News Sausage-Style GPU Thermal Paste Application Results in Lowset Temps

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If you're going to work the attachment side to side, sure, vertical application is obviously going to spread the best. I'd place a heavy bet on multiple vertical lines being even better in such a strategy. Does anyone think the end-goal is anything other than a fairly smooth distribution over the surface of the chip?
 
DougMcC said:
If you're going to work the attachment side to side, sure, vertical application is obviously going to spread the best. I'd place a heavy bet on multiple vertical lines being even better in such a strategy. Does anyone think the end-goal is anything other than a fairly smooth distribution over the surface of the chip?
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I'd be worried about trapped air pockets. I think the X style is about as far as I would go with multiple lines.
 
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This likely depends heavily on the tile layout under the heat spreader.
We use very large GPUs with multiple tiles in a single package for very high performance compute where each GPU is tuned to a different frequency for maximum performance where even a couple degrees variant makes a large difference.
3"x2.5" large tiles, 6 GPUs, copper water blocks, and in stress and performance validations a stunted X pattern seemed to perform best in our case. This is being replicated across ~10,000 nodes now so pretty confident.

It'd be interesting to see different methods vs. different GPU brands and architectures, I bet it will vary.
 
Whoa, even the wildly popular MX-4 got dismissed? It does fine if one isn't min-maxing though.

I use the 5 dot with NT-H2, but I'm using a Kraken G12 and securing the 4 screws diagonally. Works well enough with the 5 dot.


Admin said:
News Sausage-Style GPU Thermal Paste Application Results in Lowset Temps


Igor's Lab ran tests on a GeForce RTX 3080 with a liquid cooler to test various thermal paste application techniques.

Sausage-Style GPU Thermal Paste Application Results in Lowset Temps : Read more
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'Lowset'?
 
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Phaaze88 said:
Whoa, even the wildly popular MX-4 got dismissed? It does fine if one isn't min-maxing though.

I use the 5 dot with NT-H2, but I'm using a Kraken G12 and securing the 4 screws diagonally. Works well enough with the 5 dot.



'Lowset'?
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Artic MX-4 isn't the absolute best performing TIM, but it has one of the longest lasting TIM performance & isn't Electrically Conductive.
A 8 year operation life is pretty damn good IMO. Something other manufacturers haven't seem to match.

MIhbDmR.png

Here's my research on what performs (BEST -> WORST).
There are ALOT of Caveats for some of the (BEST performing TIM's).

If you can get your hands on the Alpenföhn PermaFrost 2 from Germany, it functions better than Arctic Cooling MX-5 & MX-4.
It's the one TIM that I REALLY want to get my hands on and it doesn't have any 'Caveats' to using it.
But it only has a Rated Longevity of 5 years instead of 8.

The other higher performing TIM each have "Caveats" to using them, some more severe than others.
Some are superficial and if you can get past "Superficial issues", you should use it.
 
Kamen Rider Blade said:
Artic MX-4 isn't the absolute best performing TIM, but it has one of the longest lasting TIM performance & isn't Electrically Conductive.
A 8 year operation life is pretty damn good IMO. Something other manufacturers haven't seem to match.

MIhbDmR.png

Here's my research on what performs (BEST -> WORST).
There are ALOT of Caveats for some of the (BEST performing TIM's).

If you can get your hands on the Alpenföhn PermaFrost 2 from Germany, it functions better than Arctic Cooling MX-5 & MX-4.
It's the one TIM that I REALLY want to get my hands on and it doesn't have any 'Caveats' to using it.
But it only has a Rated Longevity of 5 years instead of 8.

The other higher performing TIM each have "Caveats" to using them, some more severe than others.
Some are superficial and if you can get past "Superficial issues", you should use it.
Click to expand...
Longevity isn't that important for everyone; some take their coolers apart too often for that to matter. It is more relevant for gpu waterblocks though.
Air cooled cards, on the other hand, taking the card apart for a deeper clean should be done at least at the end of warranty, and 8 years is too long for that, making it a gimmick, IMO.
 
Phaaze88 said:
Longevity isn't that important for everyone; some take their coolers apart too often for that to matter. It is more relevant for gpu waterblocks though.
Air cooled cards, on the other hand, taking the card apart for a deeper clean should be done at least at the end of warranty, and 8 years is too long for that, making it a gimmick, IMO.
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Depends on the person, I know people who don't take apart their PC's or clean their PC's for > 5 years.

So it really depends on your situation.
 
I'm really amazed at all the DIY OC's who believe there is ONE best way, one best product for this, and for that. I make whatever I have work best. It's a matter of skill, not magical knowledge!



If I don't have the right thermal paste, I'll just put a 2.0A fan on the heat sink. Gets the temp nice and low. I just want temps low 'enough'. If I want really low temps, I wouldn't use water. I'd use Peltier chips. That will get temps below any water-cooled system!



So, if you know what you're doing, you realize there's always a way using whatever you can get your hands on at the time. Absolute 'bests' are not that. They're the best under a specific and rigid set of conditions that simply won't apply in every case.



When I apply paste, I couldn't care less what the temperature of the compound is. I'm going to run a gpu bench, get that gpu just smoking hot, and twist the heatsink/fan back and forth to distribute the paste nice and thin.



Pretty tough to heat the paste up to 80C before you put it on the gpu. But if you run a gpu bench, it'll get the paste nice and spreadable. I always use 2 lines part way across, not to the edge.



But everyone wants to be the authority,so they conduct these experiments with surprising results. But that's by design, for publicity. Just pick a good way to do things. There is no 'best' way to do DIY PC STUFF.



You just make it work with what you have. As time passes, everyone amasses a lot of xtra parts and supplies, so you get more to choose from in your projects.



I've been in the DIY PC racket for 22 years, and I've got boxes full of parts and supplies, and at least 20 dektop PCs piled up for salvage, and 15-20 laptops. I've got boxes of salvaged PCBs, power supplies, you name it; all kinds of adapter boards.



I pulled a capacitor off one of my salvage PCBs, and soldered it into my TV, because the power board had failed, and it's too much trouble to go out and get another tv.



There's just no substitute for using the mind to solve problems, rather than seeking that elusive knowledge, which once found, ensures success, because it doesn't exist. It's just a variation on gambling and/or investment systems that always pay off! No such thing.



And there is no magical way to apply thermal paste that ensures success every time.
 
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Does test result apply to CPU's as well? I mean to me, at least on the surface, the mechanics of it seem the same but they only tested GPU's specifically. I know under the hood the die and transistor layout of GPU vs CPU may be very different, but we're talking about evenly spreading goop across the surface which is more of a mechanical problem than a min-max optimization (though Noctua's specific dot layout recommendations for AMD may be more a min-max approach for known hotspots?).

Any plans to replicate the test on CPU's?
 
Tom Sunday said:
WOW…A skinny sausage-style vertical line was the easy winner! I still not believe that there actually exist a perfect way! And that the entire branding of ‘Thermal Paste’ is somewhat of a hoax and or marketing effort. Perhaps the day will come soon whereby hardware and or CPU design will not necessitate any thermal paste. I also think that CPU temps can ultimately be greatly reduced by the OEM’s or even made redundant. Which then does away with all of the AIO pain we all have been living with for much too long.
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Agreed. Too many variables even within identical machines. I say as long as you don't over or under do it, don't worry about how you apply and a fraction of a degree.
 
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