Igor's Lab has a new article on thermal paste application specifically for large GPU dies: https://www.igorslab.de/en/blob-or-full-flat-heat-conducting-paste-on-the-gpu-correctly-applied/
This has re-piqued my interest in this beaten to death topic which I thought was mostly settled. The advice I see most often today is use a ton of paste and let the excess squeeze out the sides, it won't hurt performance and at worst it just makes a mess. Igor specifically refutes this claim with his testing.
He also endorses the new alphacool apex paste, which he praises for it's higher viscosity that he claims helps with coverage and longevity in this application. He claims that thinner pastes, such as MX-4 (which I have personally been using mostly because it claims 8 years of endurance and that is very important to me) has no place on large direct die applications because in his own words: "You don’t have this problem with thin paste, but then the paste quickly runs out of the large gaps. Or it dries out and the layer becomes thinner and thinner after thermal heating and eventually cracks at the sides." He also goes on to recommend a specific mounting technique, deviating from the diagonal method I've seen employed most of the time.
I suppose I have a couple questions for the community:
Does everyone agree with his results? The majority of complaints I've seen in response come down to his sloppy application of paste while using the "spread" method. The other concern with the "sausage" method is the possibility of not achieving full coverage, which can be very bad without a heat spreader.
Do these complaints hold any water? Alphacool makes no claims about the longevity of their new apex paste, which has me a bit hesitant to try it on an upcoming hardline build where re-pasting will be a real pain. Does anyone know of any other proven, "thicker" paste options with reasonable performance and long term durability?
This has re-piqued my interest in this beaten to death topic which I thought was mostly settled. The advice I see most often today is use a ton of paste and let the excess squeeze out the sides, it won't hurt performance and at worst it just makes a mess. Igor specifically refutes this claim with his testing.
He also endorses the new alphacool apex paste, which he praises for it's higher viscosity that he claims helps with coverage and longevity in this application. He claims that thinner pastes, such as MX-4 (which I have personally been using mostly because it claims 8 years of endurance and that is very important to me) has no place on large direct die applications because in his own words: "You don’t have this problem with thin paste, but then the paste quickly runs out of the large gaps. Or it dries out and the layer becomes thinner and thinner after thermal heating and eventually cracks at the sides." He also goes on to recommend a specific mounting technique, deviating from the diagonal method I've seen employed most of the time.
I suppose I have a couple questions for the community:
Does everyone agree with his results? The majority of complaints I've seen in response come down to his sloppy application of paste while using the "spread" method. The other concern with the "sausage" method is the possibility of not achieving full coverage, which can be very bad without a heat spreader.
Do these complaints hold any water? Alphacool makes no claims about the longevity of their new apex paste, which has me a bit hesitant to try it on an upcoming hardline build where re-pasting will be a real pain. Does anyone know of any other proven, "thicker" paste options with reasonable performance and long term durability?
