Which is the best thermal pad for GPU

I often clean laptops from the inside and take out and clean the heatsink and I have to change the gpu thermal pad. Which is the best kind that gives better cooling heat transfer etc? Also which thickness is better? Is it ok or better to use a 1.5 or 2.0mm pad on a gpu that used to have a 1mm pad? There's so many of them but i don't want to get cheap ones that will not cool efficiently.Also is AS5 the best thermal paste? is there a superior one?

 

I like ICD better than AS5. Its not conductive and it works well when you add thickness, where as AS5 works better the thinner you can get it.

 

Does it lower the temps better than AS5?

 

As5 is great but cure times are pretty long. Really most top end pastes will work about the same if applied correctly.

Sent from my EVO using Tapatalk 2

 

I did AS5 on my Asus G73 GPU and it lowered the temps over the original paste. But after about 6 months I switched it for the ICD and it seemed to drop the temp a few more degrees.

I have also used it to replace thermal pads in some Dell Latitudes, it worked great there as well.

 

Been reading about it now and it seems pretty good lot of people say its better than AS5. I will order it once my AS5 supply runs out.

 

The answer to this question pretty much always end up between PK-1 or ICD.

Personally, I would say get a small tube and try it unless it is outrageous more expensive.

 

Well I found a really cheap thermal compound, 907.2 Grams for $7.55. Compare that to 1.5 Grams for $8.49. And it works just as good as ICD. Links:


Amazon.com: Innovation Cooling Diamond "7 Carat" Thermal Compound - 1.5 Grams: Computers & Accessories
Amazon.com: Spectrum Light Canola Mayo Eggless Vegan -- 32 oz Each: Grocery & Gourmet Food
Thermal Compound Roundup - February 2012 | Hardware Secrets

 

I been researching and it seems like the best thermal pads are from a company called phobya there are 2 kinds 5w/mk and 7w/mk. I think the ones I'd been using were 3.2w/mk. The better one for laptops seems to be the 5w/mk because it is more flexible and compressible unlike the 7w/mk which are very hard to compress. Anyone had any experience with those?

 

I really have great doubts that your "special" thermal paste that only costed that much works as well as ICD.

thermal pads are different and worse then thermal paste. the best thermal pads have 12w/mk.
phobia doesn't make thermal pads, they are just a brand, the product itself is made by someone else.
the thickness depends on the notebook model.

AS5 is conductive and nowadays there are much better, cheaper, and non eletrically conductive alternatives.

if you want something good and cheap get this:
Newegg.com - COOLER MASTER IceFusion 40G RG-ICF-CWR2-GP Thermal Compound

 

If you follow the third link on my post you will find a link to a website where they test all the major thermal compound and some alternatives including mayonnaise, chocolate, and butter. Numbers cant lie.

Thermal pads are necessary to use in situations where the gap is just too big and thermal compound cant fill it up it would drip on the sides or something. That's the way laptops come, with a thermal pad installed. That's how the laptops gods created them.

I've been researching more on the subject and phobya indeed doesnt make the thermal pads; some other silly company does. In my journey I have also acquired teh knowledge that hp doesn't make computers laptops its some other compufactory in china with another equally silly name.

 

that review is biased and unscientific and often pointed out as a bad example.

thermal pads are not necessary. they are a cheap way to fill the gap in notebooks. they have very poor performance compared to thermal pastes. that's why as you can see around here in thousands of posts that people use paste and not pads. a good paste will not drip to the sides or something.


there are no laptop gods. there are companies that want to make money selling laptops.

hp does make some laptops of their own brand. I don't understand what why you say Quanta computers, one of the biggest notebook manufacturers in the world, have a silly name.

 

I wouldnt say alot better, but with the better cure times and being relatively same performance as my tried and true AS5 Ill be going ICD when my supply of AS5 is gone.

 

AS5 was trully the best TIM like 15 years ago. it WAS great back then. now it's ancient and there's cheaper, better, non conductive, easier to apply TIM's then AS5.
Actually the only reason why people talk so much about it is because of the reputation it had for many years.
nowadays there's no reason to use it.

 

It's still a very good paste, and like many things if I have it laying around (and I have 2 tubes left) I'm going to use it before I go out and buy another paste. No sense in wasting good paste for such a marginal gain IMHO. I personally bet the as5 I have will probably outlive my newish m4600.

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So back to thermal pads, which would be best used in a Sager NP8170? I have a 7970M upgrade kit coming from Sager, and am awaiting a reply if that includes thermal pads. In the mean time, I thought I'd look for information on thermal pads while I wait for a response.

I am assuming that the thickness needed would be similar to thermal pads used on 6970M and 6990M GPUs in Sager machines, but I could be wrong.

As for thermal pads themselves, they are a requirement to have on your vRAM and other components of the GPU, are they not? Surely no one is going to use thermal paste in these spots? Wouldn't that create a huge mess and insulate the memory controllers and vRAM?

 

Use a copper shim with the same thickness as the thermal pad. Use thermal paste on both sides and you will have better results. There are plenty available on ebay!

Verstuurd van mijn GT-I9000 met Tapatalk

 

This right here!

 

iirc, there actually is someone selling custom cut copper shim on NBR, just need some google digging though.

 

Been thinking or cleaning and re pasting my m4600 and I might head up to home depot or lowes and cut one myself. But Id be interested in knowing who around here does this.

 

instead of a copper shim (depending on the thinness) it's better to use a thick layer of thermal paste.
I've uses MX-2 in the past and it was great, hard to apply but it would make a perfect contact. much better then a piece of copper in between.
but copper +TIM is always better then a pad.

 

Here are a couple of TIM comparisons:

80-way Thermal Interface Material Performance Test | Thermal Interface Material,Thermal Paste,Heatsink Compound,80-Way Thermal Interface Material Best Thermal Paste Heatsink Compound Cooling Performance Comparison Benchmark Tests

2011 Thermal Compound Roundup – Results Compilation | Skinnee Labs

Heard lots of great things from other users here about these pads:

Fujipoly Premium System Builder Thermal Pad - 1/4 Sheet - 150 x 100 x 0.5 - Thermal Conductivity 6.0 W/mK - FrozenCPU.com

 

please test your hearing because that really sucks.
I've seen and used 17W/m-k thermal pads.

 

Sorry, I was reading about it on another thread on this site, and they seemed pretty happy with them.

User experience is user experience.

At least I set you guys straight on TIM. Never recommend Cooler Master TIM to anyone. Test my hearing? Learn English or stick to Portuguese websites.

 

also review your math skills. 17 > 6.
and cooler master tim is good. user experience is user experience right?
Newegg.com - COOLER MASTER IceFusion 40G RG-ICF-CWR2-GP Thermal Compound

 

Who is arguing about math or numbers? LOL. Google translate doesn't really translate nuances of language does it?

You're right user experience is user experience. All I did was suggest a thermal pad, I never said anything to you. You insulted my hearing on a text based website then proceeded to try and mock my math skills as well. So far I haven't made any comments that have to do with hearing or math, but keep it up.

 

Back on the subjet of thermal pads, anyone know of good pads that are only tacky/sticky on one side? I've been using these Bergquist pads for a while now. Basically, the pink side isn't sticky while the opposite side is. Helpful since the pads stay put and don't try to lift away when I remove the heatsink.

Anything similar to these, but maybe with better thermals?

 

there are all kind of pads. sticky in both sides, sticky in one side, non sticky.
performance is not measured by stickyness.

 

Er... not sure why you're telling me that.

I'm looking for pads with one sticky/tacky side and one non-sticky side because they're easy to use and won't try to lift off or tear if I'm removing the heatsink all the time.

 

do you care more about that or about the thermal conductivity?
you can't have both.

 

And you just said "performance is not measured by stickyness."

So what is it going to be?

 

hmm vegan mayonaise... works just as good as icd 7 haha.

 

performance is only measured by thermal conductivity. nothing more.
stickyness is irrelevant. since you can't find high performance sticky thermal pads, you can't have both.

 

The question is would it taste as good as it cools? LOL!

 

I am actually very interested in this topic. I have a HP Envy 17 3200 CTO that I would like to upgrade the pads in. The best I can find for sale are the Fujiploy 11 W/mk pads on frozencpu.com.

I know that Fujiploy has better ones developed, because they list them on their site (17 W/mk as stated in this thread), but I cannot find them for sale.

Sony has developed a pad " as good as thermal paste", but again, I cannot find it for sale.


The reason I personally would like better thermal pads is the inconsistency in my cores. Max temps range from 79 to 87 depending upon the core, and I would think better pads would help. I do not want to use paste due to gap issues, and a copper shim would be of concern if I try to have warranty work done on it.

 

so far Innovation Cooling IC7 Diamond is the best thermal paste i have tried so far.

 

I stand corrected - Fujipoly Ultra Extreme System Builder Thermal Pad - 60 x 50 x 0.5 - Thermal Conductivity 17.0 W/mK - FrozenCPU.com

I swear these were not available on FrozenCPU last time I checked.... I will have to try it out.

 

yes it was not available. but anyway frozencpu is always overpriced.
Fujipoly Thermal Pad Thermal Putty High Quality for Laptop GPU Heatsink | eBay
3 times cheaper.
it's the best thermal pad on the market today.

 

That is not the same product though. In the image it lists it as GR-Pm which is 6 w/mk, or XR-Pe which is 11 W/mk. The stuff I linked to is the newer 17 w/mk. It looks like it is not as putty like, elastic, or as easily compressed, but higher conductivity.

I would love to see side by side comparisons, but don't have the time to do it myself.

 

it's sarcon xr-um and sarcon xr-um-al the later has an aluminium film on it. both with 17mk/w. it surpasses many thermal pastes out there.

 

Revisit!

So , i am having some minor heat issues and i would like to use the best thermal pads that are available.
Like the Englishman before me, ordering this specific type will be bothersome....but that aside...

I have a 920XM and 680M in My M17x R2 and the heatsink is not accepting the 100W+ output from GPU.
Unfortunatly there are a multitude of height clearances so i need to have an effective solution.

Will 0,5 work if i just stack it or will the the softer compound be more effective?

 

okay, hold onto to something now . . .

those pads, and Ive used them for over a year now, are waaaaay better then any thermal paste your going to get. Not joking.

even tx-4 is only 6ish W/mK and its better then diamond IC which is at 5.8 and AC5 which is at 5.1 etc ish

though these pads, actually run more like 7-8 W/mK and not 17 because even on a small mobile cpu, theres only so much heat per inch etc.. but, it would stand up to about a cpu giving off 300watts of heat. say desktop... but its OP for laptops.. though you want the best, get the pads.

This is why OEMs use pads on the cpu and everything else, because they can get 3m pads with like 6W/mK (which react anywhere inbetween 4-5W/mK in practice) for REAL cheap!

 

you might need lil' copper spacers and then pads..

anyways, on pg25 of fujipoly's catalogue you can see all their thermal pwper, some with aluminium bases some that shrink and various thickness's and theres like 10 that are 17W/mK btu
or get 1.5mm thickness, or fold it if it needs it

 

I already tested this to some degree.
See results:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...ujipoly-extreme-thermal-pads.html#post9173416

 

Obviously you guys are far more learn-ed than I on graphics cards & heat. So, what would you say to this? User has Dell Precision m6600, i7-2720QM, 32GB RAM, Windows 7 Pro, 64bit, came w/ FirePro M8900 graphics. Upgraded to M6100 & used some squares from a thermal pad that came w/ the M6100, even put one on the GPU. User notices that card heats immediately from 60 degrees Celsius to 90 degrees & climbing when a video is opened in Windows Media Player, any kind of graphics-laden page is opened...like Toggl's main site w/ the jumping cat, for instance...& any game like Crysis or Battlefield 3 is opened. Their vendor sent the M6100 w/ one big thermal pad covering the VRAM's & all "raised squares" on the card. User cut it into pieces to cover the specific size of each VRAM & re-purposed some of the M8900 pads on the M6100. Is some IC Diamond 7 Carat on the GPU alone going to solve this problem? Or do they need to cover every single "raised square" of silver or black color on this card? Or should they have just left the whole top portion of the card covered in the light blue/green thermal pad they were sent? Thank you guys profusely!