Thursday, October 6th 2022
Noctua Presents NA-TPG1 Thermal Paste Guard for AMD AM5
Noctua today announced its new NA-TPG1 thermal paste guard for AMD's latest AM5 based Ryzen processors. When the mounting pressure of the cooling solution is applied, excess thermal paste will be squeezed outwards. With AM5 CPUs, this excess paste tends to accumulate in the cut-outs at the sides of the heat-spreader and may become difficult to remove. Simple and risk-free to apply, the NA-TPG1 prevents this undesired phenomenon.
"While there's no denying that AMD's new Ryzen 7000 processors perform fantastic, we found that the cut-outs at the side of the heat-spreader tend to attract thermal paste that can be challenging to clean off" says Roland Mossig (Noctua CEO). "This is where our new thermal paste guard steps in: it's a simple yet highly effective tool for keeping your new Ryzen 7000 series CPU nice and clean."
Made from highly heat-resistant polycarbonate and forming a tight seal around the edges of the CPU's heat-spreader, the NA-TPG1 is simple and risk free to apply and remove. Despite its simplicity, it is highly efficient at preventing thermal paste from accumulating in the cut-outs at the sides of AM5 CPUs.
The NA-TPG1 will be available in a separate set with ten NA-CW1 cleaning wipes (NA-STPG1) as well as with new AM5 editions of Noctua's award-winning NT-H1 and NT-H2 thermal pastes. All three products are scheduled to become available in December.
The manufacturer's suggested retail price will be EUR/USD 7.90 for the NA-STPG1, EUR/USD 9.90 for the NT-H1 3.5 g AM5 Edition and EUR/USD 13.90 for the NT-H2 3.5 g AM5 Edition. For more information, visit this page.
"While there's no denying that AMD's new Ryzen 7000 processors perform fantastic, we found that the cut-outs at the side of the heat-spreader tend to attract thermal paste that can be challenging to clean off" says Roland Mossig (Noctua CEO). "This is where our new thermal paste guard steps in: it's a simple yet highly effective tool for keeping your new Ryzen 7000 series CPU nice and clean."
The NA-TPG1 will be available in a separate set with ten NA-CW1 cleaning wipes (NA-STPG1) as well as with new AM5 editions of Noctua's award-winning NT-H1 and NT-H2 thermal pastes. All three products are scheduled to become available in December.
The manufacturer's suggested retail price will be EUR/USD 7.90 for the NA-STPG1, EUR/USD 9.90 for the NT-H1 3.5 g AM5 Edition and EUR/USD 13.90 for the NT-H2 3.5 g AM5 Edition. For more information, visit this page.
86 Comments on Noctua Presents NA-TPG1 Thermal Paste Guard for AMD AM5
Even if these need some sort of cooling, that space could have been enough.
Also, according to the video of Derbauer, they made it thicker than the old ones, and this is the cause of the bad temps. It's a bad overall design.
It's also probable that the people who gave the final approval for this design have a couple hundred years of semiconductor design experience combined, with advanced degrees from some of the world's best engineering universities. The AM5 IHS design wasn't from some 22-year old snot-nosed intern from Foothill Junior College.
It is possible that it's a bad design. That would bode ominously for AMD's future as a semiconductor company though.
They decided to let it run at 95 °C. And they probably tested various thermal ceilings in the lab.
It's worth pointing out that a lot of mobile CPU designs also run around this temperature. I have an Intel Core i7 in my Mac mini 2018 and during Handbrake encodes it runs around 95 °C on average. This is nothing new.
But the chip passed from 90°C to 70°C after being delidded, using an AIO and the stock frequencies and voltage. This mean that they could have done better. One doesn't need to be an engineer to understands the benefits of having that chip running that cool at stocks, instead of 95°C. And this difference in temps is caused by the IHS.
They could have set a smaller or higher max temp regardless of the ihs thickness, but they could also get a lower stable temperature for the max power they set with a smaller ihs. One doesn't contradict the other.It's not even like mount adapter brackets aren't a thing, even Intel with a very different footprint is using them (though keeping the same hole pattern is also an option), I don't think this was a necessary compromise. Oh well, too late now
Unlike a lot of people here, I don't feel like I really should be playing armchair EE Ph.D. My guess is that the average age of the senior engineers involved in semiconductor thermal solutions at AMD have an average age of 50 and probably have been doing this for 20-25+ years.
I have a lovely liberal arts degree. I generally leave the engineering to people who went to school for it and have practiced in the field for decades.
Does it work? yeah sure, i'm not questioning that, but could it work better? Also yes.
In any case, the business makes the money that pays the engineers' salaries. This isn't just some college dream project that has no existing business behind it.
There are business parameters that are just as important as some engineering decisions.
If the engineers don't like it, they can go elsewhere and start their own company. That's how Silicon Valley came to be. Shockley > Fairchild > Intel > others. Absolutely nothing wrong with that, in fact that entrepreneurial spirit is highly prized in Silicon Valley.
However, as long as these engineers have AMD employee badges, AMD management calls the shots. Dr. Lisa Su and the rest of her senior management team has increased shareholder value over her tenure so I doubt if the board will fire her anytime soon.
California is an at-will employment state. Anyone of those AMD engineers is free to "pursue other opportunities."
But if I understand correctly, AMD made a deliberate business decision to maintain certain physical dimensions to minimize the number of thermal solutions that would be incompatible.
To my knowledge AMD never promised the rest of the industry 100% backwards compatibility between AM4 and AM5.
Hell, Intel sure doesn't.
:D
Why does the lid have to be that thick, if it affects thermal performance in such a bad way? AMD says Ryzen 7000 will hit a temp limit before a power limit, so why make it extra hot when you need every MHz?
Why didn't AMD just make the socket itself ~1.5 mm higher instead? (Or whatever height we're talking about.)
No, there's something else going on here. My bet is still preparations for die stacking of some kind in future products, something that uses up more space/height than current 3D cache. (The added cache in 5800X3D are combined with extra thin CCD's as a height compensation, maybe that's something they want to avoid, although I guess the new lid is even thicker than that..)
That's the only reason for why AMD must use a thick lid that I can come up with.
(Or, maybe it's not that easy to design an LGA socket in plastic that has added height that can withstand the mounting force while maintaining proper contact with the CPU.)
For example, the need for an LGA 1700 adapter for previous coolers is a feature of Intel's 12th and 13th Gen processors (Alder Lake and Raptor Lake). Some cooler manufacturers will supply them free on proof of purchase of one of these CPUs. LGA 1700 adapters are on sale at most retailers and obviously users are buying an adapter rather than waiting for one, or because they hadn't realised one was needed.
All of this inconvenience and expense has been avoided by AMD for the vast majority of AM4 coolers. Not all, because the AM5 ILM is screwed into the backplate so AM4 coolers that rely on removing/replacing the backplate will have an issue but the number of coolers affected is small and most of the manufactures concerned are already doing something about this.
Heck, that bracket might be really handy if you're lapping the CPU to hold it nice and neatly with, and give you a perfect height to lap it down to.
It's optional and cheap, which is how it should be.lap the credit card
No internet tech diva is really a pro. Just give the man the right tools, instruments and review items, you can make anyone a diva or Jesus with a freaking opinion. That counts also for Igors lab, whose articles often caused my eyebrows rise, also the toxic competition between der8auer that ends up as a circus.