I usually like to spread the paste onto the surface of the IHS or die so it doesn't risk any corners being left uncovered. I tried using the regular dot method, but it still had some bare spots on the very edges. Using extra paste may help, but it creates a huge mess that is a pain to clean up (and potentially dangerous to the components due to the risk of knocking something off). The most important part is making sure everything is covered, 1-3c isn't enough of a difference to matter
In some instances, I believe you’re totally correct! Especially with larger dies, unlike what I was testing here. Just make sure it’s thin and even to avoid air pockets. With smaller dies, the dot seems to work well and with no extra mess.
Thank you so much for not misleading viewers and giving helpful information. There are "Will it survive?" CPU stories and other misleading stories that waste the time of viewers for views. This was short, to the point, proven, demonstrated and has provided sufficient information. Thank you
Thanks for the feedback! Makes me nervous to post my next short though… 😅 I think there is a way to post silly entertaining stuff about computers while also not misleading people. I hope to do my best at that when I can.
Fun fact, thermal pastes are even silk screen printed in some industrial cases. Too much thermal paste will have poor performance because not every assembly can be torqued down enough and industrial thermal pastes are more viscous & dense. They're harder to spread & compress. Thankfully consumer electronics are quite idiot proof in this case. Larger dies with heat sinks AMD & Puget systems recommend either stencil spreading or X method. Sources: AMD Factory tour at CM Puget systems testing with threadripper.
NO! Do NOT use the DOT method. Cover your finger with plastic wrap and spread it out evenly, ensuring there are no air pockets. Apply enough to squish out when you mount the heatsink, and this will also avoid air bubbles. This is the correct method and dates back to the Socket-A Athlon CPU days... An exposed die needs to be completely covered with a film of thermal paste because it has no heat spreader. If you were to delid a modern CPU and remove the heat spreader, you would see the same thing: A layer of TIM or Solder covering the whole die, making contact with the heat spreader, and plenty of exvess squishing out the sides.
The problem you run into is that if there is any die exposed that will 100% cause damage, and it'll happen faster with higher power draw cards than lower power draw cards, the only time this isn't the case is if this part of the die has a temp sensor (which not all of it does) as in that case it can throttle/shut down etc, if it doesn't have such a sensor in that portion of the die (the corners and edges usually don't until much much more recently), I killed an rx 480 this way under LN2 a few years back because a portion of the memory controller wasn't covered and as a result the memory controller got too hot and died, iirc buildzoid has managed to kill a core that way too, but just as a point of note, this is why I generally recommend spreading manually on any exposed die where possible
for a GPU, always do an X-shape, it'll cover everything, and that's necessary with die components, not as necessary with CPUs which have heat spreaders.
From an ihs if any corners are left it's usually fine in lower power chips. But anything with an exposed die should be 100% covered, even better if it leaks off the sides too.
I wouldn’t say it’s stupid if it’s done correctly. The dot method can easily be done incorrectly (too little paste) and create dry spots in the corners.
Spreading the paste around IS NOT a bad thing! Yes there are potential problems, but they happen maybe 0.5% of the time. I've actually had really good luck doing that method! If I'm ever unsure how much I should use, I'll put a little dot, spread it, and add a little more if I feel it needs it. This is especially useful with older Nvidia cards, or particularly large CPU's.
I recommend to try phase-change material Honeywell PTM7950. It comes as a sheet and you don't have to mess around with any applying dots, dashes or crosses. Just cut out a piece the size of the IHS/core and stick it on. Also don't have to worry about whether the paste is too little or too much - it will be just right. In addition, it lasts longer, performs works better than traditional pastes and there is no pump-out effect.
If someone understands the purpose of thermal paste and the basics of heat / air being a conductor etc, then logic will tell you that more is better than too little. Assuming someone doesn't use totally crap paste, then too much will not insulate the die / IHS, nor will it try out in 2-3y in most cases.
Mounting pressure typically normalizes this. That’s why there’s almost no difference between a moderate amount and way too much. Trying to go too thin can result in bare spots
A thin, evenly spread layer on both surfaces, then a bit of wiggling the heatsink while applying gentle pressure has worked best for me over the last 30+ years of PC building and repair. Side note: mayonnaise is not a good substitute for thermal paste .
Recently my machines' annual clean and dust came up. Gave everything a good clean plus dusting, and applied fresh thermal paste onto my CPU (i5-11600K). I used an X patten with a small border around it, and it's working great 😁
GPUs don't have IHS, it's not safe to just put a dot in the middle. If you delid a CPU you sure as hell is not going to put a dot of liquid metal in the middle. Sure, it doesn't spread nearly as easily as TP, but you want to make sure all of the die is covered. Anyone who repairs GPUs will tell you the same.
As long as there’s enough to fully cover the die once mounting pressure is applied it should be fine. That’s the main point I wanted to get across here. A more in depth look at this is in the works
Heat spreaders are the only reason application doesn't matter on a CPU: the chip itself is already fully covered in paste from the factory, so the entire chip stays the same temperature regardless of how it's applied to the heat spreader: As long as you have enough on there, it'll be fine, you don't need 100% or evenly applied coverage. Compare this to the exposed GPU chip, which would get too hot at any points not totally covered by thermal paste
Very interesting. Once, I applied paste to a CPU, and the past spread unevenly while mounting the heat sink, leaving a fair amount of one half exposed. As a result, I now always spread the paste to account for uneven pressure during mounting. To avoid bubbles, I just make tue layer very thin. After the thin layer, I guess you could add a small dot.
To avoid hot spots on the corners, make an "X" with the thermal paste, lingering for a second in the center of the "X" to add a bit of extra in the middle and you'll be good to go.
Thermal paste has different dielectric constant than air. So when thermal paste will "touch" something else it can cause problems. So better is not to make too much.
For the past 2 decades I have found that the absolute best method is to clean both the CPU and heat sink surface with a lint free cloth and 99% isopropyl alcohol. Let it dry then use a quality heat sink paste like artic silver or noctua and spread it out evenly with a fresh metal straight razor.
That card is so underpowered nobody should be complaining, you could cool it with a thermal pad and a passive heatsink LOL, good job on the video lots of important tips too!
I think the results would be the same with a larger die as long as you have enough paste. The dot would be significantly larger for a larger die. BUT, you make a great point about the shape of the die. I hadn’t thought about rectangular dies. I plan on doing more thorough tests with a larger hotter card. I’ll try to find something with a non-square die as well. Thanks for the comment!
I went with the X method and saw a huge difference compared to when I did the small "grain of rice" dot that everyone recommends. Never doing that one again, staying with x.
Always, always press the cooler to the medium dot, lift and make sure that it cover properly, if yes: good 👍🏼 If No: apply a little more paste, squish and check again. Always.
My one concern with this would be the possibility of creating small air bubbles between the heatsink and die from removing and reapplying the heatsink. Not sure if it’s a thing, but that’s what came to mind. Definitely want to have enough though
@@HardwareHaven yeah I get that, but any decent thermal past has never made it a problem. Have had it happen with something as thick as Arctic Silver, but Noctuas paste has been magic. Also, it is so much easier to properly clean than ArcticSilver😄 Feels like a wiping a magic marker vs just cleaning 😂
@@BuzzBazzJ for sure. I only used arctic on this because I didn’t want to have to pay for a ton of something better 😂 I plan on doing a much more detailed and comprehensive retest of this in a future video. I’ll probably try to use a better thermal paste, and/or I might try removing and resetting the heat sink multiple times to see if I can develop any sort of issues with air pockets. That could be fun… Thanks for the comment!
@@HardwareHaven ah nice! I’m interested in seeing if the method I use actually causes bubbles. Over the years I’ve been a little extra when cleaning dies of CPU’s and GPU’s. I’m not sure wether or not properly cleaning the die like if it came from the factory vs many I see leave some old crud around and just focus on the center die. For my own OCD and for later cleaning/reapplication I find it helps, but I’m not sure that really matters. I look forward to see your future testing.
People see one video about thermal paste on a cpu with an IHS and think they know everything. Bare silicon die needs to be covered edge to edge but if you have a IHS there’s a lot of wiggle room. He’s doing it correctly.
Since using too much is not really an issue I think the best way is to evenly spread it out then put another small sized dot in the middle. This ensures it is 100% covered and the extra dot will spread to fill in any major gaps. I never really seen an issue from air gaps I think that is just a rumor that was started years ago.
It's going to be much easier for the paste to fully cover the die when the die is that small. A bigger one will have a higher likelihood of bare corners
Air pockets aren't really a thing you have to worry about. The best is always the thinnest layer which gives full coverage, but it doesn't really matter.
Intel website says pea sized dot in center of chip. I mounted the fan/cooler in my gaming rig wrong and lifted up the cooler after putting a medium pea sized dot and it was covered completely. So think of a cooked pea size definitely larger than a bb from a bb gun. About 2.5 to 3.5mm diameter. Good luck bros.
How do you know someone on the internet thinks they're some elite PC builder pro? When they "call you out" over thermal paste... as if it's some space tech you need a college masters degree in.
Modern gpus are completely different so you need to work on a bigger GPU. That way you can show people how to do the vram as well. It'd be interesting to see someone try this with vram and the additional little chunks of copper for your heat blocks. That could be one of my issues with my 3060 TI. It is running on average 20° cooler in Celsius and I'm picking at 68 ° c with 100% GPU load now. I think I might have put a little too much though. My next experiment with this card will be to cut the heat pipes and sprays on a series of channel tubes so that I can tie it in with the water cooler for the CPU. I've been hesitating because I don't want to destroy my best card until I buy a new one. It's the only GPU out of the 10 I had here at the house that has heat pipes.
When it comes to GPU, cpu pea size thermal paste rule is rediculous as the gpu produces heat alot faster then CPUs. Even manufacturing dumps alot of paste on there cards about the size of a peanut that is thinly spread in a square to cover the whole die. Some computer techs get way too ocd about thermal spreading
People who nitpick about thermal paste application are cringe, who cares how you apply thermal paste, doing it suboptimally isn't gonna blow up the PC and cause massive performance hits However, feel free to bully the Verge and their thermal application choice...
It largely doesn't matter what way you apply it for components with heat spreaders. Nitpicking for cpu applications is unnecessary, but for applications where the heatsink is in direct contact with the die then the story changes. If you leave even a little bit of the die without paste then you run the risk of killing the whole component.
No. The dot method leaves uncovered parts of the die too. Your thin layer method is the way to go. You'll never EVER get air pockets because you don't screw all four cooler mount screws at once.. that's literally impossible.
I spread my thermal paste on my cpu to completely cover my cpu and doesn’t stop till it’s extremely thin and it works like a dream! I only ever use MX4 paste. I have a 5900x and 5ghz all core it doesn’t go over 68°c
Does gamers nexus recommend different thermal paste applications per cooler? I always thought those tests were just to see how well the cooler and mounting hardware was manufactured/designed
Definitely really close. I think the fact that there was a consistent increase in temperature when the die wasn’t fully covered is still evidence that it’s safer to have too much than not enough. I’d like to test this on a hotter GPU with a larger die, where I think the difference would be more exaggerated.
what are people smoking, with how big the dies have gotten, spreading the paste over the die is the best way to go, since you are guaranteeing that the whole die gets covered even though the cooler is going to spread it out anyways.
dots work for cpus, because they got a IHS, bare die go for the "spatula method" or spread the thermal paste. There wont be air pockets since the cooler is gonna squeeze it out anyways.
in all the gpu repastes I have done, I have always went with the spread method, and out of the 50 I have done over the last few months, none have shown any problems and temps were better than stock.
My assumption is that the dot works pretty well with small dies. I'd like to retest this with a larger more modern GPU, but I don't have a spare lying around haha. I think you're spot on. My only thought would be that, for a beginner, a medium to large dot (enough excess to cover the entire die), is probably safer than poorly using an applicator or spudger because of the potential for air pockets.
@@HardwareHaven I beg to differ for the dot method on smaller dies. Covering the whole die with the spatula method is 100 percent the best way to apply TIM on systems with a direct die cooling solution. It you don't cover the whole die you risk killing the whole thing because a certain part of the die is overheating and eventually killing itself. That's just my two cents anyways...
@@tom-hp5wb Fair points. I think the idea is that the dot is big enough to make sure that, with adequate and somewhat even mounting pressure, it spreads out to cover the entire die. I took footage of the die coverage after I removed the heatsink with each application, but only was able to fit in the shot of the 'small dot' results, which did exactly what you described. With enough thermal paste, it covers the entire die (at least with this sized die). I would be more concerned that someone wouldn't put enough on a larger die, especially with everyone on the internet constantly complaining about too much thermal paste haha. Spatula method seems to be a good way of ensuring that, but potentially with a risk of creating air pockets if it's done poorly. The main take away I wanted from this video was for people to stop feeling like if they used too much, it would be 'too much thermal paste to cool it' or whatever people say.
The worse I’ve ever seen in person was a used dell I bought. It came with a stock cooler for the cpu and was over heating. When I took it off there was only a small dot on the center of the cpu. I’d say over half of the cpu didn’t have any. I’ve heard this is ok on intel processors (if anyone knows lmk in a reply) but it went from over heating to running smooth as butter after I added more and changed to a bigger cooler.
As far as I'm aware in GPUs you should try to cover the entirety of the die because exposed bits could cause damage but I am not sure how accurate it is
Your thermals between the 3 good tests were probably within margin of error for whatever was reporting the thermals given how small the difference was. There's only so much volume between the die and the coldplate so any excess gets squished out and you have maximum contact between the die and the coldplate (which is all the paste is supposed to do). I do agree that your method could be potentially more problematic if you accidentally gash an area and leave it too thin and potentially create an air gap, but it's not a guarantee to happen, just not something you want to tell new builders to do. Main reason to maybe use your method is to minimize the amount of cleanup you might have to do on the board later without ever having to question whether you had enough coverage. Putting a verge amount of thermal paste will ensure you have everything covered, but you'll have a lot of goop to clean up later.
Oh boy! It's almost like the tried and true method that's been standard for ages is considered to be so for a reason! Next can you test if you tires perform better when properly inflated or when only to 50 percent???
Here thats way better than some mryeester that only shows how it looks and NEVER shows the thermals, whats the point of that when you dont show the fokin thermals mate?!
I tend to use a thin Square spiral that starts from the middle and stops short of the die. Will you try that in the future if you do another thermal paste video?
That was short sweet and super informative.
Thanks for the short.
I like how you corrected yourself. Great video
Appreciate it! I just always want to do my best to be accurate and honest
@@HardwareHaven I LOVE that mentality. Not enough of it in the world.
The Verge method is always the answer.
It's good pc building practice to use extra thermal paste on the gpu and cpu
Link
@@bonniemunene5163 Original video was taken down. Search Verge pc build review
Thank the youtube algorithm for pointing me towards you, nice informative video ^^
And thank you for handsome squidward. Made my morning
@@HardwareHaven I'm more interested in those dark blue thermal pads 😂. Those are the darkest thermal pads I've seen. What thermal pads are they?
@@therealb888 some relatively cheap ones off amazon haha. Can't remember the brand off the top of my head
@@HardwareHaven oh I'll try to search up myself. But you should have it in your purchases lol. Do post it if you can.
@@therealb888 www.amazon.com/gp/product/B096ZNHY8F/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o06_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
got it
I usually like to spread the paste onto the surface of the IHS or die so it doesn't risk any corners being left uncovered. I tried using the regular dot method, but it still had some bare spots on the very edges. Using extra paste may help, but it creates a huge mess that is a pain to clean up (and potentially dangerous to the components due to the risk of knocking something off). The most important part is making sure everything is covered, 1-3c isn't enough of a difference to matter
In some instances, I believe you’re totally correct! Especially with larger dies, unlike what I was testing here. Just make sure it’s thin and even to avoid air pockets. With smaller dies, the dot seems to work well and with no extra mess.
You can make square blob you know
On an ihs it’s more or less useless
Wdym
You didnt torque it properly or added too much then. You should have full contact without any paste, the paste just shores up tiny gaps.
i love using the heaven bitchmark
In other words, the standard recommended application method of the last two decades.
Discovering this through experimentation and admitting your original hypothesis was wrong makes you a great scientist. Thank you for the short!
On small dies yes, but on larger ones you definitely want to spread it! A GPU is not a CPU, you must cover every corner of it!
For sure every corner needs to be covered 👍🏻
I plan on redoing this test but with a hotter/larger die
No questions, but I really enjoyed this video. Keep up the awesome work and entertaining format!
I applied some thermal paste to my phone when reassembling it, glad to know it's better I put more than necessary than less.
Thank you so much for not misleading viewers and giving helpful information. There are "Will it survive?" CPU stories and other misleading stories that waste the time of viewers for views. This was short, to the point, proven, demonstrated and has provided sufficient information. Thank you
Thanks for the feedback! Makes me nervous to post my next short though… 😅
I think there is a way to post silly entertaining stuff about computers while also not misleading people. I hope to do my best at that when I can.
This topic gets rediscussed and retested again and again and always comes to this exact conclusion...
Fun fact, thermal pastes are even silk screen printed in some industrial cases. Too much thermal paste will have poor performance because not every assembly can be torqued down enough and industrial thermal pastes are more viscous & dense. They're harder to spread & compress.
Thankfully consumer electronics are quite idiot proof in this case.
Larger dies with heat sinks AMD & Puget systems recommend either stencil spreading or X method.
Sources:
AMD Factory tour at CM
Puget systems testing with threadripper.
In modern GPUs with a bigger die, spreading can help, so yeah, it's always relative
The tension of the mount should spread it weather you pre spread or not, it doesn’t hurt nor harm
@@Joel-cj2cz Air pockets though...
Unless you draw a circle with thermal paste it’s 99% not gonna happen you put a ball/line so as it compresses and spreads it pushes the air out
@@ChrisD__ Squishing them together has a less likely chance to cause air bubbles than spreading the paste does
@@TheRealGr33nGuy That's what I'm saying :p
3 ways to apply thermal paste: The correct way, the incorrect way, and the Verge
NO! Do NOT use the DOT method. Cover your finger with plastic wrap and spread it out evenly, ensuring there are no air pockets. Apply enough to squish out when you mount the heatsink, and this will also avoid air bubbles. This is the correct method and dates back to the Socket-A Athlon CPU days...
An exposed die needs to be completely covered with a film of thermal paste because it has no heat spreader. If you were to delid a modern CPU and remove the heat spreader, you would see the same thing: A layer of TIM or Solder covering the whole die, making contact with the heat spreader, and plenty of exvess squishing out the sides.
The problem you run into is that if there is any die exposed that will 100% cause damage, and it'll happen faster with higher power draw cards than lower power draw cards, the only time this isn't the case is if this part of the die has a temp sensor (which not all of it does) as in that case it can throttle/shut down etc, if it doesn't have such a sensor in that portion of the die (the corners and edges usually don't until much much more recently), I killed an rx 480 this way under LN2 a few years back because a portion of the memory controller wasn't covered and as a result the memory controller got too hot and died, iirc buildzoid has managed to kill a core that way too, but just as a point of note, this is why I generally recommend spreading manually on any exposed die where possible
Verge guy
"I usually like to put extra thermal paste, even on my toast."
for a GPU, always do an X-shape, it'll cover everything, and that's necessary with die components, not as necessary with CPUs which have heat spreaders.
I plan to do a follow up with a larger hotter die. I’ll keep that in mind! Thanks
Thanks man very informative, building my first PC and was worried, so many complicated dots and x or t shapes like what the heck haha
From an ihs if any corners are left it's usually fine in lower power chips. But anything with an exposed die should be 100% covered, even better if it leaks off the sides too.
Good man. You are humble and have earned a sub. Keep up the good honest work.
Agree. I have added extra thermal paste for my laptop CPU and GPU and noticed massive improvement in cooling.
Ironically I have always just put a medium sized blob in the middle and hoped for the best!
You forgot "I bought the thermal paste, why not the entire tube?"
I'm glad people are figuring out that the stupid spatula method creates air pockets which are hotspots
I wouldn’t say it’s stupid if it’s done correctly. The dot method can easily be done incorrectly (too little paste) and create dry spots in the corners.
Haven't air pockets been proven to just be a myth?
Not sure.. if you have a source at some point, let me know. I’d be interested to know
Spreading the paste around IS NOT a bad thing! Yes there are potential problems, but they happen maybe 0.5% of the time. I've actually had really good luck doing that method! If I'm ever unsure how much I should use, I'll put a little dot, spread it, and add a little more if I feel it needs it. This is especially useful with older Nvidia cards, or particularly large CPU's.
im a pc builder, laptop service. since 2014 until now, no PC/ laptop/ GPU card died because i spread the thermal paste😅 so its 0.0000000001% chance
I'm glad I'm watching this just before changing the paste of muy gpu..
I recommend to try phase-change material Honeywell PTM7950. It comes as a sheet and you don't have to mess around with any applying dots, dashes or crosses. Just cut out a piece the size of the IHS/core and stick it on. Also don't have to worry about whether the paste is too little or too much - it will be just right. In addition, it lasts longer, performs works better than traditional pastes and there is no pump-out effect.
The comment section of every RUclipsr ever who applied thermal paste in a video:
"THAT'S WROOONG"
If someone understands the purpose of thermal paste and the basics of heat / air being a conductor etc, then logic will tell you that more is better than too little. Assuming someone doesn't use totally crap paste, then too much will not insulate the die / IHS, nor will it try out in 2-3y in most cases.
The best video of thermal paste
There was very old RUclips video showing paste spread through plexi glass. Conclusions were the same :)
I love thermal paste experiment
The Verge guy
"I just love thermal paste, period."
He is the good version of Mr yeester
THE MORE THIN THE MORE PERFORMANCE remember this
Mounting pressure typically normalizes this. That’s why there’s almost no difference between a moderate amount and way too much. Trying to go too thin can result in bare spots
That applies to any thermal paste application, aside from slightly large processors like Threadripper which require a bit more paste.
You make good content bro
A thin, evenly spread layer on both surfaces, then a bit of wiggling the heatsink while applying gentle pressure has worked best for me over the last 30+ years of PC building and repair. Side note: mayonnaise is not a good substitute for thermal paste .
Most people that point out incorrect thermal paste application don't know what the hell they're talking about.
Recently my machines' annual clean and dust came up. Gave everything a good clean plus dusting, and applied fresh thermal paste onto my CPU (i5-11600K). I used an X patten with a small border around it, and it's working great 😁
GPUs don't have IHS, it's not safe to just put a dot in the middle. If you delid a CPU you sure as hell is not going to put a dot of liquid metal in the middle. Sure, it doesn't spread nearly as easily as TP, but you want to make sure all of the die is covered. Anyone who repairs GPUs will tell you the same.
As long as there’s enough to fully cover the die once mounting pressure is applied it should be fine. That’s the main point I wanted to get across here. A more in depth look at this is in the works
Heat spreaders are the only reason application doesn't matter on a CPU: the chip itself is already fully covered in paste from the factory, so the entire chip stays the same temperature regardless of how it's applied to the heat spreader: As long as you have enough on there, it'll be fine, you don't need 100% or evenly applied coverage. Compare this to the exposed GPU chip, which would get too hot at any points not totally covered by thermal paste
Very interesting. Once, I applied paste to a CPU, and the past spread unevenly while mounting the heat sink, leaving a fair amount of one half exposed. As a result, I now always spread the paste to account for uneven pressure during mounting.
To avoid bubbles, I just make tue layer very thin. After the thin layer, I guess you could add a small dot.
To avoid hot spots on the corners, make an "X" with the thermal paste, lingering for a second in the center of the "X" to add a bit of extra in the middle and you'll be good to go.
I’ll test that out 👍🏻
The best way to do it is put down a really really thin layer with a flat tool like a spudger and put 1 bead in the center
Thermal paste has different dielectric constant than air. So when thermal paste will "touch" something else it can cause problems. So better is not to make too much.
You, my sir, seem to be an informative, reputable and interesting guy, and deserve a sub :) Much better than that "Hardware Savvy" guy.
For the past 2 decades I have found that the absolute best method is to clean both the CPU and heat sink surface with a lint free cloth and 99% isopropyl alcohol. Let it dry then use a quality heat sink paste like artic silver or noctua and spread it out evenly with a fresh metal straight razor.
That card is so underpowered nobody should be complaining, you could cool it with a thermal pad and a passive heatsink LOL, good job on the video lots of important tips too!
My boy tronicfix taught me how to use the perfect amount everytime.
It’s crazy. It’s ALWAYS the perfect amount!
I think a small dot and an even spread, like the ones that come pre-applied, would pretty much give the same results.
You got good results with the dot only brcause the die is square and small
the best way is to simply cover the entire die.
I think the results would be the same with a larger die as long as you have enough paste. The dot would be significantly larger for a larger die. BUT, you make a great point about the shape of the die. I hadn’t thought about rectangular dies. I plan on doing more thorough tests with a larger hotter card. I’ll try to find something with a non-square die as well. Thanks for the comment!
I went with the X method and saw a huge difference compared to when I did the small "grain of rice" dot that everyone recommends. Never doing that one again, staying with x.
I do a spiral from the middle with tiny dots in the corners. Works fine.
Always, always press the cooler to the medium dot, lift and make sure that it cover properly, if yes: good 👍🏼 If No: apply a little more paste, squish and check again.
Always.
My one concern with this would be the possibility of creating small air bubbles between the heatsink and die from removing and reapplying the heatsink. Not sure if it’s a thing, but that’s what came to mind. Definitely want to have enough though
@@HardwareHaven yeah I get that, but any decent thermal past has never made it a problem. Have had it happen with something as thick as Arctic Silver, but Noctuas paste has been magic. Also, it is so much easier to properly clean than ArcticSilver😄 Feels like a wiping a magic marker vs just cleaning 😂
@@BuzzBazzJ for sure. I only used arctic on this because I didn’t want to have to pay for a ton of something better 😂
I plan on doing a much more detailed and comprehensive retest of this in a future video. I’ll probably try to use a better thermal paste, and/or I might try removing and resetting the heat sink multiple times to see if I can develop any sort of issues with air pockets. That could be fun… Thanks for the comment!
@@HardwareHaven ah nice! I’m interested in seeing if the method I use actually causes bubbles. Over the years I’ve been a little extra when cleaning dies of CPU’s and GPU’s. I’m not sure wether or not properly cleaning the die like if it came from the factory vs many I see leave some old crud around and just focus on the center die.
For my own OCD and for later cleaning/reapplication I find it helps, but I’m not sure that really matters.
I look forward to see your future testing.
Never too much thermal paste
Too much is enough when you have ample pressure aka proper heatsink. Anti Seize is better than thermal paste and applies and cleans up better.
It doesn't matter, just make sure the whole DIE is covered.
Essentially yeah haha.
It's crazy to me that gamers nexus exists and people still argue about this
True. But, and maybe I’m wrong, didn’t they only do a CPU thermal paste video?
People see one video about thermal paste on a cpu with an IHS and think they know everything. Bare silicon die needs to be covered edge to edge but if you have a IHS there’s a lot of wiggle room. He’s doing it correctly.
Try a spread method with a dot in the middle also at the end!
Since using too much is not really an issue I think the best way is to evenly spread it out then put another small sized dot in the middle. This ensures it is 100% covered and the extra dot will spread to fill in any major gaps. I never really seen an issue from air gaps I think that is just a rumor that was started years ago.
Seems like there are lots of rumors circulating the pc space haha
@@HardwareHaven Yeah one of the most know overclockers der8auer said it's just a rumor and not true lol
@@kakashi99908 Just curious, do you have a link to when he said that? That would be super helpful haha
@@HardwareHaven ruclips.net/video/CCqxE-5Ct3w/видео.html
Usually the reason why you manually spread the paste on the die is to get proper contact... usually a big thing on laptop CPUs/GPUs
I think a light spread is okay just allow it to still spread by pressure
It's going to be much easier for the paste to fully cover the die when the die is that small. A bigger one will have a higher likelihood of bare corners
No wayyy R7 240 MY FIRST EVER GRAPHICS CARD :)
mine is the amd radeon hd 6700
@@hjrgf the 6700 is better
@@gwenking33dagama i also had a r7 350
My first was 1050ti
Actually useful thanks !
All the temperatures differences could just be margin of error.
Air pockets aren't really a thing you have to worry about. The best is always the thinnest layer which gives full coverage, but it doesn't really matter.
As GN demonstrated, there no such thing as too much thermal paste if it doesn't short stuff. There is a thing as too little.
Minor note: the text on your graphs are covered by the title from the RUclips short, making the text unreadable! Very informative video though!
Yeah that was a bummer. I’ll fix that in the future. Thanks!
Intel website says pea sized dot in center of chip. I mounted the fan/cooler in my gaming rig wrong and lifted up the cooler after putting a medium pea sized dot and it was covered completely. So think of a cooked pea size definitely larger than a bb from a bb gun. About 2.5 to 3.5mm diameter. Good luck bros.
How do you know someone on the internet thinks they're some elite PC builder pro?
When they "call you out" over thermal paste... as if it's some space tech you need a college masters degree in.
😂
I have an old r7 250x to do experiment with . I scraped old dry thermal paste and put it back on , works fine
Modern gpus are completely different so you need to work on a bigger GPU. That way you can show people how to do the vram as well. It'd be interesting to see someone try this with vram and the additional little chunks of copper for your heat blocks. That could be one of my issues with my 3060 TI. It is running on average 20° cooler in Celsius and I'm picking at 68 ° c with 100% GPU load now. I think I might have put a little too much though. My next experiment with this card will be to cut the heat pipes and sprays on a series of channel tubes so that I can tie it in with the water cooler for the CPU. I've been hesitating because I don't want to destroy my best card until I buy a new one. It's the only GPU out of the 10 I had here at the house that has heat pipes.
When it comes to GPU, cpu pea size thermal paste rule is rediculous as the gpu produces heat alot faster then CPUs. Even manufacturing dumps alot of paste on there cards about the size of a peanut that is thinly spread in a square to cover the whole die. Some computer techs get way too ocd about thermal spreading
I'm still using that GPU even tho it's like 9 y/o it's still works but u gotta lower things down
The reality is, as long as there is thermal paste its fine. 1 degree difference isn't much.
People who nitpick about thermal paste application are cringe, who cares how you apply thermal paste, doing it suboptimally isn't gonna blow up the PC and cause massive performance hits
However, feel free to bully the Verge and their thermal application choice...
It largely doesn't matter what way you apply it for components with heat spreaders. Nitpicking for cpu applications is unnecessary, but for applications where the heatsink is in direct contact with the die then the story changes. If you leave even a little bit of the die without paste then you run the risk of killing the whole component.
I think it depends on the surface area. If you have a large die like a GTX 580 I bet the spread method will perform better than the medium dot method.
I’m looking into getting a better GPU to test exactly that 👍
No. The dot method leaves uncovered parts of the die too. Your thin layer method is the way to go. You'll never EVER get air pockets because you don't screw all four cooler mount screws at once.. that's literally impossible.
Draw an X with the paste. Trust me, temperature tests have already been done (there are plenty of old videos about this) and that's the best method.
I spread my thermal paste on my cpu to completely cover my cpu and doesn’t stop till it’s extremely thin and it works like a dream! I only ever use MX4 paste. I have a 5900x and 5ghz all core it doesn’t go over 68°c
How you apply thermal paste always depends on the cooler that's going on top of it. And that's why gamers Nexus tests the contact of a lot of coolers.
Does gamers nexus recommend different thermal paste applications per cooler? I always thought those tests were just to see how well the cooler and mounting hardware was manufactured/designed
I'm pretty sure arctic thermal paste is electrically conductive
That graph makes it look like one is much higher compared to others lol. It's just 1 degree C. They are all the same pretty much.
Definitely really close. I think the fact that there was a consistent increase in temperature when the die wasn’t fully covered is still evidence that it’s safer to have too much than not enough. I’d like to test this on a hotter GPU with a larger die, where I think the difference would be more exaggerated.
what are people smoking, with how big the dies have gotten, spreading the paste over the die is the best way to go, since you are guaranteeing that the whole die gets covered even though the cooler is going to spread it out anyways.
dots work for cpus, because they got a IHS, bare die go for the "spatula method" or spread the thermal paste. There wont be air pockets since the cooler is gonna squeeze it out anyways.
in all the gpu repastes I have done, I have always went with the spread method, and out of the 50 I have done over the last few months, none have shown any problems and temps were better than stock.
My assumption is that the dot works pretty well with small dies. I'd like to retest this with a larger more modern GPU, but I don't have a spare lying around haha.
I think you're spot on. My only thought would be that, for a beginner, a medium to large dot (enough excess to cover the entire die), is probably safer than poorly using an applicator or spudger because of the potential for air pockets.
@@HardwareHaven I beg to differ for the dot method on smaller dies. Covering the whole die with the spatula method is 100 percent the best way to apply TIM on systems with a direct die cooling solution. It you don't cover the whole die you risk killing the whole thing because a certain part of the die is overheating and eventually killing itself. That's just my two cents anyways...
@@tom-hp5wb Fair points. I think the idea is that the dot is big enough to make sure that, with adequate and somewhat even mounting pressure, it spreads out to cover the entire die. I took footage of the die coverage after I removed the heatsink with each application, but only was able to fit in the shot of the 'small dot' results, which did exactly what you described. With enough thermal paste, it covers the entire die (at least with this sized die). I would be more concerned that someone wouldn't put enough on a larger die, especially with everyone on the internet constantly complaining about too much thermal paste haha. Spatula method seems to be a good way of ensuring that, but potentially with a risk of creating air pockets if it's done poorly. The main take away I wanted from this video was for people to stop feeling like if they used too much, it would be 'too much thermal paste to cool it' or whatever people say.
The worse I’ve ever seen in person was a used dell I bought. It came with a stock cooler for the cpu and was over heating. When I took it off there was only a small dot on the center of the cpu. I’d say over half of the cpu didn’t have any. I’ve heard this is ok on intel processors (if anyone knows lmk in a reply) but it went from over heating to running smooth as butter after I added more and changed to a bigger cooler.
As far as I'm aware in GPUs you should try to cover the entirety of the die because exposed bits could cause damage but I am not sure how accurate it is
The heaven what?-mark?
Awwwwww look at that tiny gpu it's so cuute
Your thermals between the 3 good tests were probably within margin of error for whatever was reporting the thermals given how small the difference was. There's only so much volume between the die and the coldplate so any excess gets squished out and you have maximum contact between the die and the coldplate (which is all the paste is supposed to do). I do agree that your method could be potentially more problematic if you accidentally gash an area and leave it too thin and potentially create an air gap, but it's not a guarantee to happen, just not something you want to tell new builders to do. Main reason to maybe use your method is to minimize the amount of cleanup you might have to do on the board later without ever having to question whether you had enough coverage. Putting a verge amount of thermal paste will ensure you have everything covered, but you'll have a lot of goop to clean up later.
Oh boy! It's almost like the tried and true method that's been standard for ages is considered to be so for a reason! Next can you test if you tires perform better when properly inflated or when only to 50 percent???
It’ll keep happening as long as people keep making uninformed comments about it, so buckle up haha
Hour glass form is the best
Here thats way better than some mryeester that only shows how it looks and NEVER shows the thermals, whats the point of that when you dont show the fokin thermals mate?!
I thought I was the only person that had this graphic card
I tend to use a thin Square spiral that starts from the middle and stops short of the die. Will you try that in the future if you do another thermal paste video?