Cooling the 6800GT: New Thermal Compound does help!

Ok, I just finished replacing the thermal tape with Artic Silver 5 on all
the chips on my PNY 6800GT. Thanks to tieros in this thread
http://www.nvnews.net/vbulletin/newr...ote=1&p=396933
for the inspiration!

Before doing this it reported idle temps of 66core/46ambient, and after
63/45. A significant improvement, and I'm glad I took the time. Before the
mod I was running the card at 423/1050 (well above ultra specs), and have no
doubt the cooler temps will make 435/1150 possible.

Under load, I am seeing temps peaking at 88/64, using Real-Time High-Dynamic
Range Image-Based Lighting Version1.2
http://www.daionet.gr.jp/~masa/rthdribl/ to stress the card. The thin
voltage regulator heatsink is too hot to touch(!), and the memory heatsink
is hot. This card is seriously undercooled when overclocked, and I'm
worried about those voltage regulators!

There is one thing to watch out for: The stock memory heatsink and the thin
voltage regulator heatsink on this board both stand far off the surface of
the chips they are meant to cool, having been designed for use with thermal
tape. This must be addressed before re-assembly.

Be sure to file down all the screwdown points a bit on both these heatsinks,
especially on the VR heatsink, which leaves quite a gap. In addition, I
lightly sanded off the paint where the memory chips contact, which should
give slightly better thermal transfer.

These cards have lots of screw holes in them, which will make attaching much
beefier heatsinks fairly easy. Can't wait to see what becomes available in
the market, or I may do something creative with a 120mm fan and an old cpu
heatsink myself!

rms

Before doing this it reported idle temps of 66core/46ambient, and after
63/45.

Down to 59/43 idle after setting a few hours.

Under load, I am seeing temps peaking at 88/64

Down to 85/61

rms