Hi all,

I'd like to clean my 6990. Most graphics cards have a way of removing the top cover or shroud of the card, either by screws or clips, so you can clean the fan and heatsink without completely removing the cooler.

I'm trying to find a way to do this with my 6990 but I can't seem to get the shroud off. The only way I've seen it done via videos is removing the backplate and then seperating the entire cooler from the pcb. Does anybody know whether or not there's a way to just remove the shroud?

Thanks in advance

I've water blocked quite a few graphics cards over the years, both AMD/ATi and NVidia and I have yet to find a reference card that allows you to do what you are requesting.  Now, there are some companies, like Galaxy, that sell cards with easy to clean filters. 

If you are going to clean your heatsink typically it is a good idea to take it all apart and replace the TIM and thermal pads as well, it is not hard to do at all.  Just make sure that you wear some gloves to keep your finger prints off stuff and take your time!!!  Just remember one thing with it....."Slow and stead wins the race"....always the case when working with expensive computer stuff. 

BTW, if you do decide to replace the TIM and thermal pads....Koolance sells thermal pads pretty cheap and are of good quality (you can buy it directly from them) and currently the link below is what I am using and everyone loves, to include myself....works exceptionally well!!

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835426020

-------------------------

The opinions expressed above do not represent those of Advanced Micro Devices or any of their affiliates.
Requiescat In Pace AMD Processor Forums | Member since: 1/19/2009 | Post count: 4142
Please don't PM me with questions, instead create a thread so that everyone can assist and benefit from the knowledge provided. Thanks in advance!

Ditto.  I've never seen a single graphics card which allows removing the shroud separately from anything else.

 

The 6950/70 have 8 clips that connect the shroud to the baseplate. The 7950/70 and all Nvidia cards since Fermi have screws that connect the two. I have personally removed the shrouds from a 6970 and a 7970 so it is possible. The problem is I can't see a way to do this for the 6990 which seems like very poor design.

Especially considering AMD says not to remove the cooler because of the special phase change TIM they use. Makes 0 sense they would design it so you'd have to pull the entire thing apart to get at the heatsink/fan.

 

With my 5850's I can, the fan and shroud come off separately from the heatsink wich is nice

-------------------------
PhenomII 1100T// Asus Sabertooth R2.0 // 2X HD5850 CF //8Gb of 1866Mhz ram, H50 cooling, HX850W psu all stuffed into a NZXT Phantom case.


Was a member of AMD Processer forum since 2008. Last post count 1818.

Much of it depends on if it is a pure reference design or custom. I know my 5970's shroud is separate, I've had it apart twice to clean it (amazing how perfect a mirror a GPU makes) and put on new TIM (AS5).

-------------------------
Crosshair IV Formula, Phenom II x4 965 w/ Corsair H60, 8 GiB OCZ Platinum DDR3 1600, XFX HD 7970 Ghz, 512GB Vertex 4, 256GB Vector, 240GB Agility 3, Creative X-Fi Titanium w/ Creative Gigaworks S750, SeaSonic X750, HP ZR2440w, Win 7 Ultimate x64