Old GPUs get dusty, that is pretty much a fact of life; however, computer technician who goes by the alias Madness727 on X/Twitter has showed an extreme case of dust accumulation on an ASUS ROG Matrix 9800GT card (which, by the way, is the card that eventually inspired the ROG Matrix RTX 5090). In an hour-long video, the technician has shown the entire progress of restoring this card back into pristine condition.
Cleaning The ROG Matrix 9800GT
While this ROG Matrix 9800GT has not seen failures in its 17 years of operation since it was introduced back in 2008, all that time exposed in a heavy smoker’s environment meant the card is practically deprived of fresh air with the amount of brown-colored dust, tar and gunk accumulated throughout its heatsinks, despite what a relatively clean surface may suggest. It’s gotten so bad, Madness727 outright refused to use air to clean out the dust, commenting “I’m getting cancer from this.”
So, the cleaning process has to go slightly unconventional. The graphics card is first brought to running water and degreaser to clean the dust away, then dried using towel, a blower, and a heat gun to keep the card and its components free of liquids, with a PTM thermal pad applied before powering it on. Same applies to the heatsinks, fans and various other components; the only thing not involving water is the fan motor, which is then cleaned using isopropyl alcohol instead, and also re-lubricated for good measure.
Some extra photos of the Refurbished card pic.twitter.com/LLPXpMYsrR
While the process is quite complicated and time-consuming, the result is a squeaky-clean card that doesn’t show any dents and scratches, nor was there any component damage – short for the ASUS logo that has lost its paint, likely due to aging. It still works, too, although running Crysis is still a task too demanding for this 17-year-old card. While the ROG Matrix 9800GT has certainly aged out of modern gaming, it definitely qualifies as a collector’s item these days, which hopefully this card can find a place to call home in the future.
Source: Tom’s Hardware
Pokdepinion: Can you imagine how badly overheated that card has to be?