Thermal Putty vs Thermal Pads: Comparison Chart

Davidooo · Feb 21, 2025

RedF said:
Again, K5 Pro is a piece of junk. Screwed up my whole GPU and it's starting to boil, yes it blew bubbles.

Zoom in and admire the dirt.
View attachment 2669651

Looks like a bad installation job to me. Inconsistant amount for memory, no proper contact of the gpu die. What do you expect. A bad tradesman always blames his tools. Looking at the blue thermal pads it appears they also were not making contact. This is a case of incorrect assembly.

RedF · Feb 21, 2025

Davidooo said:
Looks like a bad installation job to me. Inconsistant amount for memory, no proper contact of the gpu die. What do you expect. A bad tradesman always blames his tools. Looking at the blue thermal pads it appears they also were not making contact. This is a case of incorrect assembly.

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Best thermal putty, database and charts - putty versus putty, tests and suitability for memory modules and voltage regulators | igor´sLAB

Thermal putty is a thermal interface material that has been specially developed to efficiently fill gaps between heat-generating components and heat sinks. Unlike thermal paste or pads…

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Davidooo · Feb 21, 2025

RedF said:
View attachment 2697029

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View attachment 2697030

View attachment 2697031

Best thermal putty, database and charts - putty versus putty, tests and suitability for memory modules and voltage regulators | igor´sLAB

Thermal putty is a thermal interface material that has been specially developed to efficiently fill gaps between heat-generating components and heat sinks. Unlike thermal paste or pads…

www.igorslab.de

Your reply has no bearing on what i said. I said it is a case of poor installation on your side. The results in temps would have been much, much, better if it was assembled correctly.

snarksdomain · Feb 21, 2025

Davidooo said:
Your reply has no bearing on what i said. I said it is a case of poor installation on your side. The results in temps would have been much, much, better if it was assembled correctly.

The VRAM temps would not be better. There is nothing wrong with the amount of putty that RedF used. K5 Pro is just not well suited to modern graphics cards, laptops, NVME drives, etc.

Maybe it was fine 10 years ago when we were rocking g GDDR5 and not watching VRAM temperatures at the time. Luckily the vast majority of current devices actually have temperature sensors monitoring VRAM temps, so now there is nowhere to hide for K5 Pro's abysmal thermal performance.

The issue woth K5 Pro is a low percentage of thermal filler. It is now vastly outperformed by about 35 other Thermal Putties that I have tested. And if folks don't trust my numbers, then they should certainly pay heed to Igor's test results. CSGR would wish us to only focus on the GPU core temperatures when applying K5 pro to VRAM, which is what initially happened on the LTT video where they tested it out on a 3090, only to later show the VRAM temps hitting 110C on their card.

The only decent putty that CSGR now sells is their version of UX Pro. It's not quite as performant as Upsiren's UX Pro, but it still has decent performance and good consistency. If only it didn't cost a small fortune.

Folks would certainly be better buying a 75cc syringe of Laird T-Putty 607. But if f9pks don't need 262.5 grams of Putty then there are many other great options available in quantities of 10g, 20g, 30g, 50g, 70g, and 100g.

umeng2002 · Feb 25, 2025

Just Kryosheeted my 4080 Super. Incredible improvements to the Hotspot temp. From 90s to 70s. But since I reused the OEM VRAM pads, my VRAM temps are F'ed. From 70 Max to 85. 95 in VRAM stress tests. I think I'll use thermal putty on the VRAM, and re-do with a new Kryosheet.

umeng2002 · Mar 1, 2025

Computer hardware Hardware Programmer Electronic component Circuit Prototyping Circuit Component

Done. Used Upsiren UTP-8. About 13 or so grams on the VRAM. Totally fixed the VRAM temp from the Kryosheet.

Alastair · Mar 12, 2025

@snarksdomain whats the minimum thickness you have managed to get GENUINE upsiren U6 Pro to?

Looks like the copper sheet I got for my graphics cards copper mod was too thick at 1.2mm. I'm just trying to work out if I should go down to 0.9mm or 0.7mm. I think 0.9 should work. I'm JUST starting to get contact with the core but I am just not able to apply any pressure because the copper pads were too thick.

snarksdomain · Mar 12, 2025

Alastair said:
@snarksdomain whats the minimum thickness you have managed to get GENUINE upsiren U6 Pro to?

Looks like the copper sheet I got for my graphics cards copper mod was too thick at 1.2mm. I'm just trying to work out if I should go down to 0.9mm or 0.7mm. I think 0.9 should work. I'm JUST starting to get contact with the core but I am just not able to apply any pressure because the copper pads were too thick.

You'll likely want to buy some Halnziye HY206 (HY236), or Zezzio ZT-PY6 to use with shims. All the other putties will struggle to get thinner than 0.4mm

If you watch my "What Is Thermal Putty" video you can see measurements I've made of each putty using callipers. My general advice is to take that mwasurement and 3x it. That's about as thin of a layer you can get without exerting more force.

So at this point, any laptop with gaps smaller than 0.5mm, or if using shims, folks should likely go with those 2 putties.

We'll see more "thin" putties on the market this year so will have more options for these scenarios.

Alastair · Mar 13, 2025

snarksdomain said:
You'll likely want to buy some Halnziye HY206 (HY236), or Zezzio ZT-PY6 to use with shims. All the other putties will struggle to get thinner than 0.4mm

If you watch my "What Is Thermal Putty" video you can see measurements I've made of each putty using callipers. My general advice is to take that mwasurement and 3x it. That's about as thin of a layer you can get without exerting more force.

So at this point, any laptop with gaps smaller than 0.5mm, or if using shims, folks should likely go with those 2 putties.

We'll see more "thin" putties on the market this year so will have more options for these scenarios.

it's not for my laptop it's for my graphics card.
U6 pro is the only putty I have any real access to locally otherwise it's aliexpress waiting times.

7900XTX I'm going all in on good cooling.
So Bykski specs 1.5mm thermal pads with their block that seems a lot of thermal resistance to me. I bought a 1.2mm copper chert and cut shims out of it. I tried u6 pro on both the memory side and the block side but couldn't get good contact on my gpu core.

I am wondering if I omit U6 pro between the memory and shim and just use regular thermal pase on that side and then use u6 pro between the block and the shim if that would improve contact.

Otherwise I have ordered 0.7mm sheet to make shims from.

Edit:

And in the case of 0.7mm shims what would offer the best performance?

High end paste > shim > putty > block

Or

Putty > shim > putty > block?

snarksdomain · Mar 13, 2025

Alastair said:
it's not for my laptop it's for my graphics card.
U6 pro is the only putty I have any real access to locally otherwise it's aliexpress waiting times.

7900XTX I'm going all in on good cooling.
So Bykski specs 1.5mm thermal pads with their block that seems a lot of thermal resistance to me. I bought a 1.2mm copper chert and cut shims out of it. I tried u6 pro on both the memory side and the block side but couldn't get good contact on my gpu core.

I am wondering if I omit U6 pro between the memory and shim and just use regular thermal pase on that side and then use u6 pro between the block and the shim if that would improve contact.

Otherwise I have ordered 0.7mm sheet to make shims from.

Edit:

And in the case of 0.7mm shims what would offer the best performance?

High end paste > shim > putty > block

Or

Putty > shim > putty > block?

I'd personally go putty>shim>putty.

Which U6 Pro do you have?

Orders from Aliexpress often take 8-10 days to arrive. Much faster than their shipping estimates.

Upsiren U6 Pro (China) is good putty, but it can't compress as thin as Haonziye HY206 can. I'd still recommend buying HY206 if you want to use shims.

But honestly, you'll get good VRAM temperatures if you just use putty and no shims.

Alastair · Mar 13, 2025

snarksdomain said:
I'd personally go putty>shim>putty.

Which U6 Pro do you have?

Orders from Aliexpress often take 8-10 days to arrive. Much faster than their shipping estimates.

Upsiren U6 Pro (China) is good putty, but it can't compress as thin as Haonziye HY206 can. I'd still recommend buying HY206 if you want to use shims.

But honestly, you'll get good VRAM temperatures if you just use putty and no shims.

I have proper upsiren u6 pro.

Maybe for Canada aliexpress shipping is fast. But for south Africa it's a different story

Alastair · Mar 13, 2025

I know I'll get good temps with just putty. But again I'm looking at probably 1.2mm worth of less than ideal thermal resistance. I'm going to be pulling 600 watts plus through this card with an EVC2 on it. And this card has the Hynix memory So I am going above and beyond for thermals because I am chasing down every last MHz.

snarksdomain · Mar 13, 2025

Alastair said:
I know I'll get good temps with just putty. But again I'm looking at probably 1.2mm worth of less than ideal thermal resistance. I'm going to be pulling 600 watts plus through this card with an EVC2 on it. And this card has the Hynix memory So I am going above and beyond for thermals because I am chasing down every last MHz.

You should be able to make U6 Pro work with 0.7mm shims I think.

snarksdomain · Mar 13, 2025

Alastair said:
I have proper upsiren u6 pro.

Maybe for Canada aliexpress shipping is fast. But for south Africa it's a different story

They usually quote me 4-6 weeks and I get it in 8-10 days. But I can see that being different for others.

Alastair · Mar 13, 2025

snarksdomain said:
You should be able to make U6 Pro work with 0.7mm shims I think.

I was ALMOST there with the 1.2mm shims. I was JUST starting to contact the core. I could probably manage with 0.9mm shims. But I decided to play it safe and I ordered 0.7

dansi · Mar 24, 2025

hi is utp8 still the best and widely available putty for gpu?
anyone uses the putty for both vram and vrm? that is replacing all stock thermal pads bundled with water block, at least on the gpu side.

snarksdomain · Mar 24, 2025

Uspiren UTP-8, Fehonda LTP81. Thermal Grizzly Putty Pro, and Laird T-Putty are all closely matched in performance. Honeywell HT10000 is the current best, but availability is mostly buying from Eugeney_KH (Ukranian Youtuber and TIM reseller).

Yes, putty is suitable to replace all of the pads, including those on the Mosfets and Coils

dansi · Mar 24, 2025

Thanks! I still have a 50g og tgpp10 , from your videos it’s not as good now? I planned for 5090 blocking but im afraid of counterfeits upsiren , knockoffs of china knockoffs I guess

snarksdomain · Mar 24, 2025

dansi said:
Thanks! I still have a 50g og tgpp10 , from your videos it’s not as good now? I planned for 5090 blocking but im afraid of counterfeits upsiren , knockoffs of china knockoffs I guess

If you buy Upsiren putties on Aliexpress you'll be fine. Fehinda LTP81 is also on Aliexpress for a decent price.

gupsterg · Mar 30, 2025

Thanks @snarksdomain for great thread/information

.

After using UPSIREN UTP-8 I have become a fan of putty

.

My post on using UTP-8 with Alphacool Eisblock on Merc XTX.

Thermal Putty vs Thermal Pads: Comparison Chart

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Davidooo

RedF

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Davidooo

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snarksdomain

umeng2002

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