If anyone has reapplied thermal paste while keeping the stock cooler, could you please share your results?
 
thanks!

Based on the heat that comes out the back, the thermal contact is quite good.
 
If you find it too warm you can increase the fan speed. Either way it never lets the 4870 get much over 82. Thats still a bit cooler then my 8800GTX
 
my idles are as follows and the room was 28c
 
55 @ 35% - Starts to be more audible
50 @ 30% - Quiet
 
I still just leave it auto since 82 is not going to hurt the card. It seems to run the fan at 26 or so when loaded, but will go higher if needed.
 
If you do want to change the speed do the following. and make sure you enable overdrive. You do not have to overclock, but it was to be unlocked to make fan speed control work. Do not set it too low as the card will not auto control with it this way.
 
http://forums.guru3d.com/showpost. [...] ostcount=8

yeah, i know speeds can be changed, i was just curious if anyone had improved their temp issues by reapplying thermal paste.

I used Arctic Silver Ceramique on mine. I believe they changed the name of it to CMQ-22 or something like that. It did slightly better on my CPU than Arctic Silver 5, so I tried it out on my GPU. Originally, my stock fan speeds kept the temperatures at around 82C at idle, and at load it didn't get over 90 due to the fan kicking in. After the Ceramique application, done via the credit card thin coat method, it was about 8-10C less, which is pretty good. At the moment, the fan speed is set at 45%, and I am getting roughly 43-45C at idle, and 55C at maximum load.  
 
I did have a Thermalright HR-03 GT waiting on the side, but with temperatures like this it doesn't seem necessary. Better the hot air is pushed out of the case with a dual slot cooler than being blown around inside the case anyway.

82 idle. thats hot. i idle in the 70's and lower if the rooms is cooler then 25c.
 
But for 8-10c, it may be worth it.

Most posts I have seen, have only stated a 2-4c change from thermal paste. Biggest issue is just the fan control (and the generic cooling solution).
 
It may depend on the which brand you purchase, since they probably select how and what to use for thermal compound.

Mine idles around 55c at 35% fan speed with the 780/1065 overclock. It hits about 68c under full load. I didnt change the paste on this 4870 I have, but I did change it on the two 4850's I used for about 2 days, those things run much hotter than the 4870, before the paste they were idling at 86c, after I changed it they were around 82c, didnt make much difference.
 
I pondered it with the 4870, but im satisified with the temps and performance I have now, plus the cooler is a pain in the ass to get off with the tiny screws around the GPU. Its not worth it tbh.

 
I did, I change the paste and added some Arctic silver 5 to the GPu and I did notice a 7C drop in temp.