by Grump642 on 21 May 2009 14:59
OK, if you are using the stock cooler on your card, take the HS+F off the card. When you do this , look to see if the pads they use on the memory chips are even compressed. I have seen a case where they were not even touching!. Then clean the old thermal compound off both the GPU and HS. Take the cover off the cooling fins, usually a few small screws, and clean them. Put it back on apply a good non-conductive thermal compound to GPU. When you put the card back together, your memory chips should now be closer to the HS. If they still are not touching, use 2 thermal pads instead of one. @ pads are better then the pads not touching at all. Most mfg use cheap thick thermal compound, or even pads, on the GPU. This will hold the HS away from the memory chips. And taking the cover off the cooling fins lets you clean then very well. You can not always see this dirt just by looking at the card. You can see , in the other thread, what it did for my 4850. I can OC it to the max w/o it melting. I hope this helps.