GeforceFX5900Ultra+ArticSilver3=Heat?

[letsel]

Hi,

I need some advice.I have a major issue with my geforceFX.Let me just say that it was running sweet, was running it at 550/1020, 39c Idle and 55c to 60c load. That was on the stock cooling. using Forceware52.16. i know they make the card run a little hotter, as do all the det drivers starting from 45.33.
Anyway, i thought lets slap some ArticSilver3 on that baby, and bring down the temp a little more, maybe get a few extra clicks on the core. Right? AS3 has always helped me out at bringing the temp like 3c or 5c down. So i took of the heat sinks, cleaned the core, and took of the thermal pads of the memory chips, and cleaned them as well untill they were shinning again. applied just enough AS3 on the core, and made it like 2 papers thin on the core. Did that aswell for the memory chips. Cleaned the fan and the heatsinks from any crease. Put them back on the card, installed my card back into my case, hooked on the external power connecter, and fired up my pc.
Now when i go to the temperture tab, it says 59c idle...I started op a game, and saw a unbelievible 95c the game whent loco aswell. Must be the heatsink not touching the core in all places right? Turned of my pc in a flash, and took they card out, it was mucho hot i can tell u. took everything apart again, thinking i did not apply enough AS3, as i did smurded it out very thin. So cleaned everything again, applied AS3 again. Did it perfect, just like the site says it has to be done. and like i always did it anyhow. Attached the sinks again, checked under a light for any space between the core and the heat sink, there was none, and fired it back up again. Gues what? same thing. If i turn all my fans up high that are in my case, it says 57c idle, and a sickening 82c to 95c under load.
I have never seen anything like it, the stock pink gue that is on the core cant be better then AS3 can it? Or maybe the fan is not behaving like its supposed to? I cant play any games, within 1 min screen starts showing heavy tearing and artifacts, even if i set back default settings, still gets 90c I have no idea whats going on, any advice would be nice, thanks.
_______________________
A7N8x-No Del
XP2700+@ 12x190@32c idle,42c load
2x256, Crucial Twin-X,@5.2.2.2
5.1 6ch sound card
EnergyMax 370-Watt
2x60GB maxtor 7200
Gainward Golden Sample XP-1600 GF.FX5900 Ultra
Compaq CD/DVD Drive 24x
Lite-on CD/RW 52x
2x80MM intake,2x80MM out
Ative Chipset cooling
ThermalRight SLK 700 on CPU, with 80MM thermaltake fan@
2000rpm to 5700rpm.
_______________________

[EciDemon]

:eek:
I've never used AS3 my self but have heard only positive things about it, and Im sure you have the same experience in the past.

The only thing that comes to my mind is that AS3 might not be suitable for Fx cards ... but that can't be right ?

By the way, was the original compound/thermal pad on the core thick ?
I've never replaced anything on gfx cards but perhaps it needs to be a thicker layer then on a cpu ? *must be some guides around*

I was thinking about changing the heatsink on my old gf3 and replace it with some active cooling and add some ram sinks and push it up a bit more when I have new card in its place. Experiment alittle ...

[letsel]

thanks for the fast reply,

Yes in the past ive allways used Artic Silver, on my old gf3 and 4, and on all my cpu,s and chipsets ive had in the past. Exelent stuff!!
The pink gue that was on the core was indeed fairly thick, lets say a good 5 papers thick. But theres no need to put AS3 on that thick is it? as it will run on over the chip on to the pcb? they say AS3 dont run, but that thick ?
I ordered a Revoltec GPU fan for an fx. With AS5! Im thinking the fan on the fx now, is not functioning as it should. Ill slap on some more paste, but i dont think that that is the problem. Will never hurt to try. if that doesnt, im gonna put on the RevoltecFan.

[letsel]

Fixed!! Slaped on a revoltec fan, and some AS5, and did it right this time!! 37c Idle and 42c load!! Awesome

[bkswaney]

I love AS3. I've been using AS for years now.
It's the best I've ever used.

[digitalwanderer]

I used to use AS3, but ever since I tried some non-conductive pastes I've decided never to go back.

There's just too much of a risk and the non-conductive ones are as good or better in some cases.

[JohnA]

YES! I had this problem not one week ago. I ran a 3dmark loop to heat up the core in order to remove the GPU heatsink (same pink stuff you had) and then cleaned it very well.

I used AC3 (I use it on everything, i have a watercooled p4c 3.0ghz multiplier unlocked engineering sample running at 3.66ghz @ 45-48 under load, 39-41 idle) did a nice neat job even if I do say so myself and then put the ramsinks back on.

This is where thigns were starting to go south, I put the stock oem core heatsink on and put the plastic pins back in. The heatsink was moving, it was clearly not held down well enough. So I got nuts and bolts and made sure the core was very secure and all looked to be well.

Installed it, fired it up andafter about 10min the screen started to flicker (in 2d mode) so I went to check my temps and got this (see the screenie)

http://www.nvnews.net/vbulletin/attachment.php?s=&postid=224857

So I suspected i'd let a drop of AC3 bridge a couple of points and even though its not always the case it clearly can be conductive. But after looking for an hour I found no AC3 where there was supposed to be none.

Next step was to say f**k this, order the leadtek 5950 and some white paste and a pack of thermal pads to fix up the 5900 for use in another rig. Right now my 5900 is naked again and once more has been fully cleaned.

My advice is not to use AC3 but we'll see how the 5900 works when used with white paste and thermal pads over the next week (stuff due to arrive in the morning)

One pissed off AC3 user :D

[schuey74]

Re-read thru all the posts and I don't see any comments about the fan speed on the actual video card, just other case fans. Is it possible that you didn't reconnect the fan on the video card or perhaps plugged it in backwards. Did you boot up the computer without the side panel of the case and visually see the video card fan spinning? If it was spinning, did you hear it speed up when you went into a 3D app? If you GPU is naked now, take a look and see if it looks concaved at all. Maybe Nvidia's GPUs are coming out too flat and need a nice thick goop. You could try lapping both your GPU and your heatsink. As long as you don't slip and sand your VC's PCB you should be ok!

Just an FYI, last year I took off my stock cooler from my old 4600ti to redo it with AS2 or AS3, can remember which one. I had nothing to monitor temps, but my card would not overclock at all after the paste swap so it's safe to say that the temps were significantly higher. Lapped both and put the heatsink back on with Arctic Silver Epoxy. The card would then do 340 core stable when it would only do 320 with the stock paste and only 300 when redone with AS3 without lapping. Either the lapping or the Epoxy solved my problem. It could be either, but I lean towards the lapping. I've lapped every single one of my CPUS over the past five years or so, never killed one, and the temps have always dropped from 2c - 4c under load.

[JohnA]

Well the fan will only go in one way but yep it did power up and speed up in 3d apps (before it crashed) In 2d mode the screen just went black and seemed to shut down, same happend in 3d only much quicker.

GPU surface looks quite flat to me, AC3 spread very well. I tried a thin and thick layer and nothing changed really. AC3 seems to be a problem for FX cards. Im not touching my 5950 when it arrives thats for sure, sorta tempted to play with the 5900 now though. Custom heatsink etc.

[schuey74]

Originally posted by JohnA
Well the fan will only go in one way but yep it did power up and speed up in 3d apps (before it crashed) In 2d mode the screen just went black and seemed to shut down, same happend in 3d only much quicker.

GPU surface looks quite flat to me, AC3 spread very well. I tried a thin and thick layer and nothing changed really. AC3 seems to be a problem for FX cards. Im not touching my 5950 when it arrives thats for sure, sorta tempted to play with the 5900 now though. Custom heatsink etc.

I guess it could be that the AS3 is just not thick enough. Try Shin-Etsu on the 5900 GPU. That stuff is super thick and much better than AS3. If that does not work then there is a definete problem with how the heatsink sits on the GPU. I've noticed that all these heatsinks on GPUs/VPUs sit very lightly and will move with even the slightest touch. I noticed the same thing on my 9800Pro when I first got it and I took offthe stock cooler and applied the AS3............not good at all! It wouldn't go a hair above stock clocks. Going with the Shin Etsu fixed the problem and I'm now using the Shin Etsu with a pelt. and it's all good!

The only possible problem you have is the heat transfer between your heatsink and GPU, using a thick thermal paste like Shin Etsu or going with an Epoxy must solve your problem and I guess you've really got nothing to lose as your 5900 is just sitting there naked.......

Please post a follow up when you get the card up and running again because I've also found it strange how loose those heatsinks sit on video cards and the fact that thinned out thermal paste like AS3 seem to have problems transferring the heat. CPUs put out a lot more heat and work great with AS3, but CPU heatsinks are clamped down like there's no tomorrow so you know it's making good contact.

[JohnA]

Yea, well i've got a few things that should arrive in the morning that i'm going to try out. Some standard generic white paste (TBH it works pretty much as well as AC3 is used correctly) some Akasa ShinEtsu Thermal Interface Pads which will mould itself to the gpu and and the hsf.

Also the standard plastic push pins that hold the gpu hsf normally will be scrapped. These work fine as the standard pink stuff holds the hsf very tight and it never moved. I had to loop in 3dmark for over an hour to get it to move so I could remove it. I've got some 2mm, 2.5mm and 3mm screws and wing nuts so I can be sure its not going to move.

I see around the core are 4 holes (probably for flowfx coolign system) the standard hsf uses 2 others which pisses me off as it must be tough to keep pressure even and ensure good contact without a very sticky pink thing between the core and the hsf.

So my options are to drill into the stock hsf so i can use 4 screws to hold it or get a block of copper and make my own hsf. The bottom line is I have a 5900 ultra 256 that I don't mind screwing up so I will be trying a number of things. One thing i've been itching to do is make custom hsf for front and back. If that does happen it will be in tutorial form so people can see what I did and how :)

[JohnA]

About the custom cooling thing, where can I buy blocks of copper in the UK?

[letsel]

Umm, I was saying i slaped on Artic SIlver 5. Yes 5 is out, and reduses the temp even more. It was fairly simple, my problem was that the pins holding down the cooler were not tight anymore. I used screwes now, and still a thin layer of AS5, and mounted the Revoltec fan on tight!! And bam that was my prob. This fan is doing 5500 rpm,s a little loudy compared to the stock cooler. Heres a pic from just after a game.

[letsel]

and heres one at full load, 4 secs out of ant game. at 553/1021 , pretty impressive if u ask me:D

[JohnA]

Well while I was waiting for the postman, i attempted to use AC3 again. Same results (but i have placed an order for some AC5 and some other stuff) i've cleaned again, and have applied generic white paste before I try the thermal pads. Wish me luck, lol.

[letsel]

Good luck dude!!
_______________________
A7N8x-No Del
XP2700+@ 12x190@2280@32c idle,42c load
2x256, Crucial Twin-X,@5.2.2.2
5.1 6ch sound card
EnergyMax 370-Watt
2x60GB maxtor 7200
Gainward Golden Sample XP-1600 GF.FX5900 Ultra@552/1021
Compaq CD/DVD Drive 24x
Lite-on CD/RW 52x
2x80MM intake,2x80MM out
Active Chipset cooling@Revoltec
ThermalRight SLK 700 , with 80MM Thermaltake fan

_______________________

[JohnA]

Well i think it's screwed. Seems to overheat instantly and shut down a short time after. The cards bios displays correctly but as it gets to the bios post screen there is major corruption.

I guess they used that pink stuff for a reason, i may attempt to water cool it though. I doubt the card is dead but for some reason it's very picky about how its cooled. This has a very basic HSF on it though, OEM.

My new 5950 is from leadtek so I guess i'll leave that alone :D

[surfhurleydude]

and heres one at full load, 4 secs out of ant game. at 553/1021 , pretty impressive if u ask me



I used to think that until I realized that that actually wasn't full load.

I'd play UT 2003 in windowed mode and then have the temperature sensor in the background and I found out that it would not be unusual to find the temperatures approaching 90 degrees while in the middle of playing a game...

[letsel]

I did that too, temp will not exeed 60c anymore!!

[Mike360000]

Is the "Core Threshold Slowdown" in the setting changeable?
I can put my curser there and move it it in the box, but I can't change anything...

Mike

[letsel]

I dont think u can change does settings, maybe in the registry somewhere?

[JohnA]

Mine is set to 140 but i've seen shots at 130 and others so it must be a reg value somewhere.

[Mike360000]

Originally posted by JohnA
Mine is set to 140 but i've seen shots at 130 and others so it must be a reg value somewhere.

That was why I was asking. I had seen different numbers on different screen shots.

Cheers,
Mike

[JohnA]

Originally posted by Mike360000
That was why I was asking. I had seen different numbers on different screen shots.

Cheers,
Mike

Done a quick search, can't find it :( had a quick look on google to with no helpful results. I'll keep looking and post if I find anything.

[letsel]

Found the reg key "NvThermCoreSlowdownThreshold" thats the key u will have to change i gues, i dont know the value it needs. Im very bad at Hexadecimal.