Reviving the AMD R9 270
I purchased the R9 270 for my personal rig in 2013. It was an amazing card for the price at the time for 1080p gaming. Today it is not as powerful as current-gen graphics, but it will still do a good job of playing older titles at 1080p med settings.
The card was used in my build with the i5 4590, which you can view here. The card went on to be a beast, and still works like a champ as of 2019.
The card was showing age. High temperatures and fan noise became more common. I decided to clean it up and try to make it as good as new.
The entire process was fairly simple.
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Two fans held down by 3 screws each. The fan housing fixed to the heatsink by 4 screws and the heat sink fixed to the PCB by 4 more screws. 14 screws later the disassembly was complete.
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Cleaned the graphic chip with some isopropyl alcohol and paper towels. Also cleaned up the fans and the heatsink with compressed air.
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Re-applied thermal paste
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Re-assembled the graphic card
Turned it on after reassembly. Runs quiet and cool. Valley Benchmark (high) peaked the temperature to 73 degrees and fan speed at 60%.
Perfect for older titles.