Question No improvement in CPU temps with new thermal paste

[Dave3000]

Yesterday I purchased Thermal Grizzly Kyronaut thermal paste. I was using Arctic MX-4 before this one. I'm not getting any improvement in CPU temperatures and Cinebench R20 CPU scores are still the same which is around 5600, within a -/+30 variance each time and CPU package hitting 90C in the later part of the benchmark. I was curious of whether this thermal paste was going to improve my CPU temperatures over my MX-4 paste and the user reviews I read seemed encouraging. I'm using a Noctua U-12A CPU cooler. I had a Ryzen 5800X before and it ran around just as hot as my 5800X3D for the CPU package. Shouldn't Thermal Grizzly Kyronaut thermal paste be superior to Arctic MX-4, especially since it's much more expensive?

 

[Tech Junky]

Having tested various pastes in the past they all hover around the same temps within maybe 5 degrees. I went off brand as well and found a couple that failed miserably after a few days. Since I run both a 12700k&h model I tend to test on both systems. I got sick of messing with it though and settled on a graphite pad for both. Is it the best? Not compared to liquid metal but, a couple of years into using the pads they're consistent. Not spending $15 repeatedly makes more sense to me let alone pulling things apart when the paste degrades.

 

[Abwx]

Personaly i always used classic white silicone based paste, what is important is to have the cooler surface completely recovered with paste, spreading may be the best solution over points or traces of paste, that can be seen in this video from Arctic :

 

[aigomorla]

Expecting returns on thermal paste without getting into liquid metal, is like getting interest on a chase savings account.

Meaning expect extremely little to nothing at all, as it comes down to only a couple of C at the best thermal paste vs using tooth paste.

And no im not kidding about the tooth paste.

Just to note:
I do not recommend using toothpaste.
It was just to show its possible.
I personally use MX-6, or KingPin's Blue stuff.
I dont like thermal grizley, kryonaught dries out too fast under lots of hot and cold cycles.
I haven't tried hydronaught which is suposed to fix this.

I really do like kingpin's blue stuff tho.
Im also hearing a lot of good things about Coolermasters Purple stuff, cryofuze.
But my favorate is MX-6 cuz its cheap and works super good, then Kingpin's blue stuff on my expensive stuff, but KPx needs to be repasted constantly, which i do every water coolant flush.

So if your lazy, don't like to repaste, id suggest MX-6 or Cryofuze.
If you repaste , thermalgrizily is OK, but id much rather use KPx.

 

[BoomerD]

I used noctua's first gen paste, NT-H1 when I built a system in 2011. I dismantled that system in January of this year. The paste was still "relatively pliable," and still performed excellently. I recently tried to order their newest TIM, NT-H2, but something in the formula (IIRC, the wipes that were included with every variant of the paste I could find) was on a "banned in Washington" list. So I ordered Arctic's MX-6 along with an IC Carbon pad for evaluation. It seems to be working...a couple of degrees warmer than the MX-5 that came with my cooler.

 

[Paperdoc]

There is an issue with what you EXPECT. The automatic CPU cooling system control by default aims for a particular TEMPERATURE as measured by a sensor inside the CPU chip. It manipulates the cooling fan speed to generate as much air flow as it takes to meet that temperature target. Although we call this a "Fan Speed "Control" system, it is NOT. It does not aim for a fan speed! So, when you improve the flow of heat from the chip to the heat sink of the cooler by improving the thermal paste, what actually happens is that the system can reduce the speed of the cooling fan slightly to achieve the SAME temperature target it was doing before your change.

The related impact is that, since heat flow is improved, the fan can do its job at slightly lower speeds for all temperatures. If ever you get to a VERY high workload and force the fan to max speed, the actual temperature then may turn out to be lower than it might have been with the old paste. This can provide some assurance that CPU cooling will continue to be adequate at very high workloads. In the meantime, your fan's lifetime may be longer under these conditions.