Is it Worth to Buy Expensive Thermal Paste? Comparison of Popular Thermal Pastes 2021

Is it Worth to Buy Expensive Thermal Paste? Comparison of Popular Thermal Pastes 2021

In today's test, we will be testing 10 popular thermal pastes and see if it pays off to buy expensive pastes for better performance. As we know, the lower the temperature, the lower the voltage we can apply and, as a result, we can also achieve higher overclocks.

Thermal Pastes used in test:
Thermal Grizzly Kryonaut
Gelid GC-Extreme
Cooler Master MasterGel Pro
Arctic MX-4
Arctic MX-2
Noctua NT-H1
be quiet! DC1
Arctic Silver Ceramique 2
Corsair TM30
EK Ectotherm

Testing methodology: Each paste was submitted to a 1-hour heating process, then 3 tests were performed, 15 minutes each, with a 5-minute interval between tests.

Test setup was based on Intel Core i7 10700K overclocked to 5.1GHz with 1.35v and LLC at 6 level resulted in 1.28v under full load.

Test Setup:
CPU - Intel Core i7 10700K - Overclocked to 5.1GHz on all cores
GPU - ASUS Radeon RX 6900 XT
Memory - G.SKILL RipJawsV 3200MHz CL15 16GB - Overclocked to 3600MHz CL16-16-16-36.
Motherboard - ASUS Z490 XII APEX
PC Case - be quiet! Pure Base 802
PSU - Corsair RM1000X
CPU Cooling - NZXT X63
Storage - SAMSUNG 980 Pro 500GB + SAMSUNG 870 EVO 1TB

GPU Drivers - 21.1.1
Windows 10 - 20H2
Motherboard BIOS - 1003

Thanks for amazing music - Karl Casey @ White Bat Audio
White Bad Audio - Cursed

[eeezyy]

That's what we all needed 💪🔥
GJ!

[vinigonc]

What a great yet simple video, straight to the point. Nice job!

[gnawrot]

Short and sweet. I purchased MX-5 because it is slightly better than MX-4 and it is non-conductive.

[j.lietka]

Noctua has as newer type, the NT-H2, which is a bit better than the NT-H1. Good comparison! The liquid metal, thermal grizzly, I don't plan on using, as it can be conductive, although the heat transfer is better. Thanks for the review

[icold]

Much liquid thermal pastes like mx4 is a problem to GPU´S because it can not close a good contact to the chip with heatsink, in this case is necessary a thermal paste with more viscosity .

[GainingDespair]

Thermal Grizzly does a little better after some time to cure, I know they say it doesn't but my 3 year old half empty 11.1g tube begs to differ.

It really does improve over a period of time, regardless of what TG says I've applied it on enough CPU's/GPU's to notice it is a thing. I think they say it doesn't need to cure to make it more beginner friendly? Possibly thinking it may confuse new users and they might avoid paste that "need" to cure. Honestly it may not be curing, maybe it just spreads out better and absorbs into the pores of the metal surfaces after repeated heat cycles.

Regardless it preforms better after a few months of usage.

[justchillandrelax]

I used kryonaut grizzly thermal paste, my gpu temperture goes down to 12°c .

[rsvp]

they sell ceramique 2 for like 3 USD here, cant beat that value!

[BeastK]

Thank you for this video, it was really helpful !!
I had ordered Thermal Grizzly Kryonaut and was thinking if it will work or not ?
My Intel i3 1005G1 laptop is overheating 90+ temps Thermal Throttling especially when Webcam & YouTube videos watching.

[DeadKoby]

I've been a computer tech for 20 years. For typical office computers, and general purpose cheap white thermal paste that is used for general transistor heat sinks is fine. Only those trying to run their computers to the edge of their ability should bother considering the high performance stuff.

[kithsirigunasekara]

Grizzly Kryonaut vs cooler mastergel pro Which is better?

[Hitokiri]

You should consider retesting with Arctic MX-5 in the mix

[reyczarbyfour]

I bought $0.20 thermal paste. Should i buy expensive one?

[Raylightsen]

Kryonaut is the best, unless you need to use a lot of paste in a lot of different machines. In that case, kryonaut is not the best choice due to be the most expensive.

[AvroBellow]

Hahahaha, less than 4C difference across the board. That means "Get the cheapest one and don't worry about it!" I NEVER use expensive thermal compound and I've been building PCs since before CPU coolers were even a thing in home computing (1988). I use HY-510 and it has worked fine on every CPU that I've ever tried it on, including my gaming moster. I get 30g for under $5CAD and the only time I ever put thermal paste on a CPU is when I'm installing it new or cleaning the cooler.

Anyone who buys the expensive stuff is just showing what a dumb noob they are because someone who REALLY knows his stuff doesn't need to pay out the nose for Kryonaut to have peace of mind.