Best thermal paste for a GPU?

[L.o.D.]

Sometime this week while I am on vacation, I want to redo the paste on my RX 6600 XT due to a temp issue in the new rig.
So what would be the right one to get?
In the old rig, the same card never had an issue with a Hyper 212 above it. Now it has a Noctua NH D-15 above it and temps suck, fans are spinning crazy high. On the old rig, fans would rarely spin up.

[Ghost Robertson]

I thought the thermal paste for that cooler would have been more than good enough, You may wanna check you installed it correctly.

[✨Saint✨]

For a clean and rather easy job I would advice Thermal Pads.

[Omega]

Why? This card is basically new, wait another 10 years before even bothering with redoing the paste.

Most likely the problem is airflow in your case, what is the current config you are running? Which case and how are the fans positioned? Setting a slightly more agressive fan curve which idles at a higher speed in BIOS can often make a massive difference already.


MX-4, it is cheap and it competes in performance with the "premium" thermal compounds.

[Raoul]

Arctic mx4

[Tonepoet]

Get Artic MX-6. Artic claims it's 20% better than MX-4 and the price isn't much different on Amazon right now. 6.15 for 4 grams' worth[www.amazon.com].

Granted, MX-4 is marginally cheaper at $5.38, but other premium thermal compounds cost more like $10-15 per tube for even less goop, and I think if you're going to do this at all you might as well spring what doesn't even amount to a full extra dollar for the good stuff to get as good of a result as possible.

Also, it's probably needless to say, but don't tamper with stuff that is still on warranty just to avoid having a row with customer service if you need to take advantage of said warranty. Esp. since providing adequate thermal compound to prevent stuff from breaking down is the manufactuerurer's responsibility in the first place.

[GMC79]

I have never had an issue with a GPUs stock paste, you may have cooling problems in your system. But if i did redo it id use Arctic silver (as lasts years, i had it on my old 4770k for 7yrs and when i redone it was only 4 or 5c cooler after all them years on cinebench) or Thermal grizzly kryonaut which i use on my cpu now, good stuff.

[Bad 💀 Motha]

Be extremely careful when you take a GPU apart. The mid range to high end models and variants will have thermal pads on high power or high heat areas such as VRAM chips and the power delivery mosfets. Only the GPU core chip needs paste. The GPU core chip needs approx as much paste as a modern day CPU would, given it tends to have a large surface area. It is possible that aside from cleaning and applying fresh paste to the GPU core, you might also need a new set of thermal pads. This is simply due to the fact that when you take the GPU apart, the pads could rip in the process, or simply be a bit worn out from being squished down into place for so long.

One reason your GPU fans could be kicking into high RPMs pretty much during any real load on the GPU, is due to how 0dB Fan Curve works these days on modern GPUs. They want to try an advertise how quiet the GPU can be, so the GPU Fans generally do not spin up, or spin at very very low RPMs below approx 55-65*C area. By the time a game or benchmark puts a load on the GPU, then your GPU is already able to jump up to 70-ish or 80-ish degrees celsius extremely quickly, then all of the sudden the fans go from like 500-1000 rpms to 3000 rpms, which yes can be rather noisy.

Let's face it, GPUs left on AUTO Fan Curve (their overall factory default) just plain sux.

You will need to manually edit the GPU fan curve so the fans can gradually raise RPMs at lower temps to help keep the GPU cooled down before it's able to hit even 60-70*C range.

YouTube has tons of decent "tear-down" videos available for taking apart GPUs and such, make use of that. Especially if you've never seen YOUR GPU taken apart before or you simply not sure where to start with doing that yourself. It will save you time and save you from a headache and possible accidents.

Unless your GPU has a defect or just wasted pasted well from the factory, I don't see a need to take it apart, it's not even dated yet.

I used GPUs such as Radeon 7890, GTX 580, GTX 680... and I didn't have to re-paste until they were over 5 years old. I kept them clean of dust every 3 months or so as needs. Over time the normally expected temps did start to rise little by little. Finally they reached a point where any game I loaded up the GPU was hitting 80*C at all times. When I re-pasted the NVIDIA GPUs, it lowered their average temps by 10*C

[Bad 💀 Motha]

How hot has your CPU and GPU been getting under high/full loads?

What CPU and Case do you have?

It's typically normal for AMD Radeon GPUs to run approx. 80-90*C as being fairly typical when gaming. While that's generally too hot for NVIDIA GPUs, it's normal for many AMD GPUs.

[Salt]

best cheap option - mx4
want couple degrees lower than mx4? then thermal grizzly

[Ralf]

If you dont care about pump out and want to repaste it frequently, go with MX4, MX6 or Thermal Grizzly like others said.

If you dont want to do it more than once, get some PTM7950 or KryoSheet(Be careful it's electrically conductive).

[Phénomènes Mystiques]

Arctic MX-4 is thinner and easier to apply than the Arctic MX-6.

You can even use the Arctic Silver 5 for the same results as Arctic MX-4.

All three are premium pastes that will last 8 - 10 years+, albeit the Arctic Silver 5 is old school.

Both Arctic MX-4 and Arctic MX-6 are carbon filler-based while the Arctic Silver 5 is silver-based.

Temperature ratings for Arctic Silver 5 and MX-4 are the same while MX-6 could prove up to a 20% °C drop in temperatures dependent on your cooling solutions.


Yearly total protection estimates per ingredient base:

Carbon filler & Silver = up to 10 years+

Graphene = up to 5 - 8 years+

Silicone = up to 1 - 3 years+


Thermal paste ingredient base hierarchy:

Carbon filler > Silver > Graphene > Silicone thermal paste.

→ Stay far away from silicon-based crap!

[L.o.D.]

Oprindeligt skrevet af Ghost Robertson:

I thought the thermal paste for that cooler would have been more than good enough, You may wanna check you installed it correctly.

The cpu temps are fine at high 30s low 40s cel.

Oprindeligt skrevet af Omega:

Most likely the problem is airflow in your case, what is the current config you are running? Which case and how are the fans positioned? Setting a slightly more agressive fan curve which idles at a higher speed in BIOS can often make a massive difference already.


MX-4, it is cheap and it competes in performance with the "premium" thermal compounds.

The case is a Fractal Design Torrent Compact. Has 2 180s in the front, 2 140s on the bottom that I added, then the Noctua's fan. The card is set to zero rpm but when I play, it hits the high 1600s.

Oprindeligt skrevet af GMC79:

I have never had an issue with a GPUs stock paste, you may have cooling problems in your system. But if i did redo it id use Arctic silver (as lasts years, i had it on my old 4770k for 7yrs and when i redone it was only 4 or 5c cooler after all them years on cinebench) or Thermal grizzly kryonaut which i use on my cpu now, good stuff.

I didn't have an issue in the old rig with this card. I am wondering if the 2 bottom intakes are somehow affecting the card in some way.

Oprindeligt skrevet af Bad 💀 Motha:

How hot has your CPU and GPU been getting under high/full loads?

What CPU and Case do you have?

It's typically normal for AMD Radeon GPUs to run approx. 80-90*C as being fairly typical when gaming. While that's generally too hot for NVIDIA GPUs, it's normal for many AMD GPUs.

Didn't we go through this? LOL
7800X3D with the Noctua NH D-15. I haven't actually noticed what it hits when I play, but at idle, it's high 30s low 40s.

[L.o.D.]

Ok nevermind. I had the bottom fans facing the wrong way. GPU never hit 70cel while gaming.

[Phénomènes Mystiques]

Oprindeligt skrevet af L.o.D.:

Ok nevermind. I had the bottom fans facing the wrong way. GPU never hit 70cel while gaming.

Seemingly, this can be a common mistake. 🙃

Glad it works now.

[L.o.D.]

Oprindeligt skrevet af Wynters:

Oprindeligt skrevet af L.o.D.:

Ok nevermind. I had the bottom fans facing the wrong way. GPU never hit 70cel while gaming.

Seemingly, this can be a common mistake. 🙃

Glad it works now. :csdsmile:

LOL Not sure why I was thinking logo up....