Thermal compound or thermal interface material is the stuff that goes between
a heat generating component and the cooler whose job it is
to remove the aforementioned heat from the aforementioned component. Now,
today's video will cover how to replace the factory applied thermal compound on
your graphics card with an aftermarket one to reduce the operating temperature
of this sensitive electronic component, potentially improving its lifespan and
in some cases even its performance thanks to GPU boost technology. Or
another way to leverage it would be to have it actually run quieter, making the
fans not spin as fast, but then have it run at the same temperature if that's
your thing. Which if it is, by the way, stay tuned because our review of the CM
Seleencio 652S is coming very
soon. Cooler Master's Case Mod World Series is your opportunity to show off
your modding skills and win great prizes. Entries closed February 7th,
2015. Click now to learn more. Now, our
test today focuses on a particular model of graphics card, a GeForce GTX 960
Super Clock that was graciously provided by EVGA. But this principle applies to
lots of different types of electronic dudatter. In a desktop computer, the
CPU, motherboard, or really any type of expansion card might have a cooler with
a with lame duck thermal goop on it. And on a laptop, the same can also be true.
One thing to be really careful of though is warranty coverage. Some manufacturers
don't want you poking and proddding at their product or they will invalidate
your warranty. Fortunately, EVGA is cool with that as long as you return the card
to, at least as far as outward appearances go, the factory
configuration before sending it in for an RMA. They'll even let you replace the
cooler outright with something else if you want to. But we won't be doing that
because a EVGA's ACX 2.0 Plus cooler
with its dual double ball bearing, 92mm fan design, quad heat pipes, and fanless
operating mode is already pretty darn good. And B, because that would
introduce an additional variable that would make it impossible for us to know if our goop replacement made a
difference. So, we're just going to take it off and put it right back on again
when we're done after we overclock it. After all, if you're not going to push
your hardware to the limits, mods like this are certainly a fun thing to do on
a Saturday afternoon, but not exactly necessary. So, the settings I dialed in
were 110% power target, plus.25 molts on
the GPU, and plus 144 MHz to boost with
the fan speed locked at 17% or around
580 RPM. And all of this was in a room with an ambient temperature of about 21°
C. This yielded temperatures of 67°
using EVGA's OC scanning utility 1 million particle plasma stress test
running at 2560x440 resolution in windowed mode. The boost clock I
observed with these settings was 1586 MHz. Although it should be noted these
settings were not verified in actual games, and these stress test programs
often allow higher clock speeds than you can achieve in the real world. Anyway,
let's get to business. First, gather all the materials you'll need. The card
itself, isopropyl alcohol, and a lint-free wipe, a screwdriver, and
replacement thermal compound. I'll be using IC Diamond because it's among the
best on the market. Start with the four screws positioned around the processor
itself, usually near the middle of the card and tensioned by springs. Loosen
them in a cross pattern. Then remove them fully. For our card, this was
actually enough to completely free the cooler. But on some other cards, you may
need to remove the rest of the screws on the back and even others on the top,
bottom, sides, or even rear IO. You can test if you've got everything by giving
the cooler a wiggle. Then once you're sure all the screws are removed, you can
gently pull it free. Never force it and
be mindful of your fan power plug. You don't want to accidentally yank on it
since those connectors are often very fragile. Now, you can see from this
footage I took when I did my initial swap that EVGA is using like a a
pre-done exactly square thermal paste
patch rather than relying on manual application and that it seems to be
working for them. The base plate of the cooler is making very even contact with
the GPU core through only a thin layer of material. This is very desirable. You
need thermal compound on your GPU or it'll overheat, but a thick layer here
can actually insulate the GPU causing it to run hotter. Speaking of which, some
graphics cards will have what are called thermal pads. They're a little bit
thicker on components like voltage regulator modules or memory chips. Leave
these on and reuse those pads unless you have replacement pads of the exact same
thickness. Replacing pads with a thick
application of paste can cause poor contact between your cooler and your
graphics card. With the cooler off, it's time to clean both the GPU itself and
the base of the cooler with 99% isopropyl alcohol. 70% is fine, too, by
the way. I recommend starting with a couple slow, high pressure passes on the
cooler base with your cleaning cloth to remove the bulk of the goop from the
surface. Then fold that away and find a
fresh part of your cloth and use a buffing motion to take off the rest. Do
the same for the GPU itself. Just as an FYI, the compound on there won't damage
your card if it gets on the chip package or even on the board PCB, but that's not
a license to be sloppy. Try to remove as much as you can. With the compound
removed, I usually do a final pass with a fresh cloth to remove any lint or
residue. Applying thermal compound isn't rocket science, and remember, less is
more. You want enough for it to spread out and cover the whole GPU, but not so
much that it gets mushed out on the sides and gets all over the place. I use
the line method, but a dot in the center also works. Just don't waste your time
spreading it out. It's messy, unnecessary, and can actually trap air
bubbles in the compound in some cases. Although, normally those would be
squeezed out by the same pressure that spreads the thermal compound with the
other techniques once you tighten the mounting screws. On that note, now it's
time to tighten the mounting screws. Again, in a cross pattern, throw this
baby on the test bench and find out if it worked. Boom. low temperatures using
the exact same testing parameters of
64° about a 3° improvement. Woo! Yeah.
All right. So, it's not exactly earth shaking. So, if you're sitting there
wondering what exactly was the point of doing all this to a brand new piece of
hardware that's obviously working just fine, I don't blame you. But, I was
ready for that question. So, here are some other situations where it might
make more sense. While EVGA didn't do this, some manufacturers use really low
performance thermal material, either to save a buck or for reasons that are
unlikely to ever even occur to most consumers. Things like stability over
time or at extreme temperatures during storage. So, there's that. And even the
most well-intentioned manufacturer who chooses the highest quality thermal
compound can have a sloppy application once in a while. So, if your component
is running hotter than you're expecting or not turboing as high as you'd like,
you can follow this guide to try a thermal compound replacement since it
doesn't cost very much. And finally, this might actually come in handy if
you're trying to breathe new life into an older piece of hardware, too. Thermal
pastes, particularly the lower quality ones, don't stay potent forever and may
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Anyway, speaking of great opportunities to take care of things, there's a link in the video description. You can buy a
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our affiliate code. You can give us a monthly contribution directly if you like our videos. And that was my
opportunity to do my outro. Now is my opportunity to say don't forget to
subscribe if you haven't already. Peace.