Archived from groups: alt.comp.periphs.videocards.ati (
More info?)
"John" <3447740@mail2me.com> wrote in message
news:35eoq4F4kh0ecU1@individual.net...
>
> "First of One" <daxinfx@yahoo.com> wrote in message
> news:b8CdnblI5JOFXWzcRVn-og@rogers.com...
>> "John" <3447740@mail2me.com> wrote in message
>> news:35dpa6F4ksi34U1@individual.net...
>>> my 9600 Pro card had a vey thin piece of foam which was glued directly
>> onto
>>> the heatsink, and when I removed the heaksink from the GPU the shim came
>>> away with the heatsink.
>>
>> What you found was NOT the shim; it was the thermal-interface pad. The
>> shim,
>> in this application, is a white plastic shroud surrounding the processor
>> die. See:
>>
>
> This one had a very thin foam pad glued onto the heatsink, I think it was
> nothing more than to help the heatsink fit square into the die (or egaully
> to make sure that the heatsink didn't touch the surface mount components
> around the edge of the die), similar to the idea used by AMD 32bit
> Athlons, where they used four small pads on each corner of the processor
> housing to help make sure the heatsink sat evenly on top. I have left
> this foam pad on the original heatsink as removing it would have been no
> use, as I couldn't have re-used it after removal due to damaging it in the
> removal process. It was at this point, that I made sure there was adequate
> clearance between the die and the components around it, before fitting the
> arctic cooler. There was no shim as in the phoo below on this card. I
> might add at this point that the card was purchased as a Peak ATi 9600
> Pro.
>
> One thing I did notice before I fitted the new cooler was that the GPU
> said 9550 on it (If I remember correctly) which read me to believe that I
> had been sold a 9550 as a 9600 Pro, but maybe someone else could comment
> on that one. The card is found as a 9600 Pro in windows XP and the box
> says its a 9600, its also got a label on the card that says 9600 on it
> too.
>
>>
http://graphics.tomshardware.com/graphic/20020819/images/r300chip.jpg
>>
>> On the 9700 (but not the newer 9600), the shim rises above the top
>> surface
>> of the die. Consequently, a bare heat sink installed on the 9700 actually
>> will not contact the die. ATi used a thick thermal pad to fill the gap.
>> The
>> was a safe/cheap method in a mass-production environment.
>>
>>> I tried to remove the shim from the heaksink using a
>>> very sharp blade (slicing it off), but it was not gonna let go that
>>> easily
>>> and what did come away would have been no use to man nor beast!.
>>
>> The thermal pad was never meant to be reused.
>>
>> Now, ideally, before installing the Arctic Cooler, you should clean the
>> processor surface with some alcohol, then apply a razor-thin layer of the
>> supplied thermal paste. Did you do all that?
>
> Yes the die originally had a small amount of heat transfer paste, I
> removed all trace of the old stuff and re-applied a thin layer of new
> paste to the top of the die before installing the artic cooler.
>
> John
>
Incidently, does anyone have any idea of overclocking utilities I could now
try, now I have a bit more cooling onboard? Does anyone have any idea how
much I could push this card now? Its a Peak 9600 Pro (256mb). I remember
having a NV card a while back and there was a utility that added clock
adjustments for the memory and GPU into the cards normal settings, is there
something similar I could download to try and clock this one up a little
bit... JUST FOR FUN I might add! I'm not really a gamer, except when my
nephew takes over the computer, but I woulbn't mind having a go at pumping
it up a bit, just to see how far I could take it.