Computer tech refurbs GPU clogged with tar and nicotine from 17 years of use by a smoker — 'I am not blowing on that; I’m getting cancer from this' says repair technician

A computer technician on YouTube shared their refurbishment process for an Asus 9800GT Matrix GPU that was allegedly used by a smoker. We will see in Madness727’s more than hour-long video how they turned it from a tar and nicotine-clogged relic into a pristine example of the graphics card that runs perfectly in a PC system.

The Asus ROG Matrix 9800 GT hit the market in 2008 and was a premium mid-range GPU built for enthusiasts. However, after around 17 years of use without any maintenance, it’s almost unusable, with the heat sink completely blocked by gunk. The graphics card actually looked relatively clean from the outside, but when the repairer removed the heatsink and opened the card, they discovered that nearly all its surfaces were covered by dirt and grime. The worst accumulation was under the shroud, with Madness727 commenting, “I am not blowing on that; I’m getting cancer from this.”

After disassembling the graphics card, the first thing he did was to clean the main board with degreaser and running water using a toothbrush. They then patted it dry with a towel, after which they used a blower to get the remaining water drops off the board. To further ensure that everything is dry, they also used a heat gun on the core, memory, and VRAM, as well as the heat sink itself.

The fan, heat sinks, and other components went under the faucet as well, with the fan motor being the only thing left out. Instead, they cleaned that part with isopropyl alcohol, after which they applied bike chain lubricant to make it run smoothly and quietly once more.

With everything cleaned and dried, the technician applied new PTM and reassembled the GPU. The final result is quite impressive, given the age of the graphics card. During the cleaning process, Madness727 said, "It looks brand new; no scratches, nothing —which is crazy, by the way. It’s in perfect physical shape; there’s [sic] no dents or scratches, or missing MLCCs or resistors on the PCB. Everything is perfect."

Lastly, they tested the card slotted in an MSI Z390-A Pro motherboard with an Intel Core i5-9600K processor and some Viper RAM sticks. They got the GPU running, with the card pushing out around 16 FPS on their benchmarking software, and about 5 FPS in Crysis. These aren’t playable numbers, but that’s understandable, given the games, settings, and age of the card.

We don’t know where the refurbished Asus ROG Matrix 9800 GT will end up, but the tech mentioned that they have already sold a couple of these GPUs they’ve previously owned to a collector. We’re hoping that this lovingly restored piece of computing history will also get the same treatment. After all, even though it can no longer run the latest games and compete with the best gaming GPUs you can buy today, it still has a unique design that Asus is continuing today with the ROG Matrix RTX 5090 with built-in sag detection.

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