Insane before-after temps with 290X

s3rvb0t

s3rvb0t

[H]ard|Gawd
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Aug 22, 2006
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I have the MSI 290X Gaming (Twin Frozr HSF) and decided to remove the paste and apply Arctic MX2. Before I made the swap I ran the Just Cause 2 "Concrete Jungle" benchmark a couple of times and the 290X max temp was 92C. After cleaning the HSF and applying MX2 it dropped to 65C max. I couldn't believe my eyes, what a huge difference. It now idles at 47C.

Open Hardware Monitor and GPU-Z were used to record temps.
 
Great results. I was afraid you were going to say the temps went in the opposite direction after the new paste was applied!
 
That seems to be the norm for quite awhile now. I've built 4 or 5 systems in the last 2 years for friend/family, 7000 series card, 4000, Nv 200 series, 5000 series. They all had shit stock thermal solution. Generally just tape or old looking dry paste that is just a small dab in the center. Most cards have been AMD so im not sure if it's just those running hotter, but I recall reading a lot of complaints about 400 series from NV. It should almost be the first thing to do with a video card now it seems, check the thermal grease, more often than not you will get great results like you did!

Of course only do so if you feel it's in your capability and if doing so will null warranty or not..
 
MSI its well known for use sometimes crappy TIM and loose heatsink in the twin frozr, I remember the HD7000 series were a PITA due that fact and most people had to be constantly RMA'ing or just readjusting the heatsink and apply a new paste to have a proper heat dissipation.. 92C for any aftermarket cooled card its just horrible..
 
The nice thing about MSI is that they don't care about you removing the HSF as long as you don't damage the board. When I took it apart, I was surprised to see so much of their goop overflowing from the GPU onto the board.
 
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s3rvb0t said:
The nice thing about MSI is that they don't care about you removing the HSF as long as you don't damage the board. When I took it apart, I was surprised to see so much of their goop overflowing from the GPU onto the board.
Click to expand...

Are you certain about that ? One of the screws on mine has a little sticker on it that says warranty void if removed. There's no way to remove the heatsink/fan without breaking/removing that sticker...
 
100% certain. You can remove the sticker without any worry.
 
Same with XFX with sticker. Also I always reapply paste on cards, get huge drops in temps. I even reapply thermal tape for the VRMs.
 
Hmm... this makes me want to remove the heatsink on mine and reapply. Is the VRM heatsink part of the main heatsink for the gpu core too? Or is it seperate? Any pics with it off?
 
Actually yes and full contact. I am just OCD like that. I left the memory pads alone being memory rarely has heat issues, but replaced all the VRM pads.
 
Didn't get a chance to do much testing... but here is what the thermal compound looked like on my 290x... literally had the consistency of milk. I replaced it with some Artic SIlver 5 and re-positioned the VRM thermal pads as they weren't full covering. I tend to agree with others on the milling quality of the heatsink... it is horrid. The machining marks were really deep, I tried to tin it the best I could with Artic Silver.

Click either for higher resolution.

Heatsink:


Card:
 
so all that bad press about the heat these cards put out could have been minimized, simply buy spending a few extra cents per card?
 
bigbeard86 said:
so all that bad press about the heat these cards put out could have been minimized, simply buy spending a few extra cents per card?
Click to expand...

Before I watercooled my XFX 290 that I unlocked to a 290x I re-did the thermal compound and saw about a 5-10degree drop in temperature. Mind you this is when I was only running a single card.

I don't expect that kind of drop with the MSI due to the fact that I have it running as the top card in my crossfire(don't ask... the XFX was causing black screens when it was on top). I am regretting going closed loop on my cpu and the XFX... now I want to watercool the MSI but I have no room for another radiator(unless I get creative, possibly zip tie to a hard drive cradle) and can't expand the loop.
 
Shyne151 said:
Before I watercooled my XFX 290 that I unlocked to a 290x I re-did the thermal compound and saw about a 5-10degree drop in temperature. Mind you this is when I was only running a single card.

I don't expect that kind of drop with the MSI due to the fact that I have it running as the top card in my crossfire(don't ask... the XFX was causing black screens when it was on top). I am regretting going closed loop on my cpu and the XFX... now I want to watercool the MSI but I have no room for another radiator(unless I get creative, possibly zip tie to a hard drive cradle) and can't expand the loop.
Click to expand...

That's what custom loops are for my friend ;)..
 
ccityinstaller said:
That's what custom loops are for my friend ;)..
Click to expand...

This I now know. ;)

Sidenote... judging by your username, this might bring back some memories:
kkLvYlvl.jpg
 
yea switching the thermal paste made a big diff on my powercolor and my visiontek.
 
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