do i really need alcohol to clean out my gpu old thermal paste?

whiteknights · Jan 12, 2016

hello guys.. im about to take out my 3 years old 7870 XT, and re-apply a new thermal.. because gpu temps are now 76c+ on full load, it was only 68c from a while ago.. its my first time to apply a thermal, so im not really sure if its going to be an easy process.. wanted to know does it matter to wipe off the old thermal with alcohol? can i just remove it with water or something?

Sakkura · Jan 12, 2016

You do need a solvent of some kind, and water is unsafe to use with electronics.

Isopropanol (AKA isopropyl alcohol) is the best, but other mild organic solvents can do the trick too.

giantbucket · Jan 12, 2016

alcohol is better since (1) it's a solvent that will dissolve the goop instead of just smearing it, (2) it evaporates so far less chance of corrosion or shorting when you reassemble and turn stuff on again.

in a pinch, you can use nail polish remover.

basically, most (if not all) thermal pastes are oil based, so water won't do anything. water and oil don't mix.

Barty1884 · Jan 12, 2016

It's much rarer to have to replace any thermal compound (or pads, or whatever a specific GPU has) on a GPU.

If it's 3 years old....have you cleaned out your case & GPU fans with compressed air? That's more often than not the culprit.

As far as is alcohol required to remove (more specific for CPU but the same rules apply), it's not 100% required, but it is recommended. Water won't disolve "liquify" if. You're essentially just scraping it off (which can be done, but creates more mess). You want it to somewhat "liquify" (not exactly, but it's easier to explain) and allow it to adhere to the cotton pad/paper towel (or whatever you're using).

Either alcohol (the higher % the better) or scrape it off. I wouldn't bother with water - it'll just increase your risk of damage.

Just make sure you don't spread or scape any residue onto the motherboard or chips etc. Make sure you remove it all.

whiteknights · Jan 12, 2016

Barty1884 :

thanks, and thank you all for help.. i did cleaned out my case with air compressor, i also installed another case fan, but nothing happened with the temp. and that's strange because it used to make a difference, plus we are in winter now. also the Temps of the other components are fine, and gpu temps on idle are fine too, its just on full load.
did you mean that thermal is most likely not the problem?. I'm not sure what else could be the problem.

Barty1884 · Jan 12, 2016

Have you updated your GPU driver recently? If you have, did you go with a BETA version? That could be a 'bug' in a BETA release. If you have not updated your driver for a while, it should be worth considering.

There are other factors at play that strictly the fans/heat sink. Drivers & BIOS updates (or lack of either) can have an impact. 8'C is not a huge margin though.

giantbucket · Jan 12, 2016

thermal goop generally doesn't dry out or disappear within 3 years, so reapplying it is only really necessary if you are changing the heatsink / cooler. it's primarily oil based, and oils tend not to evaporate or dry that quickly.

it could be dust stuck inside the graphics card, so maybe at least take the GPU cover off and see if you can blow clean the card's own cooling fins before taking a screwdriver and taking it ALL apart.

whiteknights · Jan 12, 2016

thanks again i appreciate your help.. i thought it could be the thermal because recently i used to play HD games a lot than before, and thats when the gpu temps got higher, i thought maybe its a thermal break down. i had 15.7 AMD driver so i went back to the previous version but nothing happened.
i know that 76c isn't too bad, but i used to to have 68-70c when weather was very hot, and now its freaking cold here and i get 76c+, so im just wondering.

i'll take your advices by upgrading to latest driver and also try cleaning the card's fans. and i'll leave re-applying thermal for the last step.
i doubt it could be the main problem, but hopefully it would. because im worried from re-applying the new thermal.

giantbucket · Jan 12, 2016

um, it's cold OUTSIDE, but your computer is INDOORS, right? presumably, you also have the heater on inside your home (instead of nothing or A/C like in the summer), so ambient temps are probably 2-3 degrees higher than before anyways.

whiteknights · Jan 12, 2016

giantbucket :

i never used A/C in the summer neither the heater in the winter while gaming. i noticed that weather have a noticeable affection on Temps at the first couple years i build my pc, like in winter idle gpu temp are 30c and load temp are 65c, while in summer its 40c on idle and 70-75c on load depending on the game, thats like 5-10 degrees difference. so i guess if we are in the summer now my gpu Temp may pass the 85c.

whiteknights · Jan 18, 2016

giantbucket :

hello again and sorry for disturbing.. i took off my gpu from the case and i blow all the dust out of my card's fans with an air duster can (it was a huge amount of dust), i couldn't take off the card's fans because it have a very small screws. the bad news is it didn't made a difference.. i played for an hour, and the Temps are just 1-2 lower than before.

giantbucket · Jan 18, 2016

as i recall, AMD cards from that era ran quite hot (and still tend to do that compared to nvidia). if you have the reference style blower, those are the hottest. as long as you're getting ALL of the performance you paid for, and nothing is burning up, i wouldn't worry too much.

Barty1884 · Jan 18, 2016

Inclined to agree with giantbucket here. 76'C is hot, but it's not exactly 'dangerously hot' for those cards. Those cards do run hot. 85'C is the recommended max temp, but apparently they can reach 100'C - there's even reports of being rated to 125'C, but I'd be doubtful of that.

Either way, sounds like your temps (assuming truly max load) are within a safe range.

Cooler is always nice, but cooling that card significantly will be costly, and not worth the effort.

whiteknights · Jan 18, 2016

thank you for helping and sorry for taking long.. im not worried about those temps, even 80c i won't worry.. the thing is it never used to go pass the 68c at the first couple years, im just curios thats all. guess the only last option i have now is try re-applying new thermal.. i'll try it and inform you with the result.

giantbucket · Jan 18, 2016

have you changed other parts? maybe you're playing more demanding games, or your CPU has been upgraded and is no longer a limiting factor.

whiteknights · Jan 18, 2016

giantbucket :

i haven't.. my cpu is i5-3470, psu Thermaltake 450w.. i used to play demanding games like watch dogs and far cry 4 on ultra and Temps was 68c max, uninstalled far cry 4 then installed Assassins creed black flag, and thats when Temps started to get higher. at the beginning temps was also 68c, 71c when i turn off v-sync and put AA on SMAA, but after playing the game for a few days Temps suddenly started to reach 77c for a mysterious reason.

whiteknights · Jan 23, 2016

giantbucket :

hello again. i think i found out where the problem is.. i removed the side panel off to take a look on the card's fans, i find out that the second fan is not spinning (it spins for 1,2 seconds when windows start up then it stops).

i tried to re-seat my gpu and re-plugged the gpu power cables but nothing happened, except that i hear a buzz sound now while gaming, and after i quit the game, the fan return to spin again normally for around 1 minute then stops again.

giantbucket · Jan 23, 2016

depending on how handy you are, you could simply remove the entire shroud and fans, and zip-tie a pair of 80mm or 92mm fans to the heatsink, and either connect them to the card's header or just run them from the power supply's constant 12V output.

whiteknights · Jan 23, 2016

giantbucket :

thank you.. so the problem is from the fans itself?. couldn't be from my PSU? as im not using the highest psu quality, Thermaltake 450w, also my gpu requires two Pcie 6 pin power cable, but I'm using molex.
or maybe it just need an oil or something?

do i really need alcohol to clean out my gpu old thermal paste?

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