The company that made the 30+ year old thermal paste replied to my email and quote: "We wish we could be of more assistance but we can not tell anything from picture. I will say it is very old as we do not use the green and white logos anymore." The mystery continues! Will continue asking around to see if we can pinpoint the exact manufacturing date!

One thing you didn't account for / didn't bring up is changes in formulation over the years. Even tubes manufactured in the same year may not have the exactly same formulation depending on where it was manufactured. Factures in different places will source similar / compatible raw material that are easier to get in their region.

That 30 year old thermal compound is probably still better than what most computer OEMs use

The saddest part of this video was that 2019 was 5 years ago

The real test is how this old paste holds up in use. I've used 10+ old unbranded thermal paste in a server and wasn't able to get more than a year of 24/7 duty before it tripped the temp alarm and spins up the fans to max.

What your test determined was that your pc will throttle as much as it needs to do to keep the CPU from exceeding 90 degrees. We don't know how many degrees correspond with throttling points, so maybe put in that center fan that is missing so your cooling works better and we can see some real-world temperature differences between the thermal compounds. When you do this, you'll only know what temps you get from freshly-applied compound, which has never spent years degrading under heat stress. Degradation over time is what we really need to know. Also, compound formulation may have changed over time so newer compound might work better only because it has been improved. I find that thermal compound dries out very quickly after application, so being dried out isn't a big problem for performance, it's more a problem with application of the compound. That's the only reason I can think of that "old" compound would need to expire. Compound that is applied to a working CPU should work forever unless it has a tendancy to develop insulating bubbles, or the stress of use degrades it chemically so much that it really stops conducting heat as well.

I've been buying new thermal paste every day for the past 32 years. Glad to know that hasn't gone to waste completely! My house is 90% thermal paste tubes

Searched the internet so long trying to find a comprehensive answer to this question. You have saved my ever growing forgotten thermal paste collection from obsolescence. Thank you sir!

Thanks for the the test!

Okay, but how do they differ in taste??!

the mx4's formula has changed over the years

"There is a pc in my thermal paste"

Next vid idea: how does old thermal paste compare to the best thermal paste replacement?

thermal compound that they used to put on transistors in amplifiers used to be drier than CPU thermal pastes

I bought yeesterpaste and it's great fr! props to mryeester for making something unique and high quality!

The "active ingredient" in thermal paste is the solid filler. The oil is only there to facilitate application and help particles stay put. The "expiration" has more to do with optimal ease and repeatability of application than performance. Once applied, powder-based pastes can be 50+ years old and still perform perfectly fine. Most of the times where people run into thermal performance issues with a 5+ years old paste application is because they nudged their HSF while cleaning their PC and broke the paste after it had fully settled down. I'm still using a tube of 20+ years old GCChemicals ZnO thermal paste in my PCs today, got about 1/5th of the tube left. The tube has lost quite a bit of oil through the aluminum squeeze tube having ripped in a few folds.

Thermal paste is basically made up of two components: liquid (mostly silicon oils) and solid (mostly metal-oxides) . Role of the paste is to get in various cavities, nooks and crannies between two metal surfaces. Thermal paste is NOT better than pure metal-to-metal contact, but is better thermal conductor than air. Liquid part of the paste is mostly to give viscosity and get it into aforementioned cavities, solid part (metal-oxides) actually conducts heat. Once you get paste in place, liquid part is no longer essential, and it could evaporate. Solid parts remain stable for years (centuries) and will continue to function as long as you do not move your cooler and displace them from cavities.

Nice! I had a 15 year old tube of Arctic Silver 5 sitting around. I used it on a spare PC, worked just fine. Finally threw it away because was like 10% left.

There could be differences in "recipes"

I found a tube of thermal paste in a motherboard box that supported Intel Pentiums that still had pins on their CPUs (before their LGA standard) at the start of 2020. It handled my 4790 for about 4 years back on my old Z97 build before I finally upgraded. Probably not the best of ideas but.. it worked! :D

Great test!!!

I have Arctic Silver tubes in variety in year gotta say the larger tubes regardless of year are hard to push. I recommend storing the tubes themselves inside a sealed container tubes stored loose eventually dry out compared to the ones in a semi tight container

I *finally* ran out a syringe of Arctic Silver late last year (it's not marked which # it is). It's older than 2005 since I had it when I moved at the time. I didn't use it on any new modern processors, just older stuff I was upgrading. No particular issues. Not to be used is some old copper paste from the pre-IHS days when they made copper shims for Pentium 3s. That was the paste for them.

I seem to remember reading somewhere a few years ago Arctic changing up their MX-4 formula a lil bit to make it more thermal efficient. That could be why they look different tbh.

a few weeks ago i opened on well over 15 years old notebook (hp compaq i think) to clean the heatsink and replace the termalpaste, but the termalpaste was like new and the computer has not ben used or opened for over 7 years, it was exactly the same as in my gaming pc i build 2 years ago, besides the color (white, gray). I replaced it anyway couse i already opened it, but realy impressing that termalpaste works fos so long, nice vidio btw

That MX-4 seems to have changed recipe cause I don't remember having a brand new one looking like that newer one. All the MX-4 I had was more like the old ones you have even when brand new if I remember well...

I wonder if you emptied out one of the thermal pastes out of the tube and 're-mixed' it if it would preform any better? Also: Is there manufactured improvements between old and new 🤔

great video! this experiment shows a lot of important stuff when it comes to thermal laste aging. I was most surprised how the two brands had opposite consistencies from newest to oldest

Have you tried car radiator fluid as computer watercooling fluid? Wondering how good it'd be.

Very cool experiment.

have you considered using different cpus as well? difference in ihs flatness and the thermal compound between the ihs and the die can also effects it

Usually in lower power CPUs (65-95W), I didn't saw any meaningful temperature increase with older thernal paste, often staying below throttling threshold. As a rule if the thumb, if you are not throttling and running at reasonable temperatures, the system is fine and you can delay a bit the purchase of that brand new thermal paste.

Also curious, would using the 30-year-old paste in a low heat CPU be fine? If so, how long would it last compared to the life span of using new thermal paste?

Interesting comparison. The thermal throttling behavior of the CPU might have skewed the results a bit though. If the CPU throttles at 90°, it could mean that the temperature difference between new and old thermal paste would be much higher without the CPU throttling, as with throttling the temperature is kept at 90° max. irrespective of the thermal conductivity of the paste used.

What software did you use for testing?

does the fan being in the middle work better for any reason or just show off your RAM?

Extemly interesting love your effort ,recetly used mx4 paste 3 years old had no new paste temps wore hi idle 50 ,gaming 90, new paste a few days later ,idle 35,gaming 77 so in me case old past sucks

this actually reminded me of something stupid I did back when i first got into pc building in around 2015-16, I found a tube of arctic silver 3 in my basement that I assume my dad had used when building his old Athlon XP system in the early 2000s and was just like yeah it'll be fine to use this on my system, thankfully I was running a relatively low wattage Athlon X2 (all I could afford) dunno how the temps were but it survived lol, I remember that I took it apart when I upgraded that it was all separated there was streaks of just oil and spots that looked like just tiny metal filings it was scuffed

This is really cool and great video

Thanks exactly what I needed to know 😊,👍

Idk how to express this particularly but your microphone sounds like a cookie

Great video 👍

Awesome video!! your content is always so hands on and so different than anything else you see on youtube. i truly love the videos, thanks!

I'd say in a tube like that yes. The oils seperate. If you get a little bottle of it. Just premix it again it should be ok to use

I wonder if you could stir the old thermal paste and make it almost like new.

I would assume that the tubes will last much longer than a tub as the tubes look like they have a good seal on them with the small tight endcap while that tub has a poor seal with a large lid and will be more susceptible to drying out.

I just threw out a 14 year old tube of MX4 that I got back when I was doing hardware reviews. I just got a brand new tube of mx4 to replace it with. But I used the old stuff up until last week and it worked just fine.

I have a large tube of Arctic Silver 3 from around 2000, still has good consistency and works fine. I also have a smaller tube of Arctic Silver 5 I purchased a few years later (as soon as it came out) which I applied last year to the CPU I'm using to write this comment - it also works great and I have noticed no difference except for a very slight increase in viscosity.

Have wondered myself how they hold up. I have some tube of some thermal paste from 2014, visually looks alright. Though I didn't dare to use it and bought some new.

one question im curious about what if pull out the contents and give it a good stir can it reblend like its brand new?

I swear this guy eats thermal paste on his toast

Applying thermal paste on a CPU while watching this video, using the same Arctic one. Nice.

I mean logically it's more sealed in the tube than on a cpu. It also makes sense for it not to break down much over time as it would otherwise do that while in a computer as well and that would lead to thermal problems. So that it has a decent shelf life and tends to not massively degrade while in use are a key point, especially considering most people don't want to apply new paste once a year either.

Great video. I am a tech known as grampa gamer. The only paste i ever use is artic silver 5. I have a 7 yr. old tube of the stuff, and i recently used a pea drop of the paste on a new amd cpu with a stock cooler and my idle temps were 32 celcius and my max gaming temps were 59 "C".

i use a tube of cvs diaper rash cream works great been on my %800x for a year and a half and is still giving me cool temps

Finally i got a thermal paste for my pc

Great vid but a shame you didnt use a CPU/Cooler combo that doesnt max out so easily.

Missed put on what happens when you mix em all into a new hyper evolution of thermal paste... with diamond powder also ❤

Yes it does because the components separate. How much and how fast depends on the mix and temperature stored at.

It dries out, I still have an ancient tube of Arctic silver II, yes 2, I don't use it now but I keep it around for memories and the paste that comes out of it is like super dry and starting to become powder like.

Has he done a test where hes left the thermal paste in the pc for different amounts of time? for example: One thermal paste applied 10 years ago and not changed, one applied 5 years ago and not changed and compared to only just applied. All being used as regular pc's during the time periods of course

You should try heating up the paste a little bit in the oven maybe and shaking it. Maybe its good as new??

Guys , ive got a question , i got a brand new xbox series x back in december 2020 , i have never used it , its been sitting in my basement for the past 3.5 years , should i replace the thermal paste if i want to use it again ?

my 5 year old mx-5 thermal paste has still held it's form and there is no heat bottleneck, maybe environment conditions also play a part in it as I have just used mine to refresh two of my old gpu's and it still comes out as if it was brand new. given i am almost out, i should buy another tube of the stuff, but it performs quite well atm...

What happens if you mix different types of thermal paste?

Companies usually tweak ingredients over the years as well and why they might look differently.

i had some mx4 recently and was so hard out the tube wouldnt spread or anything,,, seemed like it went off to me

Pls make a video where you use the thermal paste from the Vision Pro chips on a PC!!!

I have a old tube of arctic alumna works great

Can you test mx6? I use it and its slightly better as mx4

This video reminded me I need to repaste my laptop...

that one made me fun to watch and was really answering 20 years old questions...my conclusion - not really big differences...only 1 C and few Mhz....nothing to worry about and this also could be measurment differences and application... anyhow - good to know...amazing also how good AC Silver still performce

Does the 5600x3d really run that hot during a stress test? I mean, that's a pretty decent air cooler, and hitting 87 degrees, isn't that a bit too much?

Did you really have to run the tests at the thermal throttling limit? This makes it harder to really see whatever difference there is. Your cooler looks substantial but are you even undervolting that X3D chip?

What an interesting video! But then I wonder, will that 30 year old paste work wonders with low power CPU? Say a 65w CPU?

time capsules in 100 year " we just found a 130 year old thermal paste in a time capsule"

thank god that means I can still keep my cooler master paste from 2017 lmao

I personaly applied a toothpaste to Athlon Barton, and it lasts almost 2 years to start overheating

i can't remember the last time i replaced mine, 2012 perhaps? maybe a few years up

I think that it is important to realize that thermal pastes are getting better over time so it is sure that older tgermal pastes are worse than new ones but they don't have to be expired. Good video.

Whatever you do with old thermal pastes. Around 200-2005 or so there where some Pastes on the market that where conductive. What happens if you take the old separated stuff an give it a good mix? Squeeze the whole thing in a little jar and mix it, test it again.

my PC with a 10 years old cpu that i didnt change the paste even when i swapped the stock cooler for an aftermarket one: cool

Mabey you should mix different thermal pastes and then test them. 😀 When you mentioned how the first brand of paste was almost the opposite in how it aged versus the second paste got me to think "what if you mix the two oldest pastes from the MX and Arctic Silver?"

Thermal paste is just to make sure that the CPU surface contacts well with the heatsink, so the quality and age isn't that critical

Doing these tests would have driven me mad! I hate getting thermal paste on my hands. Before you know it you've spread it everywhere 😂

I think the main difference might have been, that thermal paste technology has improved a little over the years.

Insane vid keep up❤

i think the new MX4 just looks different. i have some arctic thermal paste from 2009 which has always looked shiny, even when it was new.

I'm surprised how well that 30 year old thermal paste performed. Don't forget 30 years ago, processors generally used less than 1/2 the power and ran at 1/3 the clock speed. Also, generic thermal paste back then also performed significantly worse than the stuff available today.

Tbh it would have been much better if you had a good CPU and cooler for this that hit like 80C instead. I just don't like comparing clocks instead of temperature.

ur smile makes me happy

i have a problem recently i changed thermalpaste in my pc (I7-12700K) and it gets hotter than it was before i bought arctic MX-4

I can’t believe he waited 30 years to make this video

The Artic one is exactly how I remember using it and there is no difference in thickness

Great test. Forwarded to others.

looking at this video showed me that my laptops thrmal paste needs to be replaced it has now been in 13 years longer then i have been on the green earth my grandma and mom never heard of thermal paste

I change my paste out monthly for that sweet sweet 1fps gain in WarZone

Does removing a cooler from a CPU give thermal paste separation anxiety? 😛

They upgraded these thermal pastes throughout the years that could be the cause of temp difference.

U should have went down with PPT, TDC and EDC, so the CPU isnt that close to throttle temp. In my opinion that would have made a comparsion easier/better. Other than that a very cool video. Just bought new paste and threw my 8 year old away :(