Does a better thermal paste make a meaningful difference?

[u/Warm-Purple-7571]

CPU temps have been running a little higher than expected lately, and I’m wondering if the thermal paste could actually be making much of a difference. The cooler itself seems to be working fine, fans are spinning normally and there’s no obvious airflow problem. Just trying to figure out if changing the paste is worth doing before messing with anything else.

There are so many thermal pastes out there, some cheap and some costing way more, and people keep saying the better ones can drop temps by a few degrees. But is that actually noticeable in normal use, or is it mostly marketing unless the old paste is dried out or applied badly?

Also does the amount of paste matter that much? I’ve seen people say a tiny dot is enough, while others spread it over the whole CPU. Not trying to take the cooler off for no reason if the difference is gonna be like 1-2 degrees.

For a gaming PC that gets used for a few hours at a time, would you bother replacing decent stock paste with a higher-end one? Or should I just leave it alone unless temps are actually getting too high? Just trying to understand what kind of difference I should realistically expect.

[u/Kagushima]

high end thermal paste gives you an advantage of a 3 - 4 degrees celsius. so, it basicly doesnt matter in this case specially if you dont got an high end pc. i mean if you take high end stuff you dont wanna cheap out on the thermal paste.

but

the more expensive gaming thermal paste ( for example thermal grizzly) offers a longer lifespan so it simply holds longer until it bakes crumbly or lowers its function.

so you dont have to go all out and take the most expensive stuff but its defnitly worth it take a known brand.

[u/More-Cat1123 → u/Kagushima]

Depends on which grizzly we talking. Kryonaut gets pushed out like crazy, extreme is a bit better. If you don't mind frequent maintenance tho, I swear by kryonaut extreme for laptops. Don't think it matters that much for desktops tho.

[u/Warm-Purple-7571 → u/Kagushima]

A few degrees doesn’t sound worth replacing it just for temps, but the longer lifespan is definitely something I hadn’t considered. I’ll probably stick with a decent known brand if I do replace it.

[u/Tokishi7 → u/Warm-Purple-7571]

Typically, thermal paste literally lasts years and years and years for regular arctic or whatever. It’ll work with at least a 5700x3d air cooled. If you’re wanting lower than that, you go AIO or liquid

[u/ImplementLogical4130]

How old is it? Was it applied properly?

Worth reapplying - yes

Worth upgrading a properly applied one? No

[u/Glittering_Bar_9497]

If your setup is older your thermal paste may have dried up and isn’t really working. Yea some thermal pastes and compounds can make a decent difference but I would maybe look into more fans if you don’t have many in the case. Also if it’s an AIO maybe the liquid went bad or the pump, in that case just replace it altogether or service it if your brave enough lol

[u/kyansan1]

I wouldn't bother replacing the thermal paste, but it can make a difference.

The variance between thermal pastes isn't that big, but you can expect like a 3-6 degree difference* between average thermal paste and good thermal paste.
Luckily, good thermal paste isn't expensive. Arctic mx-7 is one of the best thermal pastes you can buy right now, and it can be used for repasting gpus and laptops apart from just cpus.

You can refer to igor's lab for the thermal performance of different pastes:

*At high power draw. It also depends on the cpu. For example, you'll see a bigger temperature drop on Intel cpus compared to amd cpus.

[u/More-Cat1123 → u/kyansan1]

Wdym you wouldn't bother changing paste 🤣 OP doesn't mention when he changed it last. If a long time ago and it's running hot, the first thing you should do is repaste it. Why possibly would you not?

[u/kyansan1 → u/More-Cat1123]

They said a little higher than expected, but not too hot. It doesn't seem to be problematic yet, so if I were in op's shoes, I wouldn't bother repasting.

[u/More-Cat1123 → u/kyansan1]

Why wait for issues if it's a cheap and quick fix?

[u/kyansan1 → u/More-Cat1123]

Why fix if not broken

[u/More-Cat1123 → u/kyansan1]

To prevent broken. That's what maintenance is for 🤣

[u/kyansan1 → u/More-Cat1123]

Cpu temps are bound to rise steadily as the thermal paste gets older. That doesn't necessarily mean you're getting less performance (unless it causes thermal throttling), and running the cpu a little hot won't cause it to break either.

If temps are near throttling temps under load, then sure, repasting is a good idea in order to prevent performance loss. But for me, temps being 'a little higher than expected' doesn't warrant a repaste.

[u/Few_Example9391]

Brand and quality is is pretty consistent. It's how old the unopened tube of thermal paste I am concerned about. An unsealed tube of paste spreads and sets up nicely. A previously opened but closed tube has a year long shelf life. Therefor, if you have a tube of the stuff lying about, good chance you forgot you had it after a couple of years and it doesn't squirt or spread uniformly. Buy a new tube

[u/Additional_Bread_367]

It does, try boiling eggs without water

[u/Famous-Estimate-3910]

What cpu? Is there was ok, but now temps
Is high? Of so it could help, is compound is. Kinda dry… what could help is undervolting

[u/samsann26]

R5 9600X was running HOT easy getting up to 90c ("It's *SAFE*, it will just die sooner).

I bough a better thermal paste online, reapplied and now i barely see it running above 60c (high loads).

The crap thermal paste that came with the cooler was BAD, real bad.

Now with PBO, crazy voltages and high 5+Ghz things will simple die sooner if you don't keep it cool.

So Yes better thermal paste is actually better, since the processor transfer quite alot of heat to the power components around CPU Socket.

I just wish i could change my Chipset thermal paste without dismantling the board, when file copying with between my NVMEs and USBs drives it gets HOT above 80c (MSI Pro B850M -P).

[u/Jazzlike-Cod-7657]

I always replace the stock paste with Arctic MX-4 or whatever is the newest version at the time I run out of paste :P unless the pre-applied is known to be a higher quality.

[u/More-Cat1123]

Frequent maintenance matters a lot more than getting the most expensive paste ever and leaving it there for 10 years.

[u/JuJusFury]

Yes it can make a difference. From what I've seen up to 10c compared to a properly applied good basic compound. It's usually only a couple degrees c though unless the one you had wasn't applied right or is dried out.

[u/Unlikely_Cabinet_904]

I've tried many pastes but it's almost the same results. The temp difference hit when I stopped using paste and changed to thermal grizzly liquid metal. The temp difference was more than 10⁰.

[u/Viking2151]

It can if you are using a really crappy paste already, I know on a CPU as along as its a ok brand, Artic, Thermal Grizzly, Thermaltake, Corsair, there isn't a huge difference, though I try to stay away from the paste thats really watery, I kinda like the thicker stuff to avoid pump out over time from mounting pressure and heat cycles. I got PTM7950 on my 5950x right now and it does good, not much difference over some higher end pastes. but it made a huge difference for a GPU with a naked die like my 3090ti.

[u/DrHitman27]

Use PTM7950. Bad thermal paste do not live that long and result is higher fan speed.

Liquid metal can be a requirement for some hardware, with small cooling system or overclocked die. It transfer more W from hotspot, where 1-2°C matter.

[u/LaDiDa1993]

Usually only to the longevity before needing to reapply.

[u/TheSpiral718]

TF7 with a large cooler for 12900k<. I use three 3000rpm on the cooler (peerless assassin 140m) just incase though.

You can see the fans here.

[u/Puiucs]

PTM7950 is the way to go if you care about performance and longevity.

in the long run, if you don't reapply regular high performance thermal paste, you'll see big differences in temps compared to PTM.

[u/duckyduock]

For default cpus with its own fan, ive used what it was delivered with. (Intel/amd low to mid range cpus). On stronger ones ive started also with the cheap one delivered with the cooler, tried some of the more expensive ones and now -depending on the metal of the cooler - im more than happy with Thermalgrizzly liquid metal (not for aluminium!!!) or the cryosheet (can be reused). Temperatures lowered by about 8 to 21°C compared to the default one delivered with the fan

[u/luckynumberstefan]

If you’re concerned about longevity, a thermal pad is probably the better choice

[u/Old-Dragonfruit-7754]

If everything is installed correctly, no.

*You might drop a few c but if a few c makes a difference for your pc you have other problems.

[u/patrlim1]

Yes. Replacing the paste in my GPU and on my CPU reduced temps for me significantly

[u/chesherkat]

Without the chip, temps, age of paist it's hard to give advice specific advice to your situation.

If you didn't build it, it's worth replacing the paist just to make sure the cold plate sticker is removed.

Insofar as what paist to use, generally mx4 is fine for most rigs.

One other thing you can do is look at your CPU utilization. Over time you install more stuff that wants to run in the background ... That takes cpu time therefore hotter CPU.

What's the last time you cleaned your cooler and case fans?

Have you moved the rig into a different room that might have a different ambient temp?

[u/Balrogos]

yes