8800 thermal. kinda urgent, due to me not being able to wait to rip thermal pads off

[UN19UE]

Been looking at my 880gts 320mb for some time now, thinking of the best way to cool it.

1. QUESTION: The thermal pads used between the GPU RAM/heatsink, could i remove these in place of some thermal paste? they are pretty thick thermal pads.

2. QUESTION: Are the thermal pads used on the GPU as well?

3. QUESTION: Have any of you exchanged the thermal pads for thermal grease? was any improvement seen in temps?

The card is a OC/D Inno3d 8800gts 320mb.

[UN19UE]

Also another thing, would i have to possibly surface the bottom of the heatsink? Anyone?

[AW_3_3]

the RAMsinks are fine, dont worry about those. however, im not sure, but the 8800GTS likely uses thermal paste. i know my Radeon 9600, Geforce 6600GT, and my parents 8600GTS, and my Geforce 8600GT all used thermal paste. however, it is low quality. if you wanted to cool your graphics card, the best way would be to buy an aftermarket heatsink and fan for it, and also get some Arctic Silver 5 thermal paste (best stuff out there)

[UN19UE]

just found the maddest looking and "wicked-ly" rated hsf for the 8800's, check it out,

Product Website: DuOrb CL-G0102
Review: Overclocker Cafe - Thermaltake DuOrb VGA Cooler Review

Might purchase me one of those.

Thanks for the reply.

[AW_3_3]

i looked it up on newegg, and am seeing some pretty bad things about it. poor quality, short lived fans, and poor compatability seem to plague this model. its a cool concept and the performance seems good, but i wouldnt risk it. this one is a little more expensive, plus you need to buy a 92MM fan with it, but it seems to have good reviews from everywhere. Thermalright HR-03 VGA Cooler
if you do decide to get it, i reccomend from personal experience this fan Silverstone 92MM Case Fan

[UN19UE]

i just had a look at that cooler, it doesnt support the 8800gts cards unfortunantly, cooling i dont think is a huge problem, id just like to see the temps a little lower, i think 67degrees is high enough to cook a sausage.

[UN19UE]

okay, so i pulled the 8800 apart and checked out what was used, i cannot just replace the thermal pads with paste due to a gap that is generated by the height of the graphics chip and the different heights of some of the other cooled components and chips on the board, i did however remove the the almost hard, thick thermal paste used from factory and changed it with somethinner, and im sure better thermal grease from thermaltake, im now watching the temps to make sure all gaps have been filled.
i however have not seen any improvments from changing the pastes, but i do feel better knowing the paste from factory is no longer smeared all over the shop.

let me know of your own experiences with the standard cooler and maybe getting lower temps with it.