Roundup: Thermalright TF4, TF7, TF8, TF9 and TFX Review – Thermal compound from flowing screed to bunker concrete

As I have been asked again and again about the Thermalright T9 and TFX (i.e. quasi TF10), today there is a Thermalright special with a total of five pastes, three of which I would only recommend to a limited extent. Even though all five pastes are good in terms of price/performance ratio, I consider some of them to be highly problematic. I had already tested three of these pastes in other articles, the other two are new. And one paste can almost compete with the good industrial pastes from Dow Chemical. That’s why I’m summarizing this today and making a kind of Thermalright roundup and a real comparison out of it, because it’s easier to find.

We also had discussions in the forum about skills with viscous pastes and the differences in performance from user to user or changing area of application. Two of the pastes tested today have a physical problem, which I will discuss in detail. After all, my measurement will allow all those who were quietly weeping and doubting their own skills to sleep better again. But the pastes are really to blame here and not the user. But more on that later.

Thermalright TF4

Let’s start at the lower end of the Thermalright food chain this time with the TF4, which is clearly inferior to the other four pastes in terms of performance, but at an almost shockingly low 3 euros for 4 grams shows that even then you can still achieve an almost four-digit margin. It’s the cheapest way to get started and yet not really worth a recommendation, I can spoil that already. Yes, you can do it if you want to get started quickly. But it’s better not to make high demands.

Thermalright TF 7

The TF7 was also recently tested, which at just over 4 euros for 2 grams (free shipping via Amazon Prime) is also more expensive than the TF4, but in my opinion is still a really cheap paste. Thermalright delivers more as ordered, although the price is of course unbeatable without all the middlemen. That has to be said to the credit of most competitors. However, this does not change the fact that the paste is still user-friendly in terms of consistency. Skill level and all. TF7 is not normally viscous and is therefore easier to work with. It is actually exactly the compromise between durability and user-friendliness that made the old GC-Extreme from Gelid famous back in the day.

Thermalright TF8

The Thermalright TF8 is actually more than just an insider tip, especially as this outstandingly performing paste is almost as unbeatably cheap as the TF7 for currently from 5 euros in the 2-gram pack. Today you can find out how and why this paste is, in my opinion, almost the maximum of what is technically feasible and applicable. Of course, there is always some shadow where there is a lot of light, because you can only achieve such values if you “highly fill” a paste, i.e. work with a lot of thermally conductive particles in the matrix. I will explain this later in the material analysis. The skill level therefore increases even further compared to TF7. As far as I could find out, the paste could come from T-Global, which is a reliable reseller.

Thermalright TF9

This paste is thermally a board, physically too, unfortunately. This paste is so highly filled that although it has excellent values for thermal resistance and thermal conductivity, it causes unexpected problems that many users cannot explain because they do not have the means to measure them. There are a few people who are really happy with the TF9, but unfortunately there are also a lot of people who fail with this paste. We need to talk about that today. Durability or not, you can also overdo it. Skill level: top marks. As far as I could find out, this paste should also come from T-Global.

Thermalright TFX

The Thermalright TFX (X as a Roman numeral 10) is the dominant concrete head among the pastes, the canteen cutlet, so to speak, among all the warm-showering thermal conduction files. No, this is no longer a paste, this is putty at its finest. Like the TF9, this paste fails due to its own fatness. And as much as I like the TF8 and the TF7, this is a paste that Thermalright would have done better without. Although it could perhaps still be used as a putty (up to 500 µm). But the explanation is yet to come, so don’t worry.

An important preface to “bulk thermal conductivity” and false marketing promises

I am now deliberately adding two quotes that not only speak to me from the heart, but also absolutely agree with my laboratory measurements. Much more than 4 to 5 W/(m-K), or even 6 W/(m-K) with very, very good pastes, is not possible at all with conventional means under the usual conditions on a GPU or CPU in terms of layer thickness, temperature and pressure. Because these quotes are honest and unfortunately correspond to reality, I will use this part from now on as a standard quote in all paste tests of all manufacturers and put it in front. You can’t bend physics.

For those who wonder how you can even arrive at figures above this limit, it should be noted that test conditions can certainly be adapted to achieve astronomically high figures. However, testing in a bucket has nothing to do with reality, even if a known measurement method is used. Without knowledge of the exact circumstances, such values are completely misleading and meaningless. You could give many suppliers credit for simply not knowing any better and just copying the OEM’s data sheets, but it doesn’t make misleading consumers any better.

Real long-term simulations (3000 hours in 1000 cycles up to 90°C) are not feasible in terms of effort. That’s why I can only make predictions, but I want them to be understood as such. It is virtually impossible to make scientifically sound statements in just a few days. Yes, you can identify a trend and scale it as a forecast based on existing data, but this is not something that allows you to make really reliable statements. Therefore, I am sorry to say that I have to leave out this important point. However, as far as time permits, I will take community feedback into account and add the comments and long-term experience of third parties to the database as a note in due course, if it seems necessary. In both a positive and negative sense. However, this is a subjective value that has no place in a comparative database.

The data sheets, as far as they exist, are quite useless. But that’s what the measurements are for, and it’s precisely these that are really interesting. Let’s go!

Further links and basics