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Which One's The Best?
Review Summary
After testing the full lineup, TF7 stands out as the best value—affordable, easy to apply, and reliable for mid-range systems. TF4 is also a solid pick for budget builds. On the higher end, TF8-EX and TFX deliver strong performance but fall short in durability and user-friendliness, especially with their thick, hard-to-apply texture. TF9, unfortunately, underwhelms across the board. Overall, Thermalright’s thermal paste lineup is a bit hit or miss, but TF7 hits the sweet spot for most users
Hours Tested: 3 Days
Overall
-
Thermalright TF4 - 6/10
6/10
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Thermalright TF7 - 7/10
7/10
-
Thermalright TF8-EX - 6.5/10
6.5/10
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Thermalright TF9 - 6/10
6/10
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Thermalright TFX - 6.5/10
6.5/10
Thermalright is a globally renowned brand known for its best air coolers. I recently tested its Assassin X 90 SE, and for the money, it turned out to be quite an impressive cooler. Well, that’s not it; Thermalright also offers a wide range of products, including Liquid Coolers, Fans, power supplies, Thermal pads, and thermal interface material (TIM), aka thermal pastes.
In the past few years, Thermalright has enjoyed some significant launches; one was the Peerless Assassin’s Cooler series, which the audience received well. However, we’re looking at the portfolio of thermal interface material (TIM) and thermal pastes in general that are currently available in the market.
Just like their other products, Thermalright Thermal-pastes are very easy to acquire, and they’re budget-friendly. Still, the question lies here: if they perform great as their different products and how they perform in terms of temperatures, we’ll look at the performance numbers today and talk a lot about their quality.
This table provides a clear comparison of the key specifications for each of the Thermal-right thermal compounds we are currently looking at.
| Specifications (As Advertised) | TF4 | TF7 | TF8-EX | TF9 | TFX |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Thermal Conductivity (W/m·K) | 9.5 | 12.8 | 14 | 14 | 14.3 |
| Color | Gray | Gray | Blue | Gray | Gray |
| Thermal Impedance (°C·cm²/W) | <0.0068 | <0.01 | <0.01 | <0.01 | <0.0028 |
| Specific Gravity (25°C) | 2.7 | 2.8 | 2.9 | 2.9 | 2.6 |
| Usable Temperature Range | -50°C to 240°C | -150°C to 250°C | -220°C to 380°C | -220°C to 380°C | -250°C to 300°C |
I highly recommend checking out my detailed guide on what to look for when buying thermal paste. In it, I explain why thermal conductivity numbers can be misleading, and how thermal resistance affects performance, and cover several other important factors to help you make the right choice.
Packaging
Thermalright TF4: Thermalright TF4 comes in brown-orange packaging in two different sizes: 1.5G for $3.99 and 4G with the spatula for $4.99. There is nothing fancy here.
Thermalright TF7: Thermalright TF7 comes in black with metallic finish packaging and comes in three different volumes: 2G, 4G, and 8G. It costs $3.99, $4.99, and $10.99. The prices may vary depending on the stores. It also comes with a spatula.
Thermalright TF8 EX: Thermalright TF8-EX comes in blue packaging, comes in two different volumes of 1.5G and 2.9G, we are not sure why it’s not 3G, but the street price is around $4.59 and $6.99, this paste also comes with Spatula and the alcohol swab.
Thermalright TF9: Thermalright TF9 comes in light green packaging, in 1.9G and 2.9G, with a street price of around $4.59 and $6.89 and a spatula.
Thermalright TFX: Thermalright TFX comes in the red blister pack packaging, which is fancy and comes with the spatula and no alcohol swab, it comes in volumes of 2G and 6.2G, and the ”extreme” pack is 12.9G, for some reason, thermal-right calls their bigger packaging extreme. The prices are here as follows: $9.59 for 2G; however, the 6.2G and 12.9G street prices are unknown.
Application
Thermalright TF4
Thermalright TF4 is the cheapest thermal paste in the category; we recommend it for lower-end to mid-range systems. The application was user-friendly, and we did not find it hard. The paste can quickly spread with a spatula as it is not very viscous.
This thermal paste was inferior in our performance charts compared to other Thermalright thermal pastes, but this paste provides more value and ease of installation. However, purchase this paste cautiously, as it might not offer long-term durability.
Thermalright TF7
Thermalright TF7 is easier to work with, not as concrete as the higher-end thermal-right pastes, and thicker than Thermalright TF4. It has reasonable performance in the charts and is slightly better than TF4 in terms of durability. This paste might offer better durability. There is no reason to purchase the TF4 as the TF7 costs are almost similar.
Thermalright TF8-EX
Thermalright TF8-EX feels like a blue curry, and is expensive, and I would not recommend it for the high-end PC build. The paste performs well, aligns with high-end thermal pastes, and is costlier than TF4 and TF7. Still, durability is a big concern here, as spending that much means you should expect higher durability.
In our experience, The particles in this paste can be easily brushed away. The paste is overall, as per the advertised specification, this paste offers higher thermal conductivity but seeing how this paste does after 6 to 9 months of use would be interesting.
Thermalright TF9
This TIM would require extraordinary effort in installation, as this paste is too viscous. We did not have a good experience at first during the application; the thermal paste was clogged at the syringe nozzle while we were taking the compound out from the tube, it refused to sit on the CPU IHS.
The average user might find difficult if they’re spreading across the die. Performance-wise, this thermal paste was not impressive, and It couldn’t beat the TF7 and TF8-E, X, which was unexpected. We have made over three warm-ups to melt this concrete. The durability is not even the question here as this paste fails in user-friendliness and demonstrates poor results.
Thermalright TFX
It wouldn’t be fair to call the Thermalright X a thermal paste. This paste feels precisely the same as the TF9. TFX performed well in the charts, even better than all Thermalright pastes we have tested, with excellent results as it’s competing with the top-of-the-line pastes but, simultaneously, very difficult to use and expensive.
If we consider user-friendliness, performance, and value, TFX is far behind the likes of Arctic MX4 and MX6, which can be purchased for the same price. It performs roughly the same but requires time and skill if you spread this thermal paste on a die.
Methodology
After applying the paste, we ran two 15-minute Cinebench R23 tests with a 5-minute cooldown period in between. We then ran another 15-minute Cinebench R23 test and recorded the average temperatures (delta over ambient). Thermal pastes nowadays require almost no burn-in time; however, if the paste is too viscous, that would be another case, and extra warm-up tests are needed to prepare it.
We have ensured that the room temperature remains consistently set at 22.0°C. To maintain accurate readings, we use a high-quality thermo-hygrometer available in the market. It is important to note that we have completely eliminated the influence of ambient temperatures in our data, and all results are presented as deltas over the ambient conditions.
Throughout the testing, the case fans, Liquid Cooler Fans, and Liquid Cooler pump were set to run at a fixed maximum RPM.
We used HWINFO64 (Pro Version) for temperature reporting to monitor the CPU tDIE temperature.
We ensured all background applications were turned off and the internet was disconnected to prevent any external processes or Windows updates from affecting CPU utilization.
Our Test System
- CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 9700X, TDP is unlocked (170W CPU Power Limit)
- RAM: XPG Lancer 16×2 6400MT/s CL28 (tuned)
- Motherboard: MSI B650 TOMAHAWK WIFI
- Cooler: Deepcool Mystique 360 Liquid Cooler ARGB
- GPU: ZOTAC SOLID RTX 5080
- BIOS: 7D75v1L AGESA ComboAM5 1.2.0.2b
- Windows Version: Windows 11 24H2 (OS Build 26100.3194)
Benchmark
Conclusion & Ratings
Thermalright has so much to do in its thermal-paste department. A good thermal paste is as crucial as the coolers you buy for the PC. Thermal paste is a job to fill the tiny gaps between the CPU and the heatsink for efficient heat transfer. If the thermal paste is not good enough, your cooler won’t be able to dissipate the heat from the CPU efficiently.
We have reviewed their entire portfolio and discussed the quality of their thermal pastes. Our recommendation here would be based on our tests: Thermalright TF4 and TF7 are well-suited for mid-range systems.
They don’t provide the best of the best performance compared to the high-end thermal pastes, but they do the job. On the other hand, the TF8-EX performs excellently; it competes with the high-end thermal pastes, but at what cost? Durability. TF8-EX is highly lubricious.
TFX performs excellently, yet it has sizeable viscous particle fillers, feels like concrete, and has a material quality thicker than your average toothpaste. TF9 struggles to beat the TF7, and we can’t be sure what’s happening here as we don’t have the lab equipment; unlike the TFX, TF9 does not provide satisfactory results.
This table provides a rating for each individual paste based on the experience.
| Variants | Ease of Install 🛠️ | Performance ❄️ | Durability ⏳ | Overall Rating ⭐ |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Thermalright TF4 | 8 | 6 | 4 | 6 |
| Thermalright TF7 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 7 |
| Thermalright TF8-EX | 7 | 8 | 4.5 | 6.5 |
| Thermalright TF9 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 6 |
| Thermalright TFX | 4.5 | 8.5 | 7 | 6.5 |
The Thermalright whole portfolio is very confusing. Thermalright TF7 is cheap and readily available, and we consider this paste the sector bed best in the Thermalright portfolio. If we take a value and perform in the accentuate simultaneously, TF4 will be great for low-end to mid-range PC builds and can do the job.
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