My 5 year old GPU finally died and I found out why

So my GTX 1060 just went black screen on me after 5 years of solid use. I was ready to blame age or bad luck until I actually looked at the thermal paste. Dude it was completely dried out and crusty like old cheese. I pulled up a temp log from last year and it had been hitting 85c for months without me noticing. Has anyone else had a card last this long only to die from something as dumb as bad paste instead of actual hardware failure?

2 comments

2 Comments

iris_green8416h ago

The thermal paste tax finally came due lol.

noahchen15h agoMost Upvoted

Is it really a "tax" when you are the one who decided to skip repasting for three years? @iris_green84 I think the real hidden cost is whatever idiot decided to use liquid metal on a laptop that gets tossed in a backpack every day. You see those corrosion posts on here and wonder why people don't just stick to the basic stuff. The worst part is when the paste dries out and your CPU starts thermal throttling mid-match, not even getting the frames you paid for. Kind of funny how saving ten bucks on paste costs you a hundred in performance over time.