A solid thermal compound test

Proper airflow and effective cooling area on the cooler would make a bigger impact.

why didn't you test some aftermarket compounds such as those from arctic cooling and arctic silver.

Application of the thermal compound and proper air flow are more key factors... What would be important to determine / review, is the performance of a stock Intel or AMD thermal compound. This should show you should if there is truly an impact with aftermarket thermal compounds.

I have had good results using MX-4 and IC Diamond they both dropped my temps by 3-5C. AS5 is good compound too, but there are better and yes 2 to 5 degrees does not seem like much, but it is a difference and every degree counts sometimes when overclocking.

IC Diamond 24 gave my GTX460 5C lower at idle and 7C under load over the stock compound.

Huh ? Here's a test that took 2 years to complete and involved 80 different products:

http://benchmarkreviews.com/index.php?option=com_conten...

Results ranged from 42.10°C to 37.55°C ... that's a 4.55C spread or 12 %


here they ranged from 20.25 to 30.5

http://www.overclockers.com/18-way-tim-comparison/

Today's processors put out far more heat .... looking at the last heat sink test done by BMR for example, the results ranged from 58 to 75 C which makes the impact more pronounced.

At what point does a difference in numbers become "significant", selling ya car, what's better .... getting a price of $4210 or $3755 .... how about $4000 .... or $4100 ?

Better number is better numbers.....would I fret after finding out that a new TM did 0.2C better than the one I just used in my build ? No, of course not, but next build, with them both costing $5, I'm going to buy the better product.

id like to see them compare stock thermal compound from a gfx card, then apply aftermarket compound.