Best Thermal Paste (For CPU & GPU), Top 10 Best Thermal Pastes In 2022
An In-Depth Look At The Best Thermal Paste 2022
What is the best thermal paste 2022? Thermal paste is often the overlooked product for a lot of new builders computer setups. This can be down to a lack of experience or the simple fact that coolers already come with thermal paste pre-applied.
While the pre-applied thermal paste will work, it is often very old and has been sitting in a box for months on end. With this in mind, it is always a better idea to buy and apply your own thermal paste when installing your CPU for better temps at stock speeds.
Thermal paste needs changing annually, as it will eventually dry out and begin to lose its effectiveness. If you leave the thermal paste on too long, you will begin to see performance issues and gradual overheating which can damage your CPU in the long run.
Can you just apply any thermal paste? What is the best thermal paste for your needs? Let’s take a look and breakdown what truly is the best thermal paste available right now.
Watch our video rundown
Our Top Picks
Best Thermal Paste In 2022
In-depth Review
Arctic Silver 5
Arctic Silver 5
It’s already 2022 but if you’re looking for a thermal paste that’s been tried and tested, then look no further than Arctic Silver 5. As mentioned earlier, I’ve been using this thermal paste for years and I’ve never had a heat-related component failure due to my thermal paste going bad.
Testing
In our testing, Arctic Silver 5 did very well, being one of the coolest-scoring pastes on our list. Even under full processor load, our processor never made it over 53°C (127°F).
Arctic MX-4
Arctic MX-4
The Arctic MX-4 is the highest rated thermal paste on our list, and the results show why.
It’s a little on the expensive side but you get a large, 4g tube of paste, which they claim has an eight-year life span, so it should last you for a long time to come.
Tests
The results don’t lie! This thermal paste showed it can handle some heat, coming in at a nice chilly 57°C (134°F), even under full load during gaming.
Thermal Grizzly Hydronaut
Thermal Grizzly Hydronaut
The next selection up from Thermal Grizzly is their Hydronaut. And yup, you guessed it, it’s designed for water-cooling setups. Although it’ll work for any coolers, not just water.
Tests
The Hydronaut did even better than the Aeronaut paste, never getting any warmer than a nice and a cool 54°C (113°F). There was nothing I could throw at this paste that it couldn’t handle while gaming.
Thermal Grizzly Kryonaut
Thermal Grizzly Kryonaut
Another heavy hitter from Thermal Grizzly: Kryonaut. The naming scheme doesn’t quite follow the others when it comes to this one as it’s not designed for sub-zero cooling solutions; it’s just a word that indicates cool temperatures. Name aside, this is another great product from Thermal Grizzly. There’s also another exceptional brand of TG called thermal Grizzly Conductonaut, But it didn’t quite make it onto this list.
Tests
I don’t know how Thermal Grizzly does it, but this one tested even cooler than the previous one. Coming in at a nice and frosty 53°C° degrees Celsius (127°F), this is probably the best CPU thermal paste (it’s also likely the best thermal paste for GPUs, but we didn’t test it on GPUs).
Thermal Grizzly Aeronaut
Thermal Grizzly Aeronaut
Thermal Grizzly is where we start to enter the little bit more expensive, “premium” thermal pastes. However, they are widely known as being a company that makes great thermal pastes for extreme solutions.
The first in their line is the Aeronaut. As you can probably guess from the name, it’s made more for people running air cooling solutions, such as a simple fan and heat sink.
Tests
The Aeronaut paste did very well in our tests, never reaching higher than 57°C (134°F). This will keep your system nice and cool, even if you’re on any air coolers you’d find in the market.
Arctic Silver Ceramique 2
Arctic Silver Ceramique 2
Made by the same guys as Arctic Silver 5, Arctic Silver Ceramique uses a ceramic base instead of silver.
Giving their consumers a non-conductive, beginner-friendly thermal paste was a good choice by Arctic Silver. This thermal paste won’t short anything out if you accidentally get some overspill when applying it to the processor.
Tests
In our testing, the Arctic Silver Ceramique didn’t score quite as well as its predecessor, but the results were still very favorable for gaming. This paste never got over 61°C (141°F), keeping our processor cool even during intense gaming.
Cooler Master High Performance Thermal Paste
Cooler Master High Performance Thermal Paste
I guess being great at making cases and power supplies wasn’t enough for Cooler Master, as now they’ve now branched out into thermal pastes!
The first one we tested was the Cooler Master High Performance branded thermal paste. Designed to be a great overall thermal paste, it doesn’t quite hit the mark in our opinion compared to the other selections here. It does however come with a credit card-like spreader and sticker templates to help you apply the thermal paste to the processor with no mess-ups!
Tests
In our testing, this thermal paste came in with a load temp of around 63°C (145°F), which is the second-highest temp result of any paste on this page, though not much higher than the 61°C many achieve. Still, in that 60-degree area, it’s more than suitable for intense gaming.
Gelid Solutions GC-Extreme
Gelid Solutions GC-Extreme
Gelid Solutions is another one of those companies that I hadn’t really heard about, but the thermal paste was suggested to me, and so on the list of pastes to test it went! The Gelid Solutions GC-Extreme performed to a respectable standard in our testing trials, comparing favorably to some bigger names on this list.
The Gelid Solutions GC-Extreme is non-corrosive, non-toxic, and requires no curing time. It also comes with a handy spreader to take the guesswork out of the equation when applying the paste.
It does come in a larger tube, though, which means you are paying more overall for thermal paste you might not necessarily need too often.
Tests
I was pleasantly surprised with the GC-Extreme, as it came in at 61°C (141°F) under full load while gaming, making this a worthwhile consideration.
Prolimatech PK-3
Prolimatech PK-3
Prolimatech may not be a brand you’re familiar with, but that shouldn’t stop you from considering it. Made with a non-conductive nano aluminum compound, the PK-3 showed great results in our tests.
Tests
The Prolimatech PK-3 was one of our better testing thermal solutions coming in at 53°C (138°F). This is right under the frosty 60-degree range, making this a great pick for your gaming machine.
The Innovation Cooling Diamond thermal paste uses a non-conductive base with crushed synthetic diamonds sprinkled in.
While the company claims the diamonds provide superior thermal transfer, it doesn’t appear to help any more than a standard thermal paste.
Tests
Coming in at 60°C (140°F), the Innovation Cooling isn’t the coolest on the list, but it does hold up quite well. Is it worth the extra couple of dollars to get it just because it has the diamonds? Maybe not, but it’s still effective and it’s still a pretty good price point.
FAQs
Final Word
Now we have been through what the best thermal paste could be, what will you pick for your system? Personally, I’ve been running Arctic Silver 5 on all my previous systems (this one too).
Arctic Silver 5 has worked out very well for me, and I’d recommend them to anyone looking to up their thermal paste game.
But what about you? What do you use? Is it on this list or something else entirely?