My wife's GeForce GTS 250 started running really hot a few days ago. Nothing to bad in nonGPU intensive games, like DCUO, but whenever she loads up Skyrim or SWTOR it shoots into the 90s before very long. Well it used to stay in the 70's under load, and 90c is a little hot for me, so I decided to clean it out. I've never opened a graphics card before, but it wasn't too hard. I cleaned out ungodly amounts of dust and cat hair from the air intake of the GPU, so I'm guessing that is what caused the overheating. Well, I cleaned the old thermal compound off of the GPU and heatsink, then put on some new stuff (just the radio shack brand that I had lying around). Everywhere I read told me not to put too much on, so I put on barely enough to cover the GPU, even though when I originally opened it the compound was EVERYWHERE, like they had used gobs. Well, I immediately closed it back up, threw it into the computer and booted up. I use EVGA Precision to monitor temps, and when she went into SWTOR it shot into the 100's almost instantly before I pulled the plug. Should I apply more thermal paste? does it need to sit for a while after application before use? Is this card just trash? Thanks in advance, Billy
Dust is definitely a major heating issue and it's great that you took care of it. Now you definitely need to add some more paste on that baby. I normally add a 2 tear drops worth and spread it evenly. If you still get the same results, its probably because the paste is cheap. But hey, it's radio shack.
