Top critical review
1.0 out of 5 starsDisappointing. Scammed.
Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on June 14, 2021
I really wanted to like this product considering that it seems to be an improved "extreme' version of the reputable and high-performing original Kryonaut. And for the premium price (its like 2 or 3 times more expensive than more traditional thermal pastes), I was expecting an easy, set and forget experience. I was expecting temps be at least the same or better than the stuff I was replacing. Maybe for some buyers it was... but not for me, and I suspect something strange is up with the paste I received.
I bought the 2g pack TWICE, and on two separate occasions. Long story short... both were terrible and either:
1.) This is just a bad thermal paste,
2.) I got TWO units from a bad batch or...
3.) I received TWO fakes.
Whatever the case, this is unacceptable. Please avoid.
My experience:
I recently bought a Dell XPS 15 9500. Being a thin-and-light with powerful parts, it is plagued by thermal throttling issues, so I decided that I would re-paste the CPU and GPU as soon as got my hands on one. Before doing anything, I set up my fully stock XPS 15 and ran some benchmarks (3DMark, Geekbench 5, etc.) to get baseline performance numbers.
On the same day, I re-pasted the Dell's CPU and GPU with this "Kryonaut Extreme", and I ran the benchmarks again with my exact same testing conditions. To my shock, I saw consistently lower numbers for BOTH CPU and GPU benchmarks AND higher idle temps
"This can't be right," I thought to myself after a couple days of further testing and seeing the same disappointing results. Now, I usually blame myself before I blame a product, so I chalked it up to user error. I had heard the spread method for Kryonaut was unorthodox, so I just assumed I screwed it up. So I watched some demo videos and tried repasting again, this time with a NEW 2g tube and using a bit less to ensure that the layer was thin. Temps were still high, thermal throttling was worse than ever and benchmarks scores were still noticeably lower than stock paste...
"Maybe its not good for laptops" I thought, considering that laptop CPUs/GPUs don't have an IHS, and that laptop heatsinks generally do not have high mounting pressure with the dies (compared to desktop CPU heatsinks). So I went ahead and tested it on my desktop rig with an Intel i7 6700K with a Corsair H100 v2 liquid cooler and Arctic Silver 5 (applied 5 years ago). Prior to replacing the old AS5 paste, this system never thermal throttled... ever. At most 85-90 deg C at full load. But now... this new stuff actually made it happen... Shocking...
Now at this point I've had it. I went ahead and ordered some Arctic Silver 5 for my laptop (its the only other thermal paste I have ever used and it has always served me well). And look at that! Idle temps were lower and the system was hitting 100 deg C less. Maybe not stellar results, but it was at least matching up to stock numbers.
So... my findings...
This pink trash was outperformed by Dell's stock paste and old Arctic Silver 5 (which is apparently not even as good as newer options like Gelid, MX-4, and normal Kryonaut). Not only did it not perform well, but after lifting the heatsink between my first and second paste attempts on the XPS 15, I saw that this Pepto Bismol looking goop actually managed to SCRATCH the mirror-surface of the CPU die and the copper of the heatsink (No I didn’t scratch it myself while cleaning the dies/heatsinks, I made sure to be gentle and used 91% isopropyl alcohol, cotton swabs, and lint-free microfiber cloths).
There I sat, bewildered and trying to accept the massive amount of wasted time, wasted money, and permanent damage to my new equipment which will likely not perform much better than stock now...
If this is the genuine product, then Thermal Grizzly should be ashamed and needs to pull this product off the market or do some kind of recall. If what I got were fakes (which I suspect may be the case), then I guess that is what I get for trusting Amazon sellers and being so willing to try out a new, expensive product. Or honestly maybe I just really suck a applying thermal paste… Whatever the case is, I am really not satisfied with this product.
Time and money are precious and life is short, so don't waste it on things like this. Stick with what you know that works, and don't fall for the marketing and premium pricing, especially on Amazon.
