Should you replace your video card's thermal paste?? 

I replaced the thermal paste in my old GTX 970 and got way better temps. I think replacing thermal paste is more of a maintenance thing than a way to increase performance.

Changing thermal paste while using a temperature regulated fan curve won't improve temps, it will reduce fan speed. For an accurate test you should have set the fans to a fixed rpm

Just replaced the thermal paste in my 2 yr old Zotac 1080 mini and went from 86c to 70c! Definitely worth doing!

After 7 years I finally changed the thermo paste of my gpu and got a 15 degree Celsius decrease. I wish I have known of this sooner.

The cooler is not doing a good job cos it got no rgb

Oh jay you done goofed on this one :( Of course you won't see a difference in temperatures because the card has targettemps. Thats also the reason why even putting that huge fan on your case didn't do much, due to the cards fan curve it will always try to ramp less and less up since the card is getting cooler. Next time when you do a test like this, try to set the fanspeed to 100% or another fixed speed and then do before and after, that way you will see the improvement. By repasting you made the card much quieter.

The repaste might still have made a difference, keep in mind how a fancurve works, your gpu's fans are probably just running at lower rpm after the repaste. We saw that the passive temperature got lowered significantly. If you want to see what a difference a repaste job does, test it at at a static fanspeed like 50% before and after, unless something went wrong with the application, a repaste should always offer an improvement, whether small or large.

10:12 "Moral of the storal"

For people viewing this in the future that have a 30 series founder card: your card is very hard to disassemble and re assemble so be careful.

Thank you for giving me the confidence to do this Jay. Thanks to you and your videos I now have a cooler graphics card, a quiet system, and a brilliant hobby that helps me relax, focus and forget about the stresses that can occur during every day life.

Just today changed the paste on my 1080 Ti for the first time in 4 years. Saw load temps drop from 84 C to 68-72. Doesn't throttle anymore and performs quite a lot better. If you've had your GPU for a long time and haven't changed the paste, do it.

I had a GTX 1070 running at 70-90c, after it was stripped and re-applied thermal, runs nicely at 54c - 65c

warranty stickers are illegal in the us

When Jay says the RX580 is entry level and you look at your RX560

when building a PC first decision is a good case with plenty of airflow, actually would like to buy quality cases that are fanless and then purchase quality fans

Thanks Jay, I built a PC recently and have been trying to overclock this gpu. I couldn't find anywhere exact values for me to use and I kept getting problems when I would change stuff. This overclock works perfectly lol

7:20 The Verge approves of this card install

It worked for my Strix 970, but purely because it was old and hardened etc. Once I applied fresh it dropped by 10°C+. Thanks for another great video, always nice to show results to help teach people about the ins and outs of their builds whether new or experienced

I've found that using a piece of paper towel stuffed inside a coffee filter works good since the filter is low- to no-lint and the paper towel absorbs a bit more alcohol so you don't have to re-wet or replace your wipe.

I like how he said “hopefully we still have video!” After he replaced the paste. Because it’s very relatable.

"it does what it was designed for... and that is doing a mediocre job" applies to 95% of todays productspace, lol

Just bought the same card works amazing for me 😁 might switch out the thermal paste for a MX-4

7 Years ago I bought Radeon HD7970, it became pretty loud recently when I was watching 4k content. Replaced the thermal paste, and it got a lot quieter instantly.

Just replaced my rx 570 msi armor thermal paste, the temperature still the same, but the fans are much slower than before

GTX 970 was at 45 degrees too. I know because I was one of the 3 people that bought the Corsair "hybrid" kit for my Gainward 970. That was an interesting time in my PC building life.

I was literally contemplating this, this morning! Awesome timing!!!

For a lark, you might use this card as a test bench for the indium liquid metal compound. Tried it on my 1070 card with v.good results. Be interesting to see the difference with this card in particular.

I always swap the thermal past with new graphics cards, I use arctic silver or comparable brand i have in stock. I dont expect huge temp differences but I do it for a more consistent coverage and efficiency with less of a fan curve needed. Lower temps at full load are the perks.

Did he set a static fan speed? Because ik alot of gpu manufacturers set their fan profiles to keep the card around 80c

10:15 Improvements Jump Scare Thanks for that Jay 🤣

I had bought a used RX 480 that crashed after like 20 seconds in Furmark, the temp shot to beyond 90°C and when I removed the cooler I saw that the thermal paste was solid and briddle like plastic. Removing it and applying new thermal paste resolved the issue and the card did not go far beyond 80°C anymore and the temp increases a lot more slowly under load now.

Replaced the stock thermal paste on my 5 year old MSI GTX 970 and it got 10c cooler from 70 to 60. Definitely worth doing if you have never replaced the paste before.

I literately just replaced my graphics cards thermal past this evening and while testing it out saw this video. What timing :D I got an improvement of 10 degrees!

For this I wonder if the a fan on the side panel of this case would lower GPU temperature better in push or pull. I'm was planning on replacing the thermal paste on my 3 year old GPU. Thanks for the motivation. Keep up the great videos.

9:58 "Welcome aboard and enjoy your flight!"

Jay it's great that you listen to the viewers and actually act on it, such a breath of fresh air compared to the corporate crap I deal with daily !!!

On my wifes RX 480 strix it was crashing because of heat. I added more fans to the case to try to bring in more cool air and expel more hot air to no help. Ripped the card apart and changed the thermal paste and it dropped the temp 20 degrees. So it all depends on the paste from the factory. The card was about 2 years old when it started crashing so it wasn't ancient by any means. Its been running for years now with the new cryorig paste with no problems at all.

I own an ASUS 1060 6GB, after I decided on a clean, after applying MX-4 and only decreased with degree 6-10 depends on the game, in idle it dropped by 6-8degrees

My RX Vega 64 blower was running on 90'c during gaming. After disassembling it, cleaning all the dust from the fans and the block and replacing the thermal paste the temps went down to 60-65'c. I only regret not having any thermal pads to replace the old ones. The clean/maintenance was definitely worth it. I'm really happy I did it.

You have a new fan thank you for making this kind of videos i learn a lot

I recently replaced the existing thermal paste in my MSI 5700XT MECH OC with Thermal Grizzly Conductonaut. There was a significant thermal improvement. Without any overclock, the Junction Temp at idle dropped from 33 to 26. The Current Temperature (using the terminology found in the Radeon Software) dropped from 28 to 26. The fact that the two are now the same is very telling. More importantly, prior to the change, I had a couple of games that routinely drove the Junction Temp to 112 (again, that is without any OC). Maybe not dangerous, but too high for my comfort. After adding the liquid metal the junction temp never goes over 80. My plan was to later add an AOI cooler to the GPU, but with the results I got from the change in thermal paste I have decided not to waste the money.

I couldn't stand how loud the fans were on my Red Dragon RX 580 so I swapped them for 2 Noctura 1500 RPM fans. Looks funny but I dropped from 90C to 60C with less noise.

Some pastes require several on off cycles and some high usage before they "cure" properly and temps come down. Not sure if yours is that kind, but you might check it again after a few weeks of use and see.

So buying from you in future. Haven't had chance to build my own latest pc and watching your material I know there is quality backed with the name.

I switched out the stock paste on my rx580 to IC diamond Before it easily went to full fan and still have thermal instability, and crashed various times with overclocking past 1400 on the core and 2100 on memory After the new paste the fan barely went to 70% under the same loads It runs with 1467 on core and 2222 on memory no problem

I replaced the thermal paste on my DDR3 ram now it’s got RGB Edit: Makes one lame rgb comment. BOOM! Error 404 on my RU-vid inbox 😂#thatescalatedquickly

I like how you didnt use an overkill system for this experiment, which makes it more realistic. That PC is something most would have.

I finally got the courage to tear down my Saphire RX 590. I was easier than I thought it would be. By replacing the thermal paste I got a drop in temperatures about 6 to 7 Cº. Thanks Jay, great video.

7:00 my sentiments about anyone who doesn't remember Unreal Tournament 2000

I used gelid gc extreme on my single fan gtx 1060. and it went from pretty loud to wisper quiet.

Did that few times and always improved greatly.

I just disassembled and cleaned my old PC, including new thermal paste on the CPU and GPU. Saw 5C drop in CPU temps and 7C drop in GPU temps; and I was able to adjust my fan curves to make the PC run quieter and still maintain the lower temps. It's an old PC, Intel 3570K with GTX 970. It's been cleaned a few times, but never new thermal paste until now. Definitely will do this more frequently with my new build.

Yeah, my gtx 970 strix definitely runs cooler after I replaced the paste (I always use Arctic MX-4 for non overclocking and Gelid GC Extreme for overclocking).

I got this card. Is it a good brand?

I had similar experience with my EVGA 1080Ti. My temp was around 85c during heavy load. I decided to take the side temper glass window off the case and placed the big fan much like in the video. My GPU temp went down to 74c. I looked around and noticed I have a 240mm AIO cooler mounted on the front intake and it was blowing in hot air. So I decided to rearrange my entire system by buying a smaller AIO down to 120mm and mount it at the back of the case as exhaust. Then I've installed 3 fans on intake in front and addition two fans on top as outtake. My temp went down to 76c under full load but now, my CPU holds around 55c under heavy load instead of 45c with bigger AIO. It's a trade off lol.

Personally I saw a 15* drop going from whatever compound was on my 1060 to IC Diamond and that includes a 15* drop at idle. Made a point to replace all my thermal compounds with ICD and saw notable drops on everything.

I one replaced the thermal paste on my Powercolor R9 380 and was able to go from 80°C before under load to 60°C!

Eh... leaving aside the possibility of the fancurve etc. playing a part: thermal paste needs to go trough multiple heat cycles before it works at it's best.

I changed the paste on my 1070 and it really changed the temps. Like 15c or more. I also changed the paste on my cpu after a year of use and it really helped as well. The cpu was on a pre built rig. It is a i5 7400 which I would get less than 3ghz on under load because of thermal throttling now it settles around 3.3ghz with the new paste. So i say if you are comfortable changing the thermal paste then do it. You might be surprised with the results.

On a budget pc I'd feel it's same to assume they're using a 60hz monitor as well. Using Radeon Chill, vsync, etcto cap the frame rate would limit gpu usage and those temps would go down for sure

it improved, it was 81, in a non demanding scene before, as he was just facing the wall with no npc's . This time around 81 with movement enemy ai, and blood and gore effects

10:11 "The moral of the storal"

Great video. Seems like it's more worthwhile to add/replace fans than to open up a GPU. At least if it's a new GPU.

I would recommend to take out the metal slot cover underneath the card. If your exhaust fan is larger than your intake fan, it'll cool down through this manner.

Oh yeah. I've been running it reeeally hard the last year or two. Its definitely nice and hard, and thickened up. Is so hot. Oh ffs Jay.

I would never bother replacing the thermal paste on a brand new card unless I was installing a water block. And or if I've had it a long time and it's starting to run hot. OR.. if you're heavily overclocking it.... I guess.

A rapid temp increase(steep rise on the curve), can give an indicator on if the thermalpaste is not as efficient anymore. But the temp might not get higher (or lower after some time) due to the temp/clock setitings. Many cards has a factory fancurve set to hit 77-82c at sustained full load. (to keep the card as silent as possible) But a good thermal contact will give higher clocks at full sustained load with the factory fan profile - meaning that the clock will not need to throttle as much to keep it at around 80c. MSI Afterburner with the optimized custom fancurve, will keep the temps down (sometime 10c or more), but also make a bit more noise. The upside is lower temps, since it clocks the higher Turbo boost freq the further away from temp limit. There are exceptions regarding the factory fan profile/temps. I had the Gigabyte Xxtreme Gaming GTX 980 Ti, which was practically silent AND running at around 65c with decent silent airflow case (Define R5). But that card has a massive cooler on it. Also the MSI and EVGA aftermarket coolers do a good job silent, keeping the GPU at max 70-75c, even on a 1080 Ti - as long as your case gets the heat out.

I leave my side panel off, and a small fan blowing air into my case. It's a dust issue, but I don't mind a bit of cleaning every now, and again. I also use a custom fan curve for my GPU.

For removing thermal paste, I like to use those alcohol wipes that come in first aid kits. They're conveniently packaged, leave no lint, and work like a charm.

I replaced the paste on my RX580 and saw a ~10 degree drop in temps with the fans at a fixed rpm. Switching to a fan curve the temperature saving was still noticeable, but much less obvious... Of course, the fans were much quieter, so no complaints here.

I repasted my 1080ti a year and a half ago and I dropped enough in temperatures to keep a steady 1950-2035 core clock overclock with temps maxing at 76 with fans on a custom curve going up to 100%. Can't hear the fans since I use headphones and the performance is sweet!

Even thought I don't have a gaming laptop, I still did the thermal paste wile upgrading ram and storage. Saw about 5 degrees less the usual so that's something.

Replacing thermal paste was my hobby before i do it perfect now😀

Are we not gonna talk about how before it changed to 74 degrees, Jay said "The moral of the storal"?

Doesn't thermal paste need to 'cure' before it hits optimal thermal conductivity? Or is it the same after a week of use compared to immediately after application? I agree with the suggestion that static fan speed would make for a more controlled comparison.

I would like you to try gold foil as a transfer agent...gold is soft and just might bond really well thermally (or it may not). I don't think anyone has tried it. You might want to try 2 foils, one burnished to gpu, one burnished to heatsink. Then gold-to-gold should bond. Maybe worth a try?

I applied IC diamond to my rx 5700 XT and it's running around 12°C lower at peak loads than the factory paste was allowing it. Edit: Yes, my fans are static

i actually found that installing a towercooler for your cpu helps with gpu-temps a lot, because it moves the hot air towards the exhaust of you case

Replaced cpu and gpu thermal paste after 3 years, only decreased around 5c but the fps increased maybe 10-15 for all games and is way more consistent which is nice

Jay running a box fan next to where a side panel would be takes me back to my friend's Penitum 3 rig where he had overheating issues and he had to run a box fan next to it to prevent it from overheating.

That's how my Radeon rx 580 was till I got more fans and it's staying below 65c°

I would but my video card gave up on me this Sunday. I'm now broke on Video Memory and processing power with integrated graphics :(

I've changed the thermal paste on my GTX1080Ti recently and the result was AMAZING! With several Furmark 4k runs in a row I had 91°C (fan turns into a jumbo jet then) and now with the new thermal paste it's around 74°C and the card keeps quiet. The old thermal paste was hard and crumbly. So if your card is several years old, changing the paste can have a huge effect.

4:10 you can put thermal paste along the outside metal perimeter on that chip too it will make contact with heatsink

My old R9 290 was hitting 96c under load. Repasted the core with some MX-4 and temps came down to 74c under load.

so i just replaced it on my Strix 980... and it went from 91 Degree Celcius to 66 so i would say worth

I also had some bad thermal paste on a power color 580 8gb, I also had to replace a bad fan with two heavy push 90mm fans. Omg, what a difference. I was able to overclock it like crazy, and it would never get past 70c. Still runs great today.

It's probably more important to get the dust out from the fins of the heat sink. Even if you blow the heat sink out with compressed air, some dust matter sticks to things and don't blow off very easily. (Maybe dead skin cells?) So it'll not be like when it was new and perfectly clean.

Long story short: If you have been using your gpu for year or two and you feel comfortable opening your gpu than do it.

I undervolt my RX 580 AORUS and get 15-25°C less, but i was wondering if it is problem of the damaged thermal pads. I also changed the thermal paste but almost no differents. Idk if that can affect so much, if someone knows pls tell me psdt: Sorry for my bad english

I like used anti-static sheets from my dryer with a touch of alcohol to clean old thermal paste, the tough fibers usually don't come apart and it soaks up great.

Would changing the paste for a 2060 help it? I've heard the card itself is normally pretty hot

I replaced the thermal paste on my RX 470 and got the temps down from the mid 80s to the low 70s. This only lasted a couple of months though and my temps got back to around where they were before. I know the paste slowly degrades over time but this happened a lot faster than I was expecting. I'm not sure what's happening there.

I find it makes more of a difference when you do this to an older card or one that's pre-owned. Frankly the thermal paste on that card looked fine for the most part. A little solid, but I wouldn't have expected much of a temp reduction. Maybe liquid metal would have provided a couple of degree difference, but that's conductive and a good way to brink a card

This was cool dude low key didn’t know gpus had thermal paste

Good times back then where GPUs were avaliable on the market :D cleaning and re-pasting my 2080. Time to go back to old Jay's videos.

Warranty void stickers are irrelevant in the USA due to a recent ruling. So, service away. Don’t break it tho ya derpsters.

wasn't expecting jay to start singing everything is awesome

Could it make the graphics card lag and shut down or freeze? I haven’t changed mine

I have this same card and it barely ever breaks 70 degrees. However it is a desk build with completely over the top airflow.