ATI 4890 RAMS with Thermal paste?

V

valent

n00b
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Apr 14, 2009
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Was wondering

Can we take off the Thermalpads and use Thermalpaste on the rams? does it work?
I took off my heatsink to replace there GPU Thermalpaste to a better Tuniq MX-2, i notice the RAM thermalpad are quite fragile, and VRM thermalpad is starting to peel off.

I don't have any thermalpads around, wonderinf if Thermalpaste could get the job done?
 
Possibly with a different heat sink that comes with memory heat sinks.

I wouldn't mess with the heat pads that are matched with a reference heat sink.

I've read of better heat pad material that you can use. I've never tried it.

In short I wouldn't mess with the heat pads on the memory.
 
Good to know, just need more people's feedback about using thermalpaste rather then thermalpads on rams or maybe VRM?
 
You cannot use paste, the gap is far too large between the heatsink mating surface and the video memory / VRMs. You have to use pads. If you put enough paste on to bridge the gap it would act as an insulator rather than a conductor (or at very best a really poor conductor) and fry the components.
 
Forget about Thermalpaste on VRM

How about the RAM? the GAP between the stock 4890 heatsink isn't large, i believe is direct contact with the ram.Heatsink is are mounted and tighten with screws so i believe it is direct contact with the ram.
 
If it's like every other full coverage GPU heatsink I've ever seen, no, it's not. Pressure is placed on the GPU itself, but not directly on the memory or VRMs. This is partly because cooling the GPU effectively is most important and it is the most heat sensitive component (up to a point), and partly because memory and VRM packaging methods leave them more prone to damage by too much / inconsistent pressure from the heatsink. I'm not going to bother pulling mine out to check though.
 
As the previous poster said, the ram and vrm's are both covered by the passive heatsink plate that covers the card, not the main heatsink that covers just the gpu itself. Pads MUST be used!

If you're going to use and aftermarket heatsink and cooler, then yes, you could use thermal tape and some ram-sinks on the memory and vrm's. I did this myself on my 4870, using some thermal tape from Akasa (best stuff out there probably for this sort of application), and some Zalman ram-sinks. Works great!
 
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