The Official Thermal Interface Material thread

[abactuon]

Thermal Paste Round-up: 85 Products Tested​

Best Thermal Paste for CPUs 2025: Over 50 Compounds Tested and Ranked

The right thermal paste will improve performance.

www.tomshardware.com

 

[P4-630]

Thermal Paste Round-up: 85 Products Tested​

Best Thermal Paste for CPUs 2025: Over 50 Compounds Tested and Ranked

The right thermal paste will improve performance.

www.tomshardware.com

Thats from 2017, however it still has some value and they tested 85 products.

This roundup is from 2019:

Guru3D Thermal Paste Roundup 2019

Thermal paste is an often-overlooked part of most computer setups. You can simply use the pre-applied stuff, or the thermal paste that comes with your motherboard, and still get reasonable processor t... AIO cooling for i9 9900K@5.0 GHz 1.35V

www.guru3d.com

 

[Hyderz]

how often do you guys re apply the thermal paste say for AiO cooler?

 

[Borc]

It depends a bit on the CPU if it's a direct Die or Heatspreader CPU. From my experience with a direct Die (laptop) CPU the best traditional paste in the market with the best performance is Thermalright TFX but also the worst in application. A bit down but also really good are the likes of Noctua NT-HT2, Thermal Grizzly Kryonaut Extreme and CoolerMaster MasterGel Maker Nano. Some of them may be struggling in the long term, there are reports that the Coolermaster and Kyronaut can dry out over 80 degrees and lose performance. Laptop CPUs can reach 100 degrees, this needs to be considered.

 

[P4-630]

there are reports that the Coolermaster and Kyronaut can dry out over 80 degrees and lose performance.

Got any links to share?

 

[Borc]

Got any links to share?

Different notebooks threads like this...

TechnologyGuide

Thank you for visiting the TechnologyGuide network. Unfortunately, these forums are no longer active. We extend a heartfelt thank you to the entire community for their steadfast support—it is really you, our readers, that drove

forum.notebookreview.com

TechnologyGuide

Thank you for visiting the TechnologyGuide network. Unfortunately, these forums are no longer active. We extend a heartfelt thank you to the entire community for their steadfast support—it is really you, our readers, that drove

forum.notebookreview.com

The Kyronaut is well known for this problematic, if you use google you should find a lot of reports.

edit, or this: https://www.overclock.net/threads/kryonaut-drying-out.1723590/

 

[P4-630]

Different notebooks threads like this...

TechnologyGuide

Thank you for visiting the TechnologyGuide network. Unfortunately, these forums are no longer active. We extend a heartfelt thank you to the entire community for their steadfast support—it is really you, our readers, that drove

forum.notebookreview.com

TechnologyGuide

Thank you for visiting the TechnologyGuide network. Unfortunately, these forums are no longer active. We extend a heartfelt thank you to the entire community for their steadfast support—it is really you, our readers, that drove

forum.notebookreview.com

The Kyronaut is well known for this problematic, if you use google you should find a lot of reports.

edit, or this: https://www.overclock.net/threads/kryonaut-drying-out.1723590/

So nothing from official sources or reviewers.

I use kryonaut myself (not the extreme though), no issues.

 

[Borc]

So nothing from official sources or reviewers.

It basically is impossible to test for a typical reviewer who can test each paste some hours at best and also most thermal paste tests are based on CPUs with proper cooling, the dry out effect is not really a problem there. You have to search for user reports with real long time experience. Here is another thread for you:

https://www.reddit.com/r/Alienware/comments/9n6tkh

 

[P4-630]

It basically is impossible to test for a typical reviewer who can test each paste some hours at best and also most thermal paste tests are based on CPUs with proper cooling, the dry out effect is not really a problem there. You have to search for user reports with real long time experience. Here is another thread for you:

https://www.reddit.com/r/Alienware/comments/9n6tkh

Thermal Grizzly KryoSheet Thermal Pads

KryoSheet premium graphene thermal pads for outstanding and constant thermal conductivity thanks to a molecular structure stacked in the Z-direction.

www.thermal-grizzly.com

 

[Borc]

Their page confirms this paste is ok up to 80 degrees without drying out process. Yes it's widely known the problematic starts over 80 degrees. On a laptop this can be problematic.

 

[P4-630]

Their page confirms this paste is ok up to 80 degrees without drying out process. Yes it's widely known the problematic starts over 80 degrees. On a laptop this can be problematic.

Usually the drying out shouldn't be an issue as long as there are no cracks in it.

 

[freeagent]

That's why I never bought a tube. I read that a couple of years ago, mainly from the laptop guys. Some of the first TF8 reviews I read were from the laptop guys and it was their words that inspired me to try it.

 

[pantherx12]

My liquid metal from AliExpress arrived.

Read the smaller print for a chuckle.

 

[StormLightningSL]

So what is the best TIM in February 2021? (not talking about liquid metal)

Why not talk about Liquid Metal if it is so effective? What don't I know? A few $$ for a lifetime (say 5 years of CPU life) of peace should be worth it, imho.

Thats from 2017, however it still has some value and they tested 85 products.

This roundup is from 2019:

Guru3D Thermal Paste Roundup 2019

Thermal paste is an often-overlooked part of most computer setups. You can simply use the pre-applied stuff, or the thermal paste that comes with your motherboard, and still get reasonable processor t... AIO cooling for i9 9900K@5.0 GHz 1.35V

www.guru3d.com

Again I see that the Thermal Grizzly Conductonaut tops the list with a big margin of almost 5-6* C. If it's so good, why go for something less effective? I checked the price on my local Amazon, and it's like $15 for a 1 gram syringe. Doesn't sound fatal to me. Could probably use it in my CPU and GPU both and have enough left over for emergencies.

I'm sure there must be a reason for not using such a product exclusively, so if someone can help me out here, I'd appreciate the information!

 

[dgianstefani]

The other thing is the smallest Conductonaut syringe is typically enough for approximately five applications. So that $15 is more like $3 per application. Peanuts in a budget for your average $1-2k PC, and probably one of the cheapest ways to shave 5°C off a cooling system with enough dissipation capacity to actually get rid of that heat. That's another point, unless you actually have the radiator/heatsink capacity and efficient means of getting the heat to that, before getting it out of the case, LM/Conductonaut only removes the Chip/coldplate bottleneck. This is probably one of the reasons some people have 10°C+ improvements, and others only see changes within margin of error.

One of the most common mistakes people make is using way too much LM on application. You should have as little as possible while maintaining full coverage applied to both the chip and the coldplate. You want a chip sized coating on the coldplate in the right spot, and a full coverage coating on the chip.

You can't simply use the typical thermal paste application method, putting a dab on in the middle or an X or whatever. You have to apply it thinly and evenly across both surfaces to get ideal results.

It's tricky to achieve this, as it has a very high surface tension and tends to ball up, refusing to spread, especially on a recently cleaned surface, it doesn't behave like a typical liquid or paste.

The way i've had most success after tens of applications, is to use the syringe with the needle tip included in the kit, put a small ball on each surface, then use the included bud stick things to spread, before using the syringe again, in suction to remove any excess puddles of the stuff. This results in a very thin layer applied evenly.

 

[lolokaa]

Thermal Grizzly Kryonaut has very satisfactory testing results from a variety of independent sources.

 

[freeagent]

So.. I took my cooler off today and when I went to apply my paste the line got thin just before the halfway mark lol. So in a pinch I went to the shop a few blocks away and picked up tube of AS5 lol.. haven’t used this stuff in a few years! Because I’m not entirely sure exactly where the hotspots are I just spread it with a spatula for the very first time lol. It’s really not that bad.. pretty good actually, only a c or two off the mark vs the TFX I was using before. But I don’t want to start throwing numbers around just yet. My kid is using the computer right now so I will play with it later. I also removed an intake fan and two exhaust for a new total of 3 in 1 out. It’s probably still moist

 

[lolokaa]

Spoiler: Thermal results - Tom's Hardware (High pressure, water cooling)

Spoiler: Thermal results - Air cooling

Robert Hallock from AMD on application method: Reddit comment by Robert
Application method comparison video

Highly informative talk on Thermal paste in general: Gamers Nexus Steve and Roman "Der8auer" - Timestamp on "bubbles" misconception, shortly followed by "curing" explained

TL;DR:
Application method 'X' pattern performs slightly better across all CPUs compared to 'dot' and others.
Bubbles are a myth -- there won't be any from proper installation.
The "curing" concept is misunderstood, and in reality is just the thermal paste slightly further properly spreading over time as heat rises.

 

[Ruru]

Personally I don't use liquid metal between heatspreaders and heatsinks/blocks. Only on GPU/CPU dies.

 

[delshay]

For CPU (High mounting pressure): Kingpin KPx, Kryonaut, Noctua NT-H2, Gelid GC-Extreme
For GPU (Medium mounting pressure): Conductonaut, Kingpin KPx
For Laptop (Low mounting pressure): Kingpin KPx, Thermalright TF-X

I was not aware of LM Product below, just found out. ..I'm going to check it out. ..EDIT: On order.

Silver King 1g – Thermalright

 

[nguyen]

I was not aware of LM Product below, just found out. ..I'm going to check it out. ..EDIT: On order.

Silver King 1g – Thermalright

Just make sure you have nickel plated cooler and LM will give the best thermal result out of any paste.

 

[Falkentyne]

Thermalright TFX is an extremely good paste. It has very long durability, much like those old, extremely thick pastes like Arctic Ceramique (for those who remember, that paste literally never pumped out). It can also cure and improve temps slightly after it gets fully cured. The paste hardens after it's been applied for awhile and then it remains stable. For TFX, a very good method for use is, for CPUs and large GPU's, apply a large "X" pattern edge to edge, then four smaller drops in each quadrant left over (to make sure coverage is complete), tighten the heatsink (do not spread it manually!) and then try to avoid extremely high temps for about a week (if you can keep it under 70C for a week, that's perfect!). Once it cures, it will remain longterm stable. Several laptop owners swear by this paste on their CPU's, where they tested Kryonaut and just had it dry out.

Note that both TFX and Kryonaut Extreme have a similar issue where if you expose them to very high temps right after application, they can exhibit a strange 'pump out' effect, except since Kryonaut extreme doesn't harden, this can still happen to it on hot GPU's. This can cause temps to rise by several C (saw this on my RTX 3090 FE). Once TFX hardens and cures, it's stable.

TFX manages to keep my *shunt modded* thermal pad modded (with stock HSF) RTX 3090 FE @ 550 watts below 78C Core (not hotspot) temps, which is extremely impressive for an *air cooled* 550W GPU (100% fans always).

BTW commercial "Galinstan" liquid metal is highway robbery. Make your own for like 1/8th of the price.

 

[nguyen]

Thermalright TFX is an extremely good paste. It has very long durability, much like those old, extremely thick pastes like Arctic Ceramique (for those who remember, that paste literally never pumped out). It can also cure and improve temps slightly after it gets fully cured. The paste hardens after it's been applied for awhile and then it remains stable. For TFX, a very good method for use is, for CPUs and large GPU's, apply a large "X" pattern edge to edge, then four smaller drops in each quadrant left over (to make sure coverage is complete), tighten the heatsink (do not spread it manually!) and then try to avoid extremely high temps for about a week (if you can keep it under 70C for a week, that's perfect!). Once it cures, it will remain longterm stable. Several laptop owners swear by this paste on their CPU's, where they tested Kryonaut and just had it dry out.

Note that both TFX and Kryonaut Extreme have a similar issue where if you expose them to very high temps right after application, they can exhibit a strange 'pump out' effect, except since Kryonaut extreme doesn't harden, this can still happen to it on hot GPU's. This can cause temps to rise by several C (saw this on my RTX 3090 FE). Once TFX hardens and cures, it's stable.

TFX manages to keep my *shunt modded* thermal pad modded (with stock HSF) RTX 3090 FE @ 550 watts below 78C Core (not hotspot) temps, which is extremely impressive for an *air cooled* 550W GPU (100% fans always).

Agree with everything you said , Thermalright TFX would be the best paste for laptop users because of it's performance and longevity.
With TFX you just heat to heat it up a bit with a hair dryer before and during mounting the cooler so that it can spread thinly on the die, less gap between die and cooler means better heat transfer.

 

[Nater]

Toms updated.

Best Thermal Paste for CPUs 2021: 90 Pastes Tested and Ranked​

 

[Kapone33]

I have used this before but I don't remember how good it was

Amazon.ca