Should you replace your video card's thermal paste?

Hello everyone, I hope you're well ? In this video, we look into why replacing thermal paste on any second hand GPU is important. Watch till the end for a little bonus :)
#GTX770 #MX4 #NVIDIA #GAMING
Music from KZbin Audio library
MydNyte - Noir Et Blanc Vie

[@GreatYamatanoOrochi]

Repasted my GTX 1080 yesterday after 6 years of no cleaning and I saw similarly scaling results, 100%. This is my first video on this channel so I'm not sure if it was mentioned, but be sure to cover the WHOLE GPU die with thermal paste (or put enough in the center that it will squish out across the whole die) as GPUs are not nearly as tolerant as CPUs to uncovered surfaces in that regard.

[@nexus_tech]

Good to hear and thanks for sharing! Yup, I always go with proper blob of thermal paste to make sure there are no hotspots. AMD die size is much smaller when compared to older Nvidia cards, I remember the shock when opening GTX 260! :)

[@wertywerrtyson5529]

Thanks for the information. I’ve not had any issue with old GPUs running hot but it might be worth changing anyway. At least it is easier on older cards. Some new cards are too complicated for me to even try not to mention they are worth more if you screw it up.

[@christophweber5688]

From my experience: Not only the new thermal paste leads to an improvement. The biggest part is cleaning the radiator from dust.

[@nexus_tech]

Hi Chris, indeed! I've focused on the thermalpaste in this video, I might re-visit for other aspects :)

[@Camelotsmoon]

lmfao, the 770 EVGA SC is the exact GPU I'm still using in my desktop and I just replaced my thermal paste in it like 3 days ago. My answer 100% is YES... I overclocked it and it was hitting 90-91C in furmark, then I replaced it with some MX5 and it's only hitting 80-81C; MASSIVE improvement. Until I can get a 3080 EVGA FTW3 for a fair price, I want to eek out as much performance as I can with this guy.

[@nexus_tech]

Thank you for sharing :) It really does help and is quick to do, isn't it ? Ah, nice, those are finally coming down in price, good luck :)

[@gorjaharchangel2267]

Whenever I get a used GPU I first run it "as is" for a few hours, stress testing it and also just general use, I usually don't game at that point because it is just a test to make sure everything is working as it should. I record the temperatures of course. After that I open them up and I give them a thorough general cleaning, which means removing the dust for the pcb, the fans and any other location and usually I replace the thermal paste since I already have taken them apart. My observation is that usually the older and drier the thermal paste was, the bigger difference I would see in the temperatures.

[@nexus_tech]

When I get the GPU, first thing is to let it warm up to room temp, then run Heaven benchmark to establish if no problems occur. Thanks for sharing, I hope you enjoyed the video :)

[@brandonmitchell2374]

For those that want a TLDR: Yes, it's easy and you should

[@nexus_tech]

Heh :) TLDW ? I hope you watched till the end and saw the bonus too

[@brandonmitchell2374]

@@nexus_tech I did, No paste on the Radeon card. lol I had a buddy do the complete opposite before, he used the whole tube 😆

[@nexus_tech]

@@brandonmitchell2374 🤣 I genuinely felt bad about it, but it was easy to take apart. Why did I not think about that too hahah! None or too much

[@brandonmitchell2374]

@@nexus_tech xD

[@canadianguy1955]

The gtx 770 4gb cards were insane work horses. Im just now replacing my I7 3770k and gtx 770 4 GB build i did all the way back in 2013. The gpu stopped being able to play modern titles arpund 2020. But it atill manages less intensive titles and everything released in 2020 and back.

[@Gaming_Assassin_]

What a nicely built card, with all these re-enforcements, they aren't really doing these things with newer cards nowadays, some of them really could benefit from it. And as you said I would recommend replacing the thermal paste on a GPU after some time of usage or if it gets too hot, I myself have a RX 570 bought back in 2018, still haven't removed the sticker and taken it apart for cleaning, as the temps are decent (60-70), but undervolting it might have helped with that, but regardless I am planning on replacing the paste in the near future. I once had a R7 350 which went over the 90 degree mark fairly easily even at100% fan speed, well it turned out that the paste was very dry and almost non existent, applying new paste and the temps never crossed 70 degrees again. As always great video, I love the type of relaxed tech videos you make, seems like a nice fit :)

[@nexus_tech]

Thank you mate! I'd say anything that is over 4 years old would benefit from a re-paste. I've seen few properly baked on cards when testing the HD series, It makes me so uneasy when separating, I feel like I'm going to break the GPU die lol! I love the ACX coolers

[@LionWithTheLamb]

I replace the thermal paste with NT-H1 and also the thermal pads with high conductivity blue pads.

[@nexus_tech]

I've never replaced the pads, well, not fully anyway. Quite expensive and needs to be precisely matched for thickness, although I can appreciate it would really help mem temps! :)

[@thedarkmage7373]

My 1060 always ran hot so one day I decided to reapply thermal paste. There was no thermal paste on the center of the die only on the outside

[@nexus_tech]

Which brand was it ?

[@thedarkmage7373]

@@nexus_tech EVGA. I have no issues with my evga 3080 overheating and it is clocked so i think its was a fluke.

[@guidosaur7506]

I think that's the exact same card in my system now lol. I've worked it hard and it's been super reliable for how lazy I am. Newer games are too much though. I've finally got an rtx card coming in

[@nexus_tech]

It's an awesome card! Thanks for sharing, what did you replace it with ? :)

[@guidosaur7506]

@@nexus_tech a 3070ti. Part of that mark down deal from the other day. We'll see if bestbuy actually follows through, but I did complete the order haha so I'd hope they do

[@nexus_tech]

@@guidosaur7506 Good luck, the 3070 or 3070Ti is all one really need! :)

[@Camelotsmoon]

Yess, the 770 EVGA SC was a great card.. so much so I wanna go with another EVGA card this time around myself. I have a little 980m in my laptop which is still serving me well, but I want to swap out my 770 in my desktop with a 3080 for that vram. I've seen a ton of deals for the 3070ti which have honestly tempted me (EVGA even has the FTW3 3070tis on stock on their site, which is insane).

[@guidosaur7506]

@@Camelotsmoon yeah EVGA seems like one of the least scummy companies right now. I went with the Gigabyte version though to save money lol.

[@BudgetTechUKYT]

Yes you should ;)

[@isus7626]

My 1660ti runs at 55c to 60 while gaming sometimes 65 no overclocking my question is should I still replace the paste or that's okey pls reply I need help you will save me big time ty 🙏🙏

[@nexus_tech]

Hello mate, those temps are absolutely fine, I wouldn't bother 😉

[@isus7626]

Ty soo much you save me a big time

[@shapourdashtpour63]

Do you never flatten the paste after you apply it with a credit card or something

[@jibham205]

What about new gpu’s? Would you replace the stock thermal paste on a new card?

[@nexus_tech]

Hi Jin, I would personally not bother if not older than 3 to 4 years. Not for my testing, real life use, might consider :)

[@metallicaband]

Thanks for the video! When it comes to applying thermal paste on GPUs, I noticed many people saying the proper way to do it is to actually spread it yourself after putting a blob on it, because unlike CPUs they don't have heat spreaders (IHS), so what's your take on that?

[@nexus_tech]

Hi mate, thanks for checking out the vid! Well, I'd say for as long as there's enough of it, it's pretty much the same. I can see how having too little will not cover corners, that's a quick way to finish off any GPU core! But with my applications, mind you, most of cards I test have been repasted just few days after purchase, and again for a video - 6 to 12 months later, I tend to use enough of the stuff it seems :) Fun fact, most AMD cards have much smaller GPU die, it's easier to get enough coverage VS most of Nvidia's that came with a heat spreaders

[@imed122]

i have xfx rx 570 4gb the hottest it got is 78c 2250rpm (bit noise ) is the temp safe !

[@nexus_tech]

That's not too bad, if under full load?

[@imed122]

@@nexus_tech playing the witcher 3 1080 high Gpu 100%

[@nexus_tech]

That's okay 👍

[@GacktSama1992]

When i run games on my 3080, gpu runs 65-75 temp is that high?

[@nexus_tech]

Nope, that's okay 🙂

[@GacktSama1992]

@@nexus_tech ok just checking, so I wouldn’t need to put paste on the GPU or anything that’s a normal temp?

[@alen1610]

undervolt