GPu touching south bridge heatsink

addison

Distinguished
Apr 10, 2011
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So my motherboard was designed by an idiot because the south bridge heatsink is pretty large, I fried a 4850 due to it touching it (at least I think, after that I got a 5770 that wasn't touching it and it ran fine). The problem with this heatsink is it's like a inch and my old old mother board (6 years AM3) is a MSI KA790GXM.

There's a little stupid MSI logo on the heatsink, there's screws but it seems they are stripped, they won't come out. I'm worried with my new card (got a r9 270 for 150$ yesterday) that it may over heat... Persay if I put thermal paste between the two, if it doesn't fit, should it not over heat? Even my r7 250 barely fits, like 2mm off from touching it.