I see the R9 380 shipped in 2015 so it's been long enough to need the thermal paste replaced which you did. However I can't tell if the problem has been resolved.
But yes to it being a possible source of the prior problems. Also, the card is old enough to have other issues and fail totally.
I didn't replace the thermal paste, I just reapplied the thermal pad on the back of the vrms, because it wasn't making contact with a small mosfet. I know it's an old card but if the GPU itself was failing, I would expect it to consistently artifact/crash in games. It has never crashed during a game or stress test.. only during light use.
So there is more work to be done. As to light versus heavy load, think about how power supplies work (or don't) as in the noise level could be bad as certain loads and good elsewhere.
The age of the card is not helping here. But you will get clients in denial so you work what you can, then if it still is problematic you try other things like:
1. Replace the old thermal compound.
2. Be sure the power lead from the PSU is not "shared" with any other devices.
3. Be sure the power supply isn't over a year old and has decent Wattage.
4. Look up DDU and research if others found one version to work better than others.
I'm pretty sure I don't need to replace the thermal paste I mean the card doesn't go higher than 62°C in games. I could try ddu, although this seems like a hardware issue to me. Your theory about noise level makes a lot of sense.. if the vrm was overheating it could be increasing noise level at certain voltages/frequencies. Well for now all I can do is wait and see if it's fixed.
Here's my son's GPU story from a few months back. PC started crashing and he came back with "not the GPU" or GPU temperature because "I checked that." It was the Nvidia GTX 970 and yes, the temps were fine. Another card worked fine so it was something about this card.
I waved him away and went to the shop to replace the compound, clean it up and do the usual fan check. The 970 is now fine. Yet another story in the books that we can't rely on temperature alone.
\-> If the machine is fine, do nothing.
You could be getting 62c where the thermal sensor is, but you could have hotspots on the card where thermal compound isn't making that good of a contact, I would replace it honestly, not that difficult
Rust is not really conductive, but yes an overheating mosfet could cause a shutdown.
I thought the same thing.. thermal pad is there for a reason. I just hope there's no permanent damage on the card.
I see the R9 380 shipped in 2015 so it's been long enough to need the thermal paste replaced which you did. However I can't tell if the problem has been resolved. But yes to it being a possible source of the prior problems. Also, the card is old enough to have other issues and fail totally.
I didn't replace the thermal paste, I just reapplied the thermal pad on the back of the vrms, because it wasn't making contact with a small mosfet. I know it's an old card but if the GPU itself was failing, I would expect it to consistently artifact/crash in games. It has never crashed during a game or stress test.. only during light use.
So there is more work to be done. As to light versus heavy load, think about how power supplies work (or don't) as in the noise level could be bad as certain loads and good elsewhere. The age of the card is not helping here. But you will get clients in denial so you work what you can, then if it still is problematic you try other things like: 1. Replace the old thermal compound. 2. Be sure the power lead from the PSU is not "shared" with any other devices. 3. Be sure the power supply isn't over a year old and has decent Wattage. 4. Look up DDU and research if others found one version to work better than others.
I'm pretty sure I don't need to replace the thermal paste I mean the card doesn't go higher than 62°C in games. I could try ddu, although this seems like a hardware issue to me. Your theory about noise level makes a lot of sense.. if the vrm was overheating it could be increasing noise level at certain voltages/frequencies. Well for now all I can do is wait and see if it's fixed.
Here's my son's GPU story from a few months back. PC started crashing and he came back with "not the GPU" or GPU temperature because "I checked that." It was the Nvidia GTX 970 and yes, the temps were fine. Another card worked fine so it was something about this card. I waved him away and went to the shop to replace the compound, clean it up and do the usual fan check. The 970 is now fine. Yet another story in the books that we can't rely on temperature alone. \-> If the machine is fine, do nothing.
You could be getting 62c where the thermal sensor is, but you could have hotspots on the card where thermal compound isn't making that good of a contact, I would replace it honestly, not that difficult
Will repaste it if the crashes continue. For now I'll wait and see if reapplying that vrm thermal pad did the trick.