[EOL] Arctic MX-5 is here!!Tests incoming! Completed. Now its MX-6 testing time!

[Space Lynx]

Hi,
After applying it looks like alien baby crap lol

lmao...

 

[8BitZ80]

I did a shootout between MX-2, MX-4 and MX-5. Results are very interesting.

This is no ordinary test because I used each paste on the die AND the IHS of a delidded processor. That means that the heat needs to transfer through two applications of the same paste and it really helps to highlight the tiny differences in performance.

Testbench is a delidded 120W TDP Xeon X5460 at 3.6GHz 1.35V with a 6 heatpipe Snowman 92mm dual tower cooler. Fan speeds are at maximum (molex powered). I used HWInfo64 to log data across two-minute runs of the Furmark CPU burner with 1 minute breaks in between. Ambients changed only slightly in the process but I recorded it during each run.

MX-2 Run 1 (24.3C Ambient) = 70C, 64C, 71C, 70C
MX-2 Run 2 (24.3C Ambient) = 70C, 64C, 70C, 69C
MX-2 Run 3 (24.3C Ambient) = 70C, 64C, 70C, 69C

MX-4 Run 1 (24.5C Ambient) = 73C, 67C, 73C, 72C
MX-4 Run 2 (24.5C Ambient) = 72C, 67C, 73C, 72C
MX-4 Run 3 (24.5C Ambient) = 73C, 67C, 73C, 72C

MX-5 Run 1 (24.7C Ambient) = 71C, 66C, 73C, 70C
MX-5 Run 2 (24.7C Ambient) = 70C, 64C, 72C, 69C
MX-5 Run 3 (24.8C Ambient) = 70C, 65C, 72C, 69C

I'll keep conclusions to a minimum but there definitely is a performance improvement with MX-5. Impressive numbers from MX-2 as well.

I also thought that all three pastes were very easy to spread. Wouldn't hesitate using all of them. MX-5 is very light blue in color and is hard to see on paper towel, but that's only a minor downside.

 

[Shrek]

If you have a heat-gun could you bake them to give some sense of how they might hold up with age?

I'm not sure how to test for the so called 'pump out effect'
Der8auer Deep-Dives on Thermal Paste: Misconceptions, Curing, & More | LTX 2019 - Bing video

 

[Space Lynx]

I did a shootout between MX-2, MX-4 and MX-5. Results are very interesting.

This is no ordinary test because I used each paste on the die AND the IHS of a delidded processor. That means that the heat needs to transfer through two applications of the same paste and it really helps to highlight the tiny differences in performance.

Testbench is a delidded 120W TDP Xeon X5460 at 3.6GHz 1.35V with a 6 heatpipe Snowman 92mm dual tower cooler. Fan speeds are at maximum (molex powered). I used HWInfo64 to log data across two-minute runs of the Furmark CPU burner with 1 minute breaks in between. Ambients changed only slightly in the process but I recorded it during each run.

MX-2 Run 1 (24.3C Ambient) = 70C, 64C, 71C, 70C
MX-2 Run 2 (24.3C Ambient) = 70C, 64C, 70C, 69C
MX-2 Run 3 (24.3C Ambient) = 70C, 64C, 70C, 69C

MX-4 Run 1 (24.5C Ambient) = 73C, 67C, 73C, 72C
MX-4 Run 2 (24.5C Ambient) = 72C, 67C, 73C, 72C
MX-4 Run 3 (24.5C Ambient) = 73C, 67C, 73C, 72C

MX-5 Run 1 (24.7C Ambient) = 71C, 66C, 73C, 70C
MX-5 Run 2 (24.7C Ambient) = 70C, 64C, 72C, 69C
MX-5 Run 3 (24.8C Ambient) = 70C, 65C, 72C, 69C

I'll keep conclusions to a minimum but there definitely is a performance improvement with MX-5. Impressive numbers from MX-2 as well.

I also thought that all three pastes were very easy to spread. Wouldn't hesitate using all of them. MX-5 is very light blue in color and is hard to see on paper towel, but that's only a minor downside.

I used to have some mx-2... lost it a long time ago. looks like mx-2 beats mx-5. lol...

 

[8BitZ80]

If you have a heat-gun could you bake them to give some sense of how they might hold up with age?

I'm not sure how to test for the so called 'pump out effect'
Der8auer Deep-Dives on Thermal Paste: Misconceptions, Curing, & More | LTX 2019 - Bing video

From what I've seen there doesn't seem to be enough reason to test longevity and it would be very difficult to make a fair test. I'm thinking of testing the curing effect of Arctic Silver 5, but only because it's already well known that curing is necessary to get good performance with ceramic-based pastes. Like Der8auer said it seems like most people confuse pump-out and curing.

I used to have some mx-2... lost it a long time ago. looks like mx-2 beats mx-5. lol...

On a couple of cores the MX-2 schooled the newer pastes, yeah. I can't remember which tests but I have seen other reviewers post great numbers with MX-2 so I was kind of expecting it to put on a good show.

 

[crispysilicon]

I wish people would include graphite and Indium pads in the TIM comparisons.

I have CLU under the lid and Indigo Xtreme on top of my 5775C.

Nothing else comes even close, and it's eternal afaik. I'll finally be taking it apart come Alder Lake (which is getting the spare I bought back then) and I'm very curious to see how it comes apart.

Indigo Xtreme | Indigo Xtreme ETI | Page 1 | Sort By: Product Title A-Z - FrozenCPU.com

 

[Space Lynx]

On a couple of cores the MX-2 schooled the newer pastes, yeah. I can't remember which tests but I have seen other reviewers post great numbers with MX-2 so I was kind of expecting it to put on a good show.

Seems like a bad company that produces same product but worse 6 years after the best one... or whenever it came out. lol

oh well. at least i know its fresh and i got there in-case of emergency someday.

 

[flatty]

The usual fight for 1-2-3 degrees that make the difference
In price also

 

[r.h.p]

im curious if anyone who actually should have their hands inside of a PC, has ever damaged something with Arctic Silver5. (rhetorical, im certain a million fools have damaged a million components all in equally ridiculous way)
ive used the stuff for what 2 decades or so, & ive heard this claim , & im aware of how conductivity can be dangerous to components.

its just that i get the 'wrist strap' feeling whenever i see someone post about/regarding the 'dangers' of AS5.
water is SUPER conductive, yet we cool electronics with it all the time, & there are lots of alternatives.

it just seems like this argument is a silly one to make (not that you personally were making an argument, im speaking more to the subject generally), nothing against you, its not like youre the first to post it, i just dont see the argument.

i dunno, maybe its just me

i didnt know as5 is conductive , anyway it never did anything wrong

 

[8BitZ80]

I re-pasted my GTX 1060 with MX-5 and maximum temperature has gone from 78C down to 74C. From memory I'm pretty sure the old paste was GD900 that has been on there for a good 18 months.

Re-pasting the 5600X yielded less results, it was running GD900 for almost 6 months and it went from 78C down to 76C with MX-5. I'll take that, especially if it lasts the 8 years that they claim.

The MX-5 is definitely my new winner in terms of lower temperatures but damn the GD900 has held on well and removing the old paste was a cinch.

 

[Shrek]

Like Der8auer said it seems like most people confuse pump-out and curing.

Doesn't curing prevent pump out?

 

[Falkentyne]

Kryonaut Extreme is a good paste. Probably 2C better than Thermalright TFX on my r9 290X. Although TFX was 2C better than regular Kryonaut on a 10900k after one week (started out like 1C worse).
The 290X reference heatsink has pretty decent and even pressure (enough to make a nice indentation in a graphite pad (IC / soft PGS+ (EYG-S), and EYG-R)), so it's no surprise Kryonaut Extreme would like those as Kryonaut always likes surfaces with even, firm mounting pressure. It's not as good with low mounting pressure though (as shown in the previous links). Also longevity is definitely an issue if the mounting pressure is not good enough, which I had with Kryonaut Extreme on my 3090 FE when I used Thermalright Odyssey 1.5mm pads on the core side. TFX lasted longer but even that degraded in a few weeks (core temp delta to core hotspot delta increasing!). Changing to Gelid Extreme 1.5mm pads, which are much softer, helped maintain much better control over the hotspot delta, but I haven't been able to test that with Kryonaut Extreme yet.

This whole thing really woke me up to how poorly designed the 3090 FE heatsink is. While it functions very well in heat movement, the design is actually atrocious. The only thing that screws the PCB to the heatsink when mounting the PCB on are the four leaf spring Torx screws. Since these are not spring loaded like the smaller X-bracket of the Radeon cards (the screws themselves are much better, unlike the "strip me" screws on the reference AMD heatsinks!!), this means that the the only thing pushing the GPU Core and PCB on is just that bracket! That means that there is absolutely no help with the memory pad compression whatsoever and that creates a major problem if you don't use the correct thermal pads, with a high softness. Yes, the backplate helps the edge of the PCB screw into the heatsink, but screws only on the very edge do absolutely nothing to the resistance caused by thermal pads surrounding the core!

Compare this to the AMD R9 290X reference. There you have like 12 screws all around the PCB, helping the PCB get very firmly secured all around the thermal pads of the VRAM and VRM's. Even though the Vega 64 has fewer screws there's still plenty to insure the VRAM pads get great contact. You get some really big indentions on Arctic thermal pad replacements (on Vega 64, a small section needs 1.5mm or 2mm on VRM's, the rest 1.0mm). If the FE actually had more screws, then there wouldn't be these problems at all. There really need to be 6 screws around the VRAM/VRM area of the 3090 FE / 3080 FE cards, just like AMD did it, then there would be no complaints at all.

Anyway,

MX-5 is a couple of C worse than Kryonaut / TFX on a desktop and a r9 290X, but it definitely should not be used with low mounting pressure (laptop video card may be fine but BGA CPU is probably asking for trouble, just like MX-4.. Kryonaut starts off well on any laptop and is great on the GPU, but pumps out fast on a CPU. Kryonaut Extreme is still really too new for these tests, but I already know from my 3090 FE that it doesn't do well with low pressure and a convex GPU core! (again I haven't tested it since switching to more compressible pads, which allowed better pressure on the core->heatsink).

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[lexluthermiester]

but it definitely should not be used with low mounting pressure

And why is this?

 

[8BitZ80]

Don't forget to include diaper cream but only the good stuff (40% zinc oxide) and vaseline.

Price is a big factor
"An engineer can do for a dollar what any fool can do for two."
Arthur Mellen Wellington

OK, I couldn't take it no more... ordered me four 30g pots of GD900 ($3.51 a pot with shipping)

Now I find

GD32 1.0 W/K.m
GD33 1.0
GD66 1.05
GD100 1.094
GD220 1.114
GD280 1.159
GD380 2.2
GD460 2.0
GD450 2.0
GD900 4.8
GD900-1 6

I tried the newer GD900-1 version with the 6.0W/m2 thermal conductivity and it's pretty bad. It performs noticeably worse than the regular GD900.

GD900 Run 1 (Ambient 26.9C) = 77C, 74C, 80C, 78C
GD900 Run 2 (Ambient 26.8C) = 78C, 75C, 81C, 79C
GD900 Run 3 (Ambient 26.8C) = 79C, 76C, 82C, 80C

GD900-1 Run 1 (Ambient 27.0C) = 81C, 77C, 84C, 83C (NOTE: Core 2 thermal throttled at 84C)
GD900-1 Run 2 (Ambient 26.8C) = 80C, 77C, 84C, 82C (NOTE: Core 2 thermal throttled at 84C)
GD900-1 Run 3 (Ambient 26.6C) = 81C, 79C, 84C, 82C (NOTE: Core 2 thermal throttled at 84C)

Once again, it proves that the thermal conductivity value itself provided by thermal paste manufacturers means squat.

Of course I'm running the paste on both the die and IHS of my X5460 so any differences will be more pronounced, but it's still a huge difference. The GD900-1 paste is definitely more solid in consistency and harder to spread than the regular GD900. I have no doubt that the GD900-1 I received is the real product and not counterfeit. GD900 wins hands down and it's ridiculously cheaper, no competition.

 

[nguyen]

I tried the newer GD900-1 version with the 6.0W/m2 thermal conductivity and it's pretty bad. It performs noticeably worse than the regular GD900.

GD900 Run 1 (Ambient 26.9C) = 77C, 74C, 80C, 78C
GD900 Run 2 (Ambient 26.8C) = 78C, 75C, 81C, 79C
GD900 Run 3 (Ambient 26.8C) = 79C, 76C, 82C, 80C

GD900-1 Run 1 (Ambient 27.0C) = 81C, 77C, 84C, 83C (NOTE: Core 2 thermal throttled at 84C)
GD900-1 Run 2 (Ambient 26.8C) = 80C, 77C, 84C, 82C (NOTE: Core 2 thermal throttled at 84C)
GD900-1 Run 3 (Ambient 26.6C) = 81C, 79C, 84C, 82C (NOTE: Core 2 thermal throttled at 84C)

Once again, it proves that the thermal conductivity value itself provided by thermal paste manufacturers means squat.

Of course I'm running the paste on both the die and IHS of my X5460 so any differences will be more pronounced, but it's still a huge difference. The GD900-1 paste is definitely more solid in consistency and harder to spread than the regular GD900. I have no doubt that the GD900-1 I received is the real product and not counterfeit. GD900 wins hands down and it's ridiculously cheaper, no competition.

Can you try again the GD900-1 and this time heat it up with a hairdryer before mounting the cooler? this would soften the paste and make it spread easier, create less resistance when tightening the screws --> less gap between CPU and cooler.

 

[Athlonite]

i didnt know as5 is conductive , anyway it never did anything wrong

It's not conductive at all although it is ever so slightly capacitive

im curious if anyone who actually should have their hands inside of a PC, has ever damaged something with Arctic Silver5. (rhetorical, im certain a million fools have damaged a million components all in equally ridiculous way)
ive used the stuff for what 2 decades or so, & ive heard this claim , & im aware of how conductivity can be dangerous to components.

its just that i get the 'wrist strap' feeling whenever i see someone post about/regarding the 'dangers' of AS5.
water is SUPER conductive, yet we cool electronics with it all the time, & there are lots of alternatives.

it just seems like this argument is a silly one to make (not that you personally were making an argument, im speaking more to the subject generally), nothing against you, its not like youre the first to post it, i just dont see the argument.

i dunno, maybe its just me

1: Artic Silver five is non conductive ( Although it is ever so slightly capacitive) so unless you use an entire tube of it you should never see a problem
2: Denatured water ie: water that has all of it's impurities removed so you're left with just pure H2O is also non conductive ( it's the impurities that make water conductive)

 

[Falkentyne]

And why is this?

Because it's not thick and will end up pumping out due to natural heat related expansion / contraction cycles (you need a thick paste to fight against this).
The only paste that is good against imbalanced pressure like this is IC Diamond.

Naturally the best solution is to fix the mounting pressure or otherwise make the surfaces flat (sanding the heatsink, or if you have the courage, cpu/gpu die, if it's convex, etc)

 

[lexluthermiester]

Because it's not thick and will end up pumping out due to natural heat related expansion / contraction cycles (you need a thick paste to fight against this).
The only paste that is good against imbalanced pressure like this is IC Diamond.

Naturally the best solution is to fix the mounting pressure or otherwise make the surfaces flat (sanding the heatsink, or if you have the courage, cpu/gpu die, if it's convex, etc)

I have never seen this with any paste, ever. I'm certain it's not going to be a problem, whether short or long term. Given how sticky MX-5 is, it seems very unlikely to flex and flow like you suggest.

 

[Falkentyne]

I have never seen this with any paste, ever. I'm certain it's not going to be a problem, whether short or long term. Given how sticky MX-5 is, it seems very unlikely to flex and flow like you suggest.

Plenty of people have. Check notebookreview forums. This has been discussed to death already but countless people. If you bother to do a search, you'll see it all over. In the Alienware threads, MSI GT73VR threads, the thermal paste hardware discussion threads, it's all over.

And I've seen it on my 3090 FE when I used too hard (not compressible enough, even though they were correct thickness) thermal pads.

 

[lexluthermiester]

Plenty of people have. Check notebookreview forums. This has been discussed to death already but countless people. If you bother to do a search, you'll see it all over. In the Alienware threads, MSI GT73VR threads, the thermal paste hardware discussion threads, it's all over.

I'm all over the place on the net and have never seen such a discussion. Got an example?

 

[toilet pepper]

The new Hardware Canucks video about Induim is interesting. The ihs imprinted on the indium pad and it performs like an mx4.

 

[Space Lynx]

The new Hardware Canucks video about Induim is interesting. The ihs imprinted on the indium pad and it performs like an mx4.

was this on a laptop or desktop?

 

[Falkentyne]

I'm all over the place on the net and have never seen such a discussion. Got an example?

I'm sorry but I'm not going to search threads for you. You'll have to do that yourself.
Just put in the work and look on notebookreview. There's a big megathread on thermal paste in the general hardware section.

 

[lexluthermiester]

I'm sorry but I'm not going to search threads for you. You'll have to do that yourself.

Ok, then. Not gonna bother. Been using and installing TIM products for decades and have never seen, read or heard about the behavior you described. I have some MX-5 and am not seeing it with that either. So you do you. The rest of us will carry on unabated..

was this on a laptop or desktop?

My guess is desktop as laptop & mobile CPU's don't have IHS plates.

 

[mtcn77]

Because it's not thick and will end up pumping out due to natural heat related expansion / contraction cycles (you need a thick paste to fight against this).
The only paste that is good against imbalanced pressure like this is IC Diamond.

Naturally the best solution is to fix the mounting pressure or otherwise make the surfaces flat (sanding the heatsink, or if you have the courage, cpu/gpu die, if it's convex, etc)

Isn't it the other way around, IC Diamond drying out over time?
OP: your thread is a huge let down. Do review in the future when you say so.