Hi! I think I do know the answer already, but is there any difference between thermal pastes that one would apply on CPUs in comparison to GPUs? I mean - there shouldn't be, but considering the different environments (the GPU is usually the one that transfers the most heat into the PC case), there might just be. That was the reason I am writing. (my card's hitting through the 100C roof like crazy and I wanted to try and reseat the Phoenix heatsink).
90 degrees+ is pretty hot for that card. Whats your airflow in your case like? But to answer your question, Arctic Silver 5 is still a great thermal compound along with MX3 and Noctua NT-H1 Pro-Grade.
I took the card out, saw that some screws are kind of not screwed in completely. Tried to do that, but those things are damn tight. busted three screwdrivers or something. Fiddled around a little more, but no real luck in terms of getting the screws in closer to the board (so that the heatsink really would be squeezed against the GPU). Booted up the PC and voila - it's running 87C now. What the f**k? Anyway, now I know it's the fixating screws. I'll need to get my hands on some proper tools to get this fixed (those screws are damn small and tools of that size are of some weird soft compound usually).
87ºC is still quite hot mind! As Pelvis said, that Arctic 5 silver is great and quite cheap. Funnily enough I took the heatsink off my GPU a few days ago to do this (9800GTX+). Just be careful of taking the heatsink off the GPU, and yeah I'd get the right tools if I were you . What I'd recommend is to take the heatsink off the GPU shortly after turning off the computer, as the original paste will be a lot softer, making it easier to remove the heatsink and easier to clean. When you get the heatsink off, clean the old original paste off the chip gently (and do the same for the old paste on the heatsink). Put a tiny bit of new paste on in the center of the chip to allow it to spread, replace the heatsink and voila! Did this a few days ago and saw the temperatures drop quite substantially
