Thermal Paste Round-up: 85 Products Tested

[Mathos]

Nice article, it shows that for the most part, Thermal compounds are fairly close.

On the other hand, the paste I'd recently purchased, Cooler Master MasterGel Maker Nano, seems to perform consistently well regardless of mounting pressure. I was completely out of thermal paste, so decided to try something new for future builds. Managed to get mine for $9.99 on sale at Newegg last week. Going to be using it on the system rebuild for my mothers computer, Ryzen 3 1300x with MasterLiquid 120 cooler. And I'll probably use it when I get a new case for my build.

 

[Kewlx25]

I put man small dots of paste on the cpu, smear it around with a tooth-pick until everything is covered. Most of the paste is so thin, it's translucent. Then I place the heatsink on the cpu and while lightly pushing down, give it some back-and-forth twists. If I lift the heatsink up and look at it, there is a very very thin layer spread evenly across the CPU.

I'm not sure if there any downsides to this method. Could air pockets occur?

 

[InvalidError]

c) The last I will take from A5s home page and concerns potential mishaps.

Silicone oil which is used as the foundation of most thermal greases has a dielectric constant of about 2.8, which makes all greases based on it about 2.8 times as capacitive as the air that would otherwise be there. The exact amount can also vary depending on the conductive and dielectric properties of the particles used in the paste.

 

[Guest]

What about IndigoXtreme? One of the most interesting types of next gen thermal interfaces around. I would like to see that type of product reviewed.

 

[turbotong]

With such a comprehensive analysis, you really needed to give out some Tom's Hardware Recommended/Approved awards.

 

[FormatC]

but w/o Shi Etsu products in the mix, its kinda like talking about best boxers, w/o having Ali and Mayweather in the list.

Shi Etsu... I hope you know, that this company and other big chemical brothers like Dow Corning are the manufacturer of a lot pastes I've tested here 😉

It is the same as a comparison of an Arctic AiO vs. a NZXT or others. You get the same Asetek stuff inside 😉


@turbotong:
Thermal grease is difficult to recommend, because the skills and the preferences of each user are very different. Also the financial aspect. Better cheap and usable or expensive and excellent? It is so difficult to say what is the best in a special environment. One wrote here, that I'm biased. No, that's not right. And exactly this is the reason why I never wrote about my personal favourites.

 

[JamesSneed]

Formatc I don't think many realize how few actual manufactures of TIM there are. I wonder how hard it is to note who really makes it like we do with PSU's? I assume Shin-Etsu and Dow Corning make a large percentage of the pastes we see on your 80 way list. I also suspect that is why we see large groups that have almost the exact same results.

 

[IInuyasha74]

Good read.

Anyone interested in Liquid Metal, take listen to this segment of the review carefully.

"Liquid metal is suitable for more experienced power users; its application is difficult to master and you may run into trouble with hardware warranty claims, since these "pastes" can never be completely removed without some sort of leftover residue. Given the challenges posed by highly conductive pastes, we'll discuss them separately.

I used Liquid metal for a while. It performed well. I still use it in my laptop. But it is extremely difficult to clean off after it sits for a while. It also caused me some issues with an RMA once because the markings on the IHS weren't legible. That's the one I think isn't worth the trouble.

 

[Amdlova]

the thermal paste for intel is chiller, winter, snow... 2500k 35ºc 3770k same thermal compound 50º my next cpu will be from amd need to be soldered. why the intel don't sell that <language edit> cpu with out the heatspreader

Mod Edit: Please watch the language

 

[FritzEiv]

Strange, I'm not seeing inline images for this article (FF 54.0.1).

We're looking into this. Upon opening in FF I also don't see the images, but refreshing brings them up. Apologies as we look at this issue.

 

[Gillerer]

Xy-graphs plotting the results against price/gram (or price/application) would have been nice.

As it stands, it's very difficult to get a grasp on the value proposition of all the products, if you're not familiar with them all (and know their prices and package sizes by heart).

 

[JamesSneed]

Xy-graphs plotting the results against price/gram would have been nice.

As it stands, it's very difficult to get a grasp on the value proposition of all the products, if you're not familiar with them all (and know their prices and package sizes by heart).

It would for shops that do a lot of builds as it could add up. The most expensive non-metal one is around $12 a gram about 3-CPU's worth, so I'm not sure it warrants a price breakdown to be honest.

 

[FormatC]

I used Liquid metal for a while. It performed well. I still use it in my laptop. But it is extremely difficult to clean off after it sits for a while. It also caused me some issues with an RMA once because the markings on the IHS weren't legible. That's the one I think isn't worth the trouble.

This is from one of my friends, he is a shareholder of a cooler company and is every time totally annoyed if they get such so-called RMA cases due liquid metal:

 

[DookieDraws]

I simply go with what ever tastes the best. Works for me. 😛

Kidding aside, very informative article.

 

[none12345]

Ive been using arctic silver 5 since early 2000. I only ever bought 1 tube, and it only just ran out at the end of 2016.

I was considering buying a new tube for my ryzen build. But, in the end i just decided to use whatever came with the noctua nh-15d i bought.

I didnt have any problems with temps so i didnt give the matter anymore thought till now.

Good to see that it really didnt matter. The stuff a quality heat sink comes with is good enough to not bother buying something else.


Thanks for the article. And i love seeing the toothpaste on there!

 

[evdjj3j]

I am curious what the results of no thermal compound would be. Is it possible to add that to the results?

 

[InvalidError]

I am curious what the results of no thermal compound would be. Is it possible to add that to the results?

The result would be thermal trip before managing to get core temperature readings. Without TIM of any sort, heat transfer is extremely poor the moment the mating surfaces are anything other than perfectly matched. Even mayo and toothpaste are significantly better than nothing.

 

[bit_user]

The major problem of this MX-4 are the long Burn-In time to get a better performance and the fast dry-out issue. As hotter a CPU or GPU works, as worse this grease performs (and is drying out). I does a lot of long-term runs with different products and especially this older products (not only from Arctic) were showing this typical behavior.

If you prefer MX-4, why not? Use it. But please accept, that a test of different products over 4 years can show at the end a completely different picture.

Funny you should say that. I built a 130 W system exactly 4 years ago, using MX-4. No signs of dry-out, so far.

I applied using the "blob" method. Also, the cooler was lapped (but not the CPU).

 

[GmRb123]

The animation on page three is not real, accurate or proportionate and it triggers any noob on matters related to polished/manufactured surfaces. If you dont know what a polished surface is or the actually blob size on that scale.. then refrain from installing cpus or replying.

 

[cryoburner]

@DarkSable:
I'm using TIM since over 15 years, not only for Home PC's, but also in the industry. The major problem of this MX-4 are the long Burn-In time to get a better performance and the fast dry-out issue. As hotter a CPU or GPU works, as worse this grease performs (and is drying out). I does a lot of long-term runs with different products and especially this older products (not only from Arctic) were showing this typical behavior.

If you prefer MX-4, why not? Use it. But please accept, that a test of different products over 4 years can show at the end a completely different picture.

I get a lot of hardware (mostly VGA) with MX2- or MX-4 as replacement of the original TIM from other reviewers in rotation. And I have every time to replace this replacement with better (or original) products to get the original performance back. MX-2 on a VGA card is pure pain. Simply try one time another, better products and you will be surprised.

Are you sure you're not thinking of Arctic Silver 5? I've heard a lot about AS5 drying out and losing cooling efficiency after a few years, and being difficult to remove, and its widely known to require a long burn-in. I kind of think you may have mixed up the brands here when writing this. I've used MX-2 for years, and haven't noticed any issues with it's long-term durability, nor have I heard about others having issues with those compounds. And all the marketing info about MX-2/4 states that it requires no burn-in, and should remain durable for over 8 years, which I kind of think other reviewers would have called them out on if it wasn't true. My guess is that the heat sinks you are getting that have dried on thermal compound have Arctic Silver 5, not Arctic Cooling MX-2/4. They're entirely different brands, though some years back Arctic Cooling shortened their company name to just Arctic, which might lead to some confusion with Arctic Silver. At the very least, it seems a bit odd that you would make questionable claims about one specific brand of popular thermal compound without really mentioning many issues about others, or testing the durability of the compounds in any scientific way.

I was equally impressed by the performance of the Grizzly Kyronaut, then I saw it was around $12, which is one of the most expensive pastes here. So, you need to ask yourself if spending $4-$6 extra is worth 2-3 degrees. For some, that is trivial, but if you need a lot of it on hand because you build PCs, then that premium starts to really hurt.

The price difference is significantly more than that, when you consider the tube sizes. Many popular pastes with relatively good performance are available for under $6 for a 4 gram tube, while with Thermal Grizzly Kryonaut, you're paying twice as much for only a 1 gram tube. Or in other words, it costs around 8 times as much, at least at these smaller tube sizes. You might get a dozen applications out of a tube of another brand, but probably no more than three out of a tube of Kryonaut. So, where it might cost less than 50 cents to reapply many other popular thermal compounds, this one can set you back around $4 each time. Again, that might be a perfectly reasonable price for someone heavily overclocking a high-end CPU, but considering that this only gets you a degree or two of better cooling performance over options costing far less, many will likely consider it not to be worthwhile.

 

[buzznut]

ummm. It seems to me the tests show The Grizzly Kryonaut is the best solution for non-permanent metal liquid options. Yes, its only a couple of degrees, but it clearly is superior to most other pastes.

I agree that most TIM compounds are very similar, the evidence shown here is proof of that. I can see where some pastes are overpriced, and with an article like this its hard to determine long term effectiveness. Also some solutions require a lengthy burn in time, notably Arctic Silver 5 which requires periods of high use and down time over a two week period to set in.

But clearly there are some superior products which deserve a premium price.

 

[InvalidError]

with an article like this its hard to determine long term effectiveness.

For pastes based on silicone oil and zinc oxide, aluminum oxide, diamond, carbon and other chemically inert heat transfer media, the working life is practically unlimited as long as mechanical shock doesn't fracture the paste after it packed down over the course of a few years. (That's where you see people complaining about their CPU termperatures suddenly shooting up after dusting off the CPU fan, changing RAM, replacing the GPU, etc. because they knocked the CPU while doing so.)

 

[Scar89]

Hmm good roundup, could have used this a month ago when I was shopping for paste. Based on other roundups and pricing/availibility in my country, I went with Coolermaster MasterGel Maker NANO and it still looks like a good choice here.

 

[SnowAtYT]

Can you add the stock performance to GPU charts?
I realize manufacturers would use various different solutions, but they are likely to end up in a similar quality bracket or we would have already heard about one company out-cooling others significantly...

 

[AlexMc]

If you're not seeing the images in this article then try a different browser.
No images were displayed when I used Edge, but they all displayed correctly in Chrome.