@Felthry I could try replacing the paste

@Felthry is there anything I need to know before I attempt it?

@FreyaManibrandr Not in particular, though I'd recommend an anti-static wristband if you have one, or at least be aware of static and try to discharge yourself before working on it

the process really is just take off cooler, wipe away the old thermal compound, apply new thermal compound, put cooler back on

i suppose we would recommend looking up pictures and demonstrations of what too little, just enough, and too much thermal paste looks like though
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@FreyaManibrandr you can get tons of different brands of the stuff and i don't know what the good ones are at all because we've never had to worry about it, we're not seeking maximum performance out of our computer and haven't had one keep working long enough to need the stock thermal stuff replaced

and when using any sort of thermal stuff in engineering contexts we tend to use phase-change pads, not grease
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@Felthry I did it for my CPU a while back, so I should be fine, if worse comes to worse, I'll just be in need to buy a new one, which is part of the plan anyways

@FreyaManibrandr hope it works well then! if this doesn't work though (implying something about the cooler itself may be broken) getting an aftermarket cooler may be worth looking into--or even getting another identical card if you can find a broken one sold for parts and putting that one's cooler on it, since i imagine a broken card wouldn't be sold at scalper prices
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@Felthry update, I couldn't figure out how to open up my particular model, the Gigabyte r9 270x OC 2GB

@Felthry so I just gave it a dusting and will order a replacement asap

@FreyaManibrandr ah damn, that's unfortunate
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@Felthry yeah, I learned that Gigabyte is notoriously difficult about making their cards maintainable