How To Apply Thermal Paste To CPU and GPU – step-by-step application

Although certain thermal pastes may be marketed as CPU or GPU pastes exclusively, it’s all actually the same stuff.

The truth is, there’s just no need for the paste to differ in any way. It’s doing the exact same job no matter which bit of hardware you’re applying it to.

It forms a thermally conductive bridge between the baseplate of your CPU and GPU in order to maximize heat transfer between the unit and its cooling system.

So, if you’ve got some CPU thermal paste going spare, and you think your GPU could do with sprucing up in that department, feel free to do so.

As long as you remove the old paste safely, then apply the new layer correctly, it should knock at least a few degrees off your GPU’s running temperature — hurray!

However, it’s important to bear in mind that while no thermal compounds are made for a single bit of hardware, there are different types available.

Ideally, the thermal paste will coat the entirety of the contact area between your CPU and the cooler, or at least where the copper heat pipes connect with the baseplate.

However, that doesn’t mean you have to physically spread the thermal compound across the whole of your CPU like you’re buttering a piece of toast. A small pea-sized dot in the middle of your CPU is fine, as you’ll then compress it with your cooler’s contact plate, spreading it automatically.

This method of using the cooler to spread the thermal paste is actually seen as superior to manually spreading the compound, as it’s the best way to ensure there are no gaps between the paste and the contact plate of your cooler.

When you attempt to spread the paste manually, it’s impossible to get it perfectly even, which means there’ll be tiny gaps between the cooler plate and your CPU, reducing heat dissipation.

Some describe the amount of thermal paste you need for your CPU as roughly the size of two grains of rice, but we think pea-sized is a much better guide, as a pea is much easier to visualize.

There are many ways to apply thermal paste, but as long as the total volume of the paste used adds up to the size of that single garden pea, everything should be fine.

We’ve found that application style has very little effect on the efficacy of the thermal paste, but we do warn against manually spreading the paste out over the base of your CPU. It’s much better to let your cooler’s contact plate squeeze the paste across the surface of your CPU base when you refit it.

When it comes to applying a fresh layer of thermal paste on your GPU, you can follow the exact same protocol. A pea-sized blob in the center of the baseplate is all you’ll need.

Most manufacturers claim that their thermal paste has a lifespan stretching between three and five years; however, these figures are calculated with the assumption that the paste is being held in optimal conditions. This may not be the case with your build.

For CPUs, a good rule of thumb is to replace the thermal paste once annually, just to ensure it’s performing at the peak of its potential. Although, there are a couple of instances that call for a slight deviation from the yearly schedule.

For example, if you’re replacing your CPU cooler, or even if you’re just removing your current one to do some inspections, you’ll need to replace the thermal paste before refitting.

GPUs don’t require anywhere near as much maintenance in the thermal paste department. They tend to run for 5-10 years before it’ll need replacing, at which point you may be due an upgrade anyway.

As we’ve just mentioned, GPUs can run an exceedingly long time before you’ll need to replace the thermal paste, which is fantastic.

The reason being, graphics cards are a little trickier to disassemble, so it would be a nightmare if we had to constantly open them up to reach the GPU baseplate. What’s more, there are plenty of fragile components within a graphics card, such as fan power plugs, and our persistent meddling would eventually cause damage of some kind.

That said, there are some instances when replacing your GPUs thermal paste is definitely worthwhile.

If you’ve noticed a steady increase in your GPU’s thermals for seemingly no reason, there’s a good chance there’s an issue with the current thermal paste. If you’ve been using it for over five years, it may have dried up and cracked, causing rifts between the heat spreader and the GPU baseplate. Unless you’re planning on upgrading your GPU, this scenario calls for some new thermal paste.

From a performance perspective, applying too much thermal paste isn’t really an issue. As long as it’s evenly spread beneath the contact plate of the cooler, it should get the job done the same as if you’d applied the perfect pea-sized amount.

However, you certainly don’t want to be dealing with a bunch of excess paste if you can avoid it. If you’ve applied far too much thermal paste, once you refit the cooler, the excess will be squeezed out over the edges of the CPU or GPU baseplate.

If you’re using a non-conductive thermal paste, your biggest worry is making a mess of your expensive hardware. On the other hand, if you’re using a high-performance conductive paste, there’s a chance that spilling some over the edges of your baseplate may cause it to short nearby components, which can cause irreversible damage to your GPU.

For these reasons, it’s best to be as accurate with your application as possible.

Technically speaking, certain toothpastes can be used as thermal pastes. It all depends on their thermal conductivity. Although, even toothpaste with high thermal conductivity will dry out within a week.

Some counteract toothpaste’s fast-drying properties by mixing it with Vaseline, but even then, it will need to be changed every 30 days or so.

Here at WePC – and I can’t stress this enough – we can’t recommend using toothpaste on your expensive computer hardware, with Vaseline or not. Being that thermal paste rarely ever costs all that much, you’re much better off buying a specialist compound and saving your toothpaste for your pearly whites.

Not only will it be difficult to source a toothpaste that exhibits good adhesion to metal, high thermal conductivity, and has a long shelf life, it’s never going to be optimized for use as thermal paste.

Please, please, please just treat yourself to some official thermal paste. Your computer will thank you!

Walmart sells everything, thermal paste included, but as we’re talking about a store in which you can buy your tires and your groceries under one roof, that shouldn’t really surprise anyone.

And it’s not like they sell some poor quality, no-name-brand, budget pastes either; they have a wide range of quality thermal pastes from industry-leading brands such as Corsair, Arctic, and Noctua.

Walmart’s available thermal pastes range from around $5 to $25, and you can purchase them online, so you don’t even have to stop gaming to go and fetch some — perfect!

It’s not just thermal paste that Walmart stocks their shelves with. Within their 15-page computer thermals inventory, you can find such classic bits of gear as the Noctua NH-D15 and MSI Torx fans.

As is always the case with Walmart, the pricing on these products is very reasonable, but we find you can source them cheaper from sites such as Amazon.