to 100%.
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