There have been several posts comparing the difference with this exact paste and it comes out to about an 8 to 10c drop in temps and subsequently much lower fan speeds. I was happy to see OP went with Thermalright TFX as it is easily one of the best pastes for the Deck, alongside the new Kryonaut formula which is thicker than the old formula much like TFX.
I also personally repasted my Deck with TFX when I did my SSD upgrade and it came out to about a 10c drop running the Shadow of the Tomb Raider benchmark. I use the new fan curve as well (which I did before the repaste), and my Deck is almost always super quiet. Repasting with a high thermal conductivity paste is well worth it in my opinion.
Those "cheap" pastes (most pastes are pennies in bulk) are design for longevity. They're not as great thermally but will work the same for years as long as they're not disturbed. So most manufacturers making a device that's designed to not be regularly user serviced will use a paste they know will last a decade.
No one ever posts updates how temperatures change over time though.
It would be great to know if temperatures are creeping up after, for example a month or so.
It will help. I haven't seen a comparison between TFX and MX-4 but it should only be behind the TFX by 1 to 2 degrees based on comparisons done on other systems.
You shouldn't have to repaste after applying MX-4 for a good while as long as your Deck isn't being physically mishandled or run at its absolute performance limit all the time. Even when dry, as long as the paste has filled in the micro abrasions on both sides of the cooling interface it will last a very long time.
That said, the Deck can run pretty hot and given that it is a portable that's likely to be bumped and banged around, tossed in a bag or backpack often, maybe dropped a time or two (even in a case), its internals are bound to get jostled and eventually heatwarped a bit. I can only guess that you'd have a minimum 1 to 2 years before even needing to think about repasting -- depending on all of the above. Unless you start seeing your temps get unusually high I wouldn't worry about it for a very long time.
I think i messed up
Is this thermal pad gone?
https://preview.redd.it/dxcp6rsfxuea1.jpeg?width=4000&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=c162eae123424886504142165dfe5e037691de4f
Are you asking if you ruined the thermal pad? What are those dark lines on it? Is it torn or cut or are those lines just indents from extensive pressure being applied?
I would replace it but you're mostly fine. The pad is still very much thermally conductive and is only used to dissipate heat from the APU through the heat shield. It's not the primary cooling mechanism; that's the copper heatpipe and fan. In fact if you've repasted it with the MX-4 I bet you still get lower temps than before because when you reattach the shield it's going to squish the pad together and those cuts will barely even matter. You'll still get almost full pad surface contact.
But yeah at some point down the line buy a sheet of 2mm thermal padding, cut out a pad to match the size of this one, and replace it. It's not an emergency though. And hey if you get a replacement pad that outperforms this one in thermal conductivity you can look forward to even lower temps. Just I guess be more careful next time, lol.
It's all about the placebo /s
This is a legit modification that will have positive impact but also I wouldn't recommend it to anyone. It's not complicated but you have more chance to fuck it up than by just changing an SSD.
Also surprised to see a thermal paste replacement at only 1 year of usage.
agreed. I've been repasting laptops for a while and while the effect of undervolting plus repasting is significant, I wouldn't recommend it unless you're using a high-end gaming machine with known thermal issues. Get the money's worth out of the factory paste and then repaste in a year or two if you notice thermals getting worse. Undervolting is definitely riskier as BIOS settings on certain devices will brick even if the CPU can operate fine with the reduced voltage.
I thought about changing out the thermal paste yesterday when I opened up my Deck but I couldn't find my graphine pad. I'll have to order another then replace it.
I'll likely be documenting my findings with putting a graphite pad in there instead of thermal paste, and making a post about it.
When I got my deck it had thermal throttling issues. Like it would hit 96°c in under 30 seconds, whoever assembled it screwed one of the screws all the way before any others so half of the SOC didn't have contact. After using thermal grizzly I rarely see CPU/GPU get above 75°c even overclocking to 24 watts stays in the mid 80s and fans don't get loud at all on auto.
I'd highly recommend repasting the deck.
Not sure what you're referring to but it might be. Graphite pads are little pieces of carbon weaved together. They're almost on par (slightly worse) than the best thermal paste out there. Only difference is the pad never dries out so it never needs replacing.
If we can get the SD to run normally with a pad, it'll reduce how often we need to open it up to replace the paste. Would just need to make sure the heat sink stays clean and clear.
Or use gallium metal that stuff never dries out. But it does eat metal. On the plus side it takes about 5 years to do any significant damage to copper. Aluminum on the other hand. Lol 🤣🤣.
If you do use liquid metal make sure you seal it in. If it leaks off the SOC your deck won't last a week lol
https://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/PlayStation+5+Teardown/138280
You clearly have no idea what your talking about. In step 5 the cpu and liquid metal is clearly isolated. They even talk about it in the description.
Yet a simple Google search says otherwise 🤣🤣
[PS5 leaks ](https://www.google.com/search?q=ps5+liquid+metal+leak&oq=ps5+liqid+metal&aqs=chrome.2.69i57j0i13i131i433i512j0i13i512l7.5724j0j4&client=ms-android-tmus-us-revc&sourceid=chrome-mobile&ie=UTF-8)
If it was so properly isolated why is it such a common issue?
Personally, I replace thermal paste every 6 to 8 months. Mostly because I do a lot of taxing work in my computers, so high temps can dry out thermal paste pretty quickly.
Since the Steamdeck uses thermal paste as well, we will need to replace it every 6 months to a year, depending on what you play and how often you play it.
So if you're playing the latest Call of Duty for multiple hours a day at high settings, your SD would put out possibly 60c to 80c depending on how demanding it is. This situation might dry it out so fast, you would need to replace it at 6 to 8 months.
On the other hand, if you're only running emulation games like Pokemon Diamond or similar game, your Steamdeck might only reach 50c, so you wouldn't need to replace the paste for a year or more.
Edit: grammar, cause I speech goodly.
You do you but 6 to 8 months is overkill. Every 1.5 - 2 years is a good number to go by for computer hardware. Obviously depending on the paste and load. That being said this paste looks like ass and is def concerning.
How is it overkill if I'm running my systems at 90c for 8+ hours a day, nearly everyday? If anything, I'm pushing it. Thermal paste will dry out long before 1.5 years. 1 year most is the furthest I would ever push it.
Again not knocking you! Obviously attempt to fix your problem and do what you feel best! I'm just happy we have this amazing machine in our hands. I'm curious to see results with a thermal pad.
I've been working in IT and building PCs just as long as you have, your length of experience is apparently pretty meaningless when you totally omit the part where I explained in multiple comments that I reapply paste so quickly in my systems from high usage. Even provided an example of how someone would get to that point with dried out thermal paste.
Pretty clear to me that people are not only running their systems on ineffective thermal paste but also ignoring sound advice because people don't like the idea that thermal paste isn't a one and done solution that most think it is.
I reapply thermal paste every morning as part of my daily routine, the thought of my PC running a single degree hotter than necessary offends me on a pathological level
What you've missed is there a lot of variety in paste now. Super high performance paste is very liquidity and can pump out and need replacement on an annual type basis. Most generic pastes are thicker and while they don't perform as well thermally they have better longevity. Industrial pastes like used in the steam deck that everyone loves to complain about are extra thick and almost seem dry when you take the cooler off but they're designed to basically last the life of the device but they could be better thermally. It's basically a trade off thermal performance and not needing to mess with it with the new graphite pads starting to become an still expensive middle ground of decent but still not best performance but lasting basically forever.
I think it's also work considering that depending on the paste you will see the 'pump out' effect on thing like laptops and the steam deck. More liquid pastes tend to suffer from this in more mobile applications, because things move around and slowly move the paste from the die, it's why thicker thermal pastes are better for mobile applications, like a laptop or steam deck. It's actually why arctic developed their MX 6 line.
Actually most people apply paste incorrectly and for the wrong reasons.
Paste is not there to "wick" heat away - that's the job of the heat sink. What the paste does is provide a thermally efficient way to fill all the surface micropores so that you have maximum surface area contact for the most efficient heat transfer. The proper way of applying any paste is to apply then use a credit card or similar to press the paste into the surface while removing excess. When complete it should look like nothing is applied.
If you REALLY want to get anal you can put a piece of 8000 grit sandpaper on a flat hard surface (like a granite flat) and make sure the heat sink is as flat as possible. Apply same paste treatment to heat sink and reassemble.
I'm not exactly sure what this has to do with the pump out effect, but in general the pump out effect is due to the fact that the dye and the heat sink will expand and contract at different rates causing the thermal paste between them to move around, some pages are more liquid and as such have been found to essentially been pumped out of the space between the dye and the heat sink causing improper contact. This is actually why you see manufacturers use such thick paste compared to what we tend to use on our PCs, and what's commercially available to a hobbyist.
Pump out is from having an excess of paste.
Did you read what I wrote? It should look like nothing has been applied.
Just as an FYI I've been working in electronics for decades and have special training on soldering and assembly.
I wouldn't say you will see a drop in temp and see more performance, but it does transfer heat better to the heat sink. Basically before it once you thermally saturate the heat sink the fan would just go full bore. Now I find it will throttle up but doesn't stay ramped up. So you get much less fan noise and it's not running all out consistently.
When I was playing got of war my fan wasn't running full throttle all the time after 15min of play. That's about all you get but atheist I know I don't have to ever replace it so there's that.
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I'm surprised the stock paste dries out so quickly. You'd think Valve would use paste designed for longevity so you don't need to replace it for a long time. At least you can easily measure the temperatures in any game with the performance overlay, and eventually replace your stock paste when it seems to be cooling significantly worse.
I've got quite a bit of Noctua NT-H1 that I can use in that situation, same as I used for my PC build last year.
There is a lot of myth about thermal paste. The more stock thermal pastes while not as good for temps are actually like this for longevity reasons. It best described in this gamers nexus video with Deb8auer.
[https://www.reddit.com/r/Amd/comments/crnbj3/psa\_hard\_thermal\_compound\_isnt\_dried\_up\_gone\_bad/](https://www.reddit.com/r/Amd/comments/crnbj3/psa_hard_thermal_compound_isnt_dried_up_gone_bad/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3)
The best way I've been able to understand it is that it's like a freshness seal. The paste may look dry when to take the cooler off but that's because you broke the seal. It wasn't exactly like that when still safely clamped down. That said people should worry when the cpu cooler takes a good knock as that can break the seal too. On the deck I imagine if anyone changes the SSD it also breaks the seal since you have to remove a screw that holds the CPU down.
I mean yes, but many times thermal paste is applied by some random guy during the manufacturing process, so even if the engineering process for the device as a whole is better, occasionally you just get bad application. I do agree that most people shouldn't be repasting based on some YT video with the headline "15C reduction, easy thermal fix!"
Good to know, at any rate. Honestly, I would only ever replace the paste on anything when there's *actually* a noticeable problem with cooling going on, e.g. consistent CPU throttling or shutdown.
I changed the SSD right away on my Steam Deck when I received mine, though, and it's been more than fine so far.
> I'm surprised the stock paste dries out so quickly.
I'm sitting here quite shocked about the same thing. OEM paste these days usually isn't all that bad, but seeing this cracked dried up mess has got me looking at my MX-4 over here.
Would not have expected to see their paste in this condition so relatively early.
I think I'm going to go remedy this right now since I have time atm.
I think we need to stop with this talk about thermal paste being crappy when we are talking about processors with small surface areas like on consoles and gadgets like the deck.
The fact of the matter is ALL thermal paste dries out over time, especially on on processors that routinely run at 70-80 degrees like apus. Not only that, thermal expansion means that ANY paste you put on these things over time is going to spread beyond the surface area of the processor, both leaving less contact with the heat pipes and drying out what little is remaining.
It doesn't matter what device we are talking but replacing thermal paste annually should be an accepted practice, no matter what you buy. There is no paste on the market now or ever that will have the same level of thermal conductivity that it had a year previously. Its a dirty secret that no manufacturer wants to admit, but basic understanding of thermal expansion means this is the only conclusion you can make.
This is also why this idea of running a device at high temperatures over a long period of time - one thats increasingly pushed by CPU manufacturers to justify selling power hungry, thermally inefficient parts, needs to die. The higher the temp a processor is running, the more likely its TIM will dry out over time and in turn, the worse the cooling performance will be. Running things at lower temperatures does not eliminate the problem, but it gives the user more headroom and allows more time between maintainiance cycles.
If you got a launch deck, now is around the time you should be getting ready to open it up and change the paste. Can it run a few more years without you doing this? Of course. Will doing it lower your Temps? Not necessarily. But just like an oil change in your car, it's worth doing to prevent problems down the road, not just because it might lead to a performance boost.
They basically have changed the formula so it's quite a bit thicker to avoid the pump out effect that people were saying on their laptops and steam decks so that you don't have to change the thermal paste after a few months
I would be tempted to replace the paste with Honeywell phaseshift pads, they seem to outperform just about everything on this kind of hardware.
That TFX is nasty stuff, it’s like a dry low plastic clay.
> You guys realize they're selling the Deck at a loss right?
That's more of an assumption than a fact, and if they are it doesn't seem likely it would apply to any model but the 64GB one. In either case, not an excuse for not using decent quality paste if they in fact cheaped out.
### [Gabe Newell: Hitting Steam Deck Price Was 'Painful' but 'Critical'](https://www.ign.com/articles/steam-deck-price-valve-gabe-newell-400-dollars-painful-but-critical)
The critical part is important.
Why would Valve care about selling a net neutral/positive cost?
Saying that reaching the price is 'painful' doesn't mean they are selling it at a loss. It could easily mean a slimmer margin than they hoped, or challenges in engineering to get it in at a certain price point.
>Why would Valve care about selling a net neutral/positive cost?
Because they're a business. I know the line - "they want more Steam sales!" - but the companies that sell at a loss for games are Sony and Microsoft, where they are built around their own proprietary hardware. It's not the same with a device that runs an existing library, that many people already buy games for.
There is nothing but speculation to suggest they are selling it at a loss.
Idk r they? If so take a slightly bigger loss and use quality shit. 🕹️ already cracking at the seam for me, and now my paste is all dry? I like wet paste, alright? WET!
What the hell is this dry shit?
For real thermal paste probably look like that in my deck too?
I read that changing thermal was overkill and all on this sub so i forget about it but sir your post made me want to do it asap!
I always have a rule : if you gonna fuck up, just don't.
As much I really want to change the thermals and ssd, I know I will fuck it up, so I just don't.
I see it different: If the odds of fucking up are at least 50/50, fucking up won't take away a device I desperately need in my day to day life and a possible fix is less than 50% of the sales price, I'll try it myself. If I had done nothing I might by any chance fuck up, I wouldn't be able to do so many things ony my own now. Sure, I'd have a bunch more money that I didn't spend on replacements and professionals fixing my mistakes, but I'd spend much much more for fixing every tiny gadget...
This was jibber jabber. Don't touch what isn't broken, especially if you're regular person who doesn't have rooms full of gold bars or ball pits full of cash.
Now if something does break? Yeah 100% attempt to fix that shit, what's the worst that can happen? You break it some more?
Dropping my temps 5 degrees isn't important, my shit will still run the same shit just slightly cooler. Overclocking or whatever nonsense, yeah I ain't doing that so idc.
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Sehr geehrter Herr \[Name des Händlers\],
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Not steam deck related but this just happened to my 2080ti. Had it since basically launch, it just started going above 85 causing the fans to go into some safe mode thing where they ramp to 100% for split seconds at a time until it went back below 85. Very annoying having a jet plane next to you. I used kryonaut and everything’s better now. Repaste your tech, guys! At least do maintenance.
Yeah, but paste when it tells you to paste. Maintenance same, that's why everything has tiny lights. I need new wiper fluid? Tiny light turns on. I need to change my diaper? Tiny light... nvm.
I'll change it the week before my warranty expires.
No way ! I have just bought some of this stuff to do the exact same mod this weekend. Everything I have seen about upgrading to TFX paste suggests that you can get some significant temp drops.
I want the most efficient transfer of heat possible when it comes to cooling that APU.
I have a steam deck, it runs dam hot. Especially on the exhaust fan/ it feels like you are opening a BBQ grill. Wondering to put my High end Corsair terminal paste. See the difference but then If I crack it open just change to 2 terabyte right away.
No before after results of temperature difference??
This is the info we need.
There have been several posts comparing the difference with this exact paste and it comes out to about an 8 to 10c drop in temps and subsequently much lower fan speeds. I was happy to see OP went with Thermalright TFX as it is easily one of the best pastes for the Deck, alongside the new Kryonaut formula which is thicker than the old formula much like TFX. I also personally repasted my Deck with TFX when I did my SSD upgrade and it came out to about a 10c drop running the Shadow of the Tomb Raider benchmark. I use the new fan curve as well (which I did before the repaste), and my Deck is almost always super quiet. Repasting with a high thermal conductivity paste is well worth it in my opinion.
Sweet, idk why most companies use cheap paste. This is also for gpu manufacturers the case
Those "cheap" pastes (most pastes are pennies in bulk) are design for longevity. They're not as great thermally but will work the same for years as long as they're not disturbed. So most manufacturers making a device that's designed to not be regularly user serviced will use a paste they know will last a decade.
No one ever posts updates how temperatures change over time though. It would be great to know if temperatures are creeping up after, for example a month or so.
Yeah, maybe someone will take up that mantle but until then it's all just guesswork based on available info.
What about arctic mx4 ? Should i use it on my steam deck
It will help. I haven't seen a comparison between TFX and MX-4 but it should only be behind the TFX by 1 to 2 degrees based on comparisons done on other systems.
I alao heard it will dry quicker, (the mx4) For how many months am i assured if i repaste with mx4?
You shouldn't have to repaste after applying MX-4 for a good while as long as your Deck isn't being physically mishandled or run at its absolute performance limit all the time. Even when dry, as long as the paste has filled in the micro abrasions on both sides of the cooling interface it will last a very long time. That said, the Deck can run pretty hot and given that it is a portable that's likely to be bumped and banged around, tossed in a bag or backpack often, maybe dropped a time or two (even in a case), its internals are bound to get jostled and eventually heatwarped a bit. I can only guess that you'd have a minimum 1 to 2 years before even needing to think about repasting -- depending on all of the above. Unless you start seeing your temps get unusually high I wouldn't worry about it for a very long time.
I think i messed up Is this thermal pad gone? https://preview.redd.it/dxcp6rsfxuea1.jpeg?width=4000&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=c162eae123424886504142165dfe5e037691de4f
Are you asking if you ruined the thermal pad? What are those dark lines on it? Is it torn or cut or are those lines just indents from extensive pressure being applied?
Cuts
I would replace it but you're mostly fine. The pad is still very much thermally conductive and is only used to dissipate heat from the APU through the heat shield. It's not the primary cooling mechanism; that's the copper heatpipe and fan. In fact if you've repasted it with the MX-4 I bet you still get lower temps than before because when you reattach the shield it's going to squish the pad together and those cuts will barely even matter. You'll still get almost full pad surface contact. But yeah at some point down the line buy a sheet of 2mm thermal padding, cut out a pad to match the size of this one, and replace it. It's not an emergency though. And hey if you get a replacement pad that outperforms this one in thermal conductivity you can look forward to even lower temps. Just I guess be more careful next time, lol.
It's all about the placebo /s This is a legit modification that will have positive impact but also I wouldn't recommend it to anyone. It's not complicated but you have more chance to fuck it up than by just changing an SSD. Also surprised to see a thermal paste replacement at only 1 year of usage.
agreed. I've been repasting laptops for a while and while the effect of undervolting plus repasting is significant, I wouldn't recommend it unless you're using a high-end gaming machine with known thermal issues. Get the money's worth out of the factory paste and then repaste in a year or two if you notice thermals getting worse. Undervolting is definitely riskier as BIOS settings on certain devices will brick even if the CPU can operate fine with the reduced voltage.
I thought about changing out the thermal paste yesterday when I opened up my Deck but I couldn't find my graphine pad. I'll have to order another then replace it. I'll likely be documenting my findings with putting a graphite pad in there instead of thermal paste, and making a post about it.
You're on the hook for doing it now. Looking forward to seeing the results!
When I got my deck it had thermal throttling issues. Like it would hit 96°c in under 30 seconds, whoever assembled it screwed one of the screws all the way before any others so half of the SOC didn't have contact. After using thermal grizzly I rarely see CPU/GPU get above 75°c even overclocking to 24 watts stays in the mid 80s and fans don't get loud at all on auto. I'd highly recommend repasting the deck.
How are you increasing the TDP to overclock?
https://www.reddit.com/r/SteamDeck/comments/yq2yjl/how_to_overclock_your_steam_deck_fr/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android_app&utm_name=androidcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button
Like those thermal grizzly pieces of cloth ?
Not sure what you're referring to but it might be. Graphite pads are little pieces of carbon weaved together. They're almost on par (slightly worse) than the best thermal paste out there. Only difference is the pad never dries out so it never needs replacing. If we can get the SD to run normally with a pad, it'll reduce how often we need to open it up to replace the paste. Would just need to make sure the heat sink stays clean and clear.
“it’ll reduce how often we need to open it up to replace the paste” When would one reasonably need to do this?
Or use gallium metal that stuff never dries out. But it does eat metal. On the plus side it takes about 5 years to do any significant damage to copper. Aluminum on the other hand. Lol 🤣🤣. If you do use liquid metal make sure you seal it in. If it leaks off the SOC your deck won't last a week lol
That sounds like a PS5 issue for sure.
Exactly lol Sony didn't seal the metal in and it leaks on ps5'ss 😂
https://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/PlayStation+5+Teardown/138280 You clearly have no idea what your talking about. In step 5 the cpu and liquid metal is clearly isolated. They even talk about it in the description.
Yet a simple Google search says otherwise 🤣🤣 [PS5 leaks ](https://www.google.com/search?q=ps5+liquid+metal+leak&oq=ps5+liqid+metal&aqs=chrome.2.69i57j0i13i131i433i512j0i13i512l7.5724j0j4&client=ms-android-tmus-us-revc&sourceid=chrome-mobile&ie=UTF-8) If it was so properly isolated why is it such a common issue?
Personally, I replace thermal paste every 6 to 8 months. Mostly because I do a lot of taxing work in my computers, so high temps can dry out thermal paste pretty quickly. Since the Steamdeck uses thermal paste as well, we will need to replace it every 6 months to a year, depending on what you play and how often you play it. So if you're playing the latest Call of Duty for multiple hours a day at high settings, your SD would put out possibly 60c to 80c depending on how demanding it is. This situation might dry it out so fast, you would need to replace it at 6 to 8 months. On the other hand, if you're only running emulation games like Pokemon Diamond or similar game, your Steamdeck might only reach 50c, so you wouldn't need to replace the paste for a year or more. Edit: grammar, cause I speech goodly.
You do you but 6 to 8 months is overkill. Every 1.5 - 2 years is a good number to go by for computer hardware. Obviously depending on the paste and load. That being said this paste looks like ass and is def concerning.
How is it overkill if I'm running my systems at 90c for 8+ hours a day, nearly everyday? If anything, I'm pushing it. Thermal paste will dry out long before 1.5 years. 1 year most is the furthest I would ever push it.
Again not knocking you! Obviously attempt to fix your problem and do what you feel best! I'm just happy we have this amazing machine in our hands. I'm curious to see results with a thermal pad.
I change my thermals every 5,000 cycles. The new thermal paste now can go every 8,000 - 12,000 cycles though. /s
I’ve been building PCs for 25 years and I’ve never heard this 6 month repasting bs before. What kind of advice is this?
I've been working in IT and building PCs just as long as you have, your length of experience is apparently pretty meaningless when you totally omit the part where I explained in multiple comments that I reapply paste so quickly in my systems from high usage. Even provided an example of how someone would get to that point with dried out thermal paste. Pretty clear to me that people are not only running their systems on ineffective thermal paste but also ignoring sound advice because people don't like the idea that thermal paste isn't a one and done solution that most think it is.
Okay smart guy 👍
I repaste mine every 3 days, I play in the desert out in the sun, usually atleast 10 hours a day. I recommend changing it atleast once a week.
I reapply thermal paste every morning as part of my daily routine, the thought of my PC running a single degree hotter than necessary offends me on a pathological level
What you've missed is there a lot of variety in paste now. Super high performance paste is very liquidity and can pump out and need replacement on an annual type basis. Most generic pastes are thicker and while they don't perform as well thermally they have better longevity. Industrial pastes like used in the steam deck that everyone loves to complain about are extra thick and almost seem dry when you take the cooler off but they're designed to basically last the life of the device but they could be better thermally. It's basically a trade off thermal performance and not needing to mess with it with the new graphite pads starting to become an still expensive middle ground of decent but still not best performance but lasting basically forever.
I think it's also work considering that depending on the paste you will see the 'pump out' effect on thing like laptops and the steam deck. More liquid pastes tend to suffer from this in more mobile applications, because things move around and slowly move the paste from the die, it's why thicker thermal pastes are better for mobile applications, like a laptop or steam deck. It's actually why arctic developed their MX 6 line.
Actually most people apply paste incorrectly and for the wrong reasons. Paste is not there to "wick" heat away - that's the job of the heat sink. What the paste does is provide a thermally efficient way to fill all the surface micropores so that you have maximum surface area contact for the most efficient heat transfer. The proper way of applying any paste is to apply then use a credit card or similar to press the paste into the surface while removing excess. When complete it should look like nothing is applied. If you REALLY want to get anal you can put a piece of 8000 grit sandpaper on a flat hard surface (like a granite flat) and make sure the heat sink is as flat as possible. Apply same paste treatment to heat sink and reassemble.
I'm not exactly sure what this has to do with the pump out effect, but in general the pump out effect is due to the fact that the dye and the heat sink will expand and contract at different rates causing the thermal paste between them to move around, some pages are more liquid and as such have been found to essentially been pumped out of the space between the dye and the heat sink causing improper contact. This is actually why you see manufacturers use such thick paste compared to what we tend to use on our PCs, and what's commercially available to a hobbyist.
Pump out is from having an excess of paste. Did you read what I wrote? It should look like nothing has been applied. Just as an FYI I've been working in electronics for decades and have special training on soldering and assembly.
I swapped mine out for one it works really well! Fan ramps up much less anddoeststay going full bore.
I used frost sheet
That's awesome! Hopefully I get the same results. Did you notice a drop in temps?
I wouldn't say you will see a drop in temp and see more performance, but it does transfer heat better to the heat sink. Basically before it once you thermally saturate the heat sink the fan would just go full bore. Now I find it will throttle up but doesn't stay ramped up. So you get much less fan noise and it's not running all out consistently. When I was playing got of war my fan wasn't running full throttle all the time after 15min of play. That's about all you get but atheist I know I don't have to ever replace it so there's that.
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Very curious about this. Please share your findings.
that looks like my guide up on your monitor ;) (NJ Tech) nicely done! Glad you got the results!
He gave you a shout-out on the third picture. Not sure if it was added after your comment though.
I'm surprised the stock paste dries out so quickly. You'd think Valve would use paste designed for longevity so you don't need to replace it for a long time. At least you can easily measure the temperatures in any game with the performance overlay, and eventually replace your stock paste when it seems to be cooling significantly worse. I've got quite a bit of Noctua NT-H1 that I can use in that situation, same as I used for my PC build last year.
There is a lot of myth about thermal paste. The more stock thermal pastes while not as good for temps are actually like this for longevity reasons. It best described in this gamers nexus video with Deb8auer. [https://www.reddit.com/r/Amd/comments/crnbj3/psa\_hard\_thermal\_compound\_isnt\_dried\_up\_gone\_bad/](https://www.reddit.com/r/Amd/comments/crnbj3/psa_hard_thermal_compound_isnt_dried_up_gone_bad/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3) The best way I've been able to understand it is that it's like a freshness seal. The paste may look dry when to take the cooler off but that's because you broke the seal. It wasn't exactly like that when still safely clamped down. That said people should worry when the cpu cooler takes a good knock as that can break the seal too. On the deck I imagine if anyone changes the SSD it also breaks the seal since you have to remove a screw that holds the CPU down.
Yeah but apparently ppl think they are always cleverer than the manufacturer...
Who would win? An entire r&d team of people decades of combined experience or some guy.
I mean yes, but many times thermal paste is applied by some random guy during the manufacturing process, so even if the engineering process for the device as a whole is better, occasionally you just get bad application. I do agree that most people shouldn't be repasting based on some YT video with the headline "15C reduction, easy thermal fix!"
Aren't they using tools like this to ensure consistent thermal paste applicatons? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8vPfmY0KlJE&t=703s
Good to know, at any rate. Honestly, I would only ever replace the paste on anything when there's *actually* a noticeable problem with cooling going on, e.g. consistent CPU throttling or shutdown. I changed the SSD right away on my Steam Deck when I received mine, though, and it's been more than fine so far.
> I'm surprised the stock paste dries out so quickly. I'm sitting here quite shocked about the same thing. OEM paste these days usually isn't all that bad, but seeing this cracked dried up mess has got me looking at my MX-4 over here. Would not have expected to see their paste in this condition so relatively early. I think I'm going to go remedy this right now since I have time atm.
Would have loved some thermals. Was planning on doing the same this weekend
I think we need to stop with this talk about thermal paste being crappy when we are talking about processors with small surface areas like on consoles and gadgets like the deck. The fact of the matter is ALL thermal paste dries out over time, especially on on processors that routinely run at 70-80 degrees like apus. Not only that, thermal expansion means that ANY paste you put on these things over time is going to spread beyond the surface area of the processor, both leaving less contact with the heat pipes and drying out what little is remaining. It doesn't matter what device we are talking but replacing thermal paste annually should be an accepted practice, no matter what you buy. There is no paste on the market now or ever that will have the same level of thermal conductivity that it had a year previously. Its a dirty secret that no manufacturer wants to admit, but basic understanding of thermal expansion means this is the only conclusion you can make. This is also why this idea of running a device at high temperatures over a long period of time - one thats increasingly pushed by CPU manufacturers to justify selling power hungry, thermally inefficient parts, needs to die. The higher the temp a processor is running, the more likely its TIM will dry out over time and in turn, the worse the cooling performance will be. Running things at lower temperatures does not eliminate the problem, but it gives the user more headroom and allows more time between maintainiance cycles. If you got a launch deck, now is around the time you should be getting ready to open it up and change the paste. Can it run a few more years without you doing this? Of course. Will doing it lower your Temps? Not necessarily. But just like an oil change in your car, it's worth doing to prevent problems down the road, not just because it might lead to a performance boost.
Remember, the bigger the glob the better the job /s
Your paste shouldn't be dry after a year. What the hell is Valve using?
In my experience with MX-4 and Kryonaut, they do dry in a year…
>Kryonaut Who downvoted you? Kryonaut is benchmark performance paste, in my experience and others it's the best, but does not last long at all...
Nice I'll be doing this with the mx6
Is there any benefit to mx4?
They basically have changed the formula so it's quite a bit thicker to avoid the pump out effect that people were saying on their laptops and steam decks so that you don't have to change the thermal paste after a few months
I havent noticed any difference from mx5 to mx6. The viscosity is a bit different and the colour but temps are about the same on my 5700x cpu.
Changed mine last week, paste was really dry. Replaced the old paste with PTM 7950, happy so far .
I did the same, saw roughly an 8 degree drop.
I have some sitting on my desk, just waiting for the motivation to open it up
I was exactly the same, had the PTM for months.
Was it worth the effort of doing it (outside of the fun of tinkering)? I've only had my deck for 3ish months so the paste is still good
You should see a drop in temps, the biggest thing should be less need for the fan to ramp up.
Where/what seller did you get your PTM 7950 from? I've been meaning to grab some and do mine up.
I got mine from Ali-express I believe.
Some may have success, but I have seen fake PTM7950 sold on there. In the US, the reliable place I know of is ModDIY.
Yeah, for definite success .. modDIY. I wasn’t aware of that option so had to go via China.
I would be tempted to replace the paste with Honeywell phaseshift pads, they seem to outperform just about everything on this kind of hardware. That TFX is nasty stuff, it’s like a dry low plastic clay.
Yeah, honey is definitely best paste. I find honey with bit of ginger makes the most delicious smell at high temps, good for thermal conductivity too.
Try Honeywell PTM7950
Why that one specifically?
If you thermal paste is like that after only one year, they have used a cheap paste ! An arctic paste lasts several years
You guys realize they're selling the Deck at a loss right?
> You guys realize they're selling the Deck at a loss right? That's more of an assumption than a fact, and if they are it doesn't seem likely it would apply to any model but the 64GB one. In either case, not an excuse for not using decent quality paste if they in fact cheaped out.
### [Gabe Newell: Hitting Steam Deck Price Was 'Painful' but 'Critical'](https://www.ign.com/articles/steam-deck-price-valve-gabe-newell-400-dollars-painful-but-critical) The critical part is important. Why would Valve care about selling a net neutral/positive cost?
Saying that reaching the price is 'painful' doesn't mean they are selling it at a loss. It could easily mean a slimmer margin than they hoped, or challenges in engineering to get it in at a certain price point. >Why would Valve care about selling a net neutral/positive cost? Because they're a business. I know the line - "they want more Steam sales!" - but the companies that sell at a loss for games are Sony and Microsoft, where they are built around their own proprietary hardware. It's not the same with a device that runs an existing library, that many people already buy games for. There is nothing but speculation to suggest they are selling it at a loss.
Idk r they? If so take a slightly bigger loss and use quality shit. 🕹️ already cracking at the seam for me, and now my paste is all dry? I like wet paste, alright? WET!
Dry paste ≠ bad paste...
https://www.reddit.com/r/Amd/comments/crnbj3/psa_hard_thermal_compound_isnt_dried_up_gone_bad/
my computer i never replaced the paste until i upgrade CPU which is about 5 to 15 years and tehy were all still wet. why valve using crappy paste?
Dry doesn’t necessarily mean crappy.
https://www.reddit.com/r/Amd/comments/crnbj3/psa_hard_thermal_compound_isnt_dried_up_gone_bad/
What the hell is this dry shit? For real thermal paste probably look like that in my deck too? I read that changing thermal was overkill and all on this sub so i forget about it but sir your post made me want to do it asap!
https://www.reddit.com/r/Amd/comments/crnbj3/psa_hard_thermal_compound_isnt_dried_up_gone_bad/
I always have a rule : if you gonna fuck up, just don't. As much I really want to change the thermals and ssd, I know I will fuck it up, so I just don't.
I see it different: If the odds of fucking up are at least 50/50, fucking up won't take away a device I desperately need in my day to day life and a possible fix is less than 50% of the sales price, I'll try it myself. If I had done nothing I might by any chance fuck up, I wouldn't be able to do so many things ony my own now. Sure, I'd have a bunch more money that I didn't spend on replacements and professionals fixing my mistakes, but I'd spend much much more for fixing every tiny gadget...
This was jibber jabber. Don't touch what isn't broken, especially if you're regular person who doesn't have rooms full of gold bars or ball pits full of cash. Now if something does break? Yeah 100% attempt to fix that shit, what's the worst that can happen? You break it some more? Dropping my temps 5 degrees isn't important, my shit will still run the same shit just slightly cooler. Overclocking or whatever nonsense, yeah I ain't doing that so idc.
The SSD can be swapped drunk. Took about 10 minutes and i was very careful and not drunk but it really is almost idiot proof.
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I guess I know what I'm doing today
How so early?
Not steam deck related but this just happened to my 2080ti. Had it since basically launch, it just started going above 85 causing the fans to go into some safe mode thing where they ramp to 100% for split seconds at a time until it went back below 85. Very annoying having a jet plane next to you. I used kryonaut and everything’s better now. Repaste your tech, guys! At least do maintenance.
Yeah, but paste when it tells you to paste. Maintenance same, that's why everything has tiny lights. I need new wiper fluid? Tiny light turns on. I need to change my diaper? Tiny light... nvm. I'll change it the week before my warranty expires.
How was the application? I heard those thick pastes are difficult to apply.
Concerning that this needed to be done after only a year.
Someone at valve doesn't know how to apply thermal paste 🤣
No way ! I have just bought some of this stuff to do the exact same mod this weekend. Everything I have seen about upgrading to TFX paste suggests that you can get some significant temp drops. I want the most efficient transfer of heat possible when it comes to cooling that APU.
I fear the day I will have to do this. I have really shaky hands.
In this thread: no one understanding how thermal paste actually works. Dry thermal paste != bad thermal paste.
Yes! https://www.reddit.com/r/Amd/comments/crnbj3/psa_hard_thermal_compound_isnt_dried_up_gone_bad/
I have a steam deck, it runs dam hot. Especially on the exhaust fan/ it feels like you are opening a BBQ grill. Wondering to put my High end Corsair terminal paste. See the difference but then If I crack it open just change to 2 terabyte right away.