Does Changing the thermal paste actually make a MacBook faster? 

We can’t change our thermal past, but we can try our best to create a better thermal future.

Just put new paste on my mid 2012 retina. Noticeable difference running 4k YT videos and other easy tasks on the computer. Worth the job! Using this computer for everday tasks still doing a great so!!

I just did this yesterday and pretty much noticed the same things aside from performance differences. They were pretty much the same afterwards for me. I also more did this for maintenance reasons and not performance reasons. I’m looking to try and get at least another 3 years out of my mid 2015 15” MBP before I’m forced to buy a new one. The dust build up in mine wasn’t all that bad though the fans were pretty caked. I also found a couple dead spiders in mine so that was fun lol.

2:08 Apple's lawyers DON'T PLAY.

I’ve ordered an SSD upgrade for my MBP Ret 2015 and when I finally take off the cover, I shall be replacing the thermal paste. Thanks, Luke!

Redo these tests with custom fan curves. I did that recently and my MacBook Pro will turbo up to 3.3 all cores now. Which is pretty good considering I've never replaced the thermal paste. Thank you Luke and definitely interested in your next video.

I got 12% higher score after the repaste. Plus I used Macs Fan Control to run the fans before the temps got high. I used MX4 thermal paste.

So basically you just used the same cheap thermal paste that Apple uses, nice job

I upgraded the CPU's on my Mac Pro 5,1 and used a "normal/cheap" thermal paste and the machine did run significantly hotter afterwards. It got much better after reapplying a better thermal paste. (In my case the Thermal Grizzly Kryonaut with 12.50W/m K) Definitely worth a try.

I changed the thermal paste on the mid 2012 MacBook Pro I just got and it was horrible how little paste was on there to begin with. It was a huge preformance boost.

I just changed my macbook late 2013 model thermal paste as well. There is definitely a difference. Temp was rising way faster before applying and now its better. Also I think cleaning service really helped as well.

Thermal Past is like remembering hot summer days? 🤔

In my 2009 unibody the paste was gummy and hard after many years of gaming with it and the fans were spinning hard even when looking at youtube, after giving it new paste it was noticeable better. with my MacBook Pro 2012 there was no noticeable difference. Your right about the the fan curves, that's just the way Apple sees the user experience ! Programs that lets you manually adjust the fan speeds are "not supported" ;) Great video Luke !

Just did my Late 2014 MacBook Pro Retina w/discrete graphs. The difference is instant and dramatic.

Yes, it does. But only if you spread the thermal paste with Apple's titanium credit card. Of course, the more you granted credit, the more conductivity.

I replaced the crusty old paste on my 15" 2012 MacBook Pro's CPU and GPU with some Arctic Silver and I can't say it runs faster (it's already fast enough for me) but it sure as shit runs cooler. The fan is whisper quiet now and it doesn't feel like a space heater anymore.

When I got my Late 2013 15” maxed MBP about few weeks ago, I repasted it immediately. After opening it up it was so full of dust like wtf I can’t even explain how much there was dust. I did tests and on idle before repasting/dusting it was running at 80°C on idle... dusted it, repasted with the trusty old Arctic MX-4. Got a 10°C drop on temperatures and saw huge improvements in overall performance.

Quick observation on numbers before and after re-paste. There was one extra variable introduced. Dirty fans / heat sinks. Luke cleaned the fans / heat sinks at the same time that he did the re-paste. This makes it harder to determine how much of the new cooling effects were due to the re-pasting vs. just cleaning the heat sinks. All that being said, I am sure that re-pasting DID HELP. But I would suggest re-doing the experiment again in a year or two when the thermal paste needs to be replaced this time getting new "before" numbers after a heat sink cleaning and then again after another re-pasting. That way the heat sink cleanliness variable is eliminated.

Just repasted an old late 2013 MBP and it is measurably better. The old paste did not cover the whole chip. Used cinebench, geek bench and my favourite game to test. It really did make a difference. Idles about 8 degrees cooler and (you should monitor this) noticed the fan speeds were almost 2000 rpm cooler doing similar tasks.

You earned my sub cause your video is really nice

i have change the thermal paste of my very old macbook(11 years old)(macbook 4.1) and this is what i noticed: with no thermal paste on youtube: fan goes to 6200rpm(max) with new thermal paste: 4200 rpm (more quiet) for a very old macbook it's very good :)

Replaced the thermal paste of my Macboook Pro late 2013 13 inch. Still love it! won't replace it in 3 years after Apple replace the keyboard for an decent one :).

Guys, a high quality thermal compound makes a *HUGE* difference. Don't go with 5$ ones. MacBooks are costly, use a costly one only.

I repasted my entry level 15 inch MacBook Pro 2015 with thermal grizzly kryonaut and even in Cinebench it will barely come over 90 degrees, with max fans running not over 82 degrees. Now it runs with an linear turbo boost speed of 3.0 GHz, and the machine thermally throttled before with the standard thermal paste. So I can totally recommend the Kryonaut Thermal Paste!

I still have a late 2013 here. I used it daily for about 4 years, and what turned me down was the CPU fan going like crazy every now & then. Then I went the cheap & easy way, with old Thinkpads (t430 right now), and I don't have this issue. I might however repaste, just to see how it feels. i keep the laptop as a spare...

I refurbish Windows machines laptops and anytime I can easily access the CPU to change the paste, I do. Most of the time it isn't a huge difference, but sometimes, on certain ultrabooks, it makes all the difference.

My Late 2013 13" was hitting 90C+ on a few tabs in chrome. I opened it up and removed all the dust - opened the fan and removed all the fine dust here too. Replaced the thermal paste and added thick thermal pads on top of the heatsink above the CPU, along the headline, and across the grill. Running 50-60C in chrome now, idling around 45C wow. Add thermal pads!

I didn't keep my temps so I can't remember what they were, but my Cinebench score went from 1320's to 1450's, my fan vents were kinda dirty too so it may have just been that

I was repasting my MacBook Air 2013 because of old past and also clean out the dust now my Mac runs better less fan noise and overheat.

my Macbook pro late 2013 does 1404 points on cinebench r20. For me it made a huge difference. Before I changed the thermal paste my CPU was running at 1,8 GHz when I was rendering something. Now its at 2,6-2,8 GHz. I can only recommend changing the thermal paste

I'm using a graphite pad on the same 2013 15inch model and it can turbo to 3.2 under sustained load with fan at max using macs fan control and I think it's worthy to change the thermal interface

I always modify the fan curve for better cooling, trying to find a happy medium between fan noise and cooling.

I have a 2014 15" MBP retina that has been running constantly as a Keyshot Render Farm node to the point that it's battery got swollen. We've finally gotten a proper render farm server, so I'm taking it down, replacing the battery (thanks iFixit, only $89) and replacing the thermal paste bc this thing has been running HOT for literally years.

Thermal paste will often get better after a few thermal cycles. I'd recheck the stats after 3 or 4 cycles before coming to a conclusion.The biggest benefit is that the CPU / GPU won't thermal throttle, so you will actually get better performance.

I have a 2011 Macbook Pro, the thermal paste has never been changed. I am very tempted to change the thermal paste, as after almost 10 years, it probably is almost non existent, idle temps are about 70C...heats up to about 95-100 degrees at load.

We need some charts, to visualize the differences better ;) bring them back 🥺

I wonder if idle speeds is the more important result? I’d be willing to bet our computers run at the those speeds at least 70% of the time. So a ten degrees difference goes towards the performance of the computer of a longer period of time.

You need to use a program called Macs fan control to control the speed of the fans in order to get more accurate benchmarks.

I used MX4 paste on a used 2013 MacBook Air not long ago. While it didn't turn it into a raging powerhouse, the fans don't turn on as often so I know it's running more efficiently. The factory paste was bad like the one in the video. I still think it's worth doing.

If you monitor the hardware with windows in bootcamp and modify the boost with throttlestop you'll get a much clearer picture of how effective repasting the CPU and GPU can be. The reason why is because the MacBook pro in macOS will just run at very mild frequency and power settings because they've set up the software to never push the hardware very hard. When you start tweaking things in boot camp, with windows 10 you can really see where performance gains can be made.

I have 2015 MBP lying around! Will do this and report here!

I don't have any fancy tests but I bought the $15.00 thermal paste from Best Buy and I can say with certainty it has made a big difference in how hot it gets just sitting on my lap watching RU-vid videos.

Yeah Idk if something else changed but I changed the thermal paste using arctic mx4 and my Cinabench score went from 1300 to 2009 shit was fire.

Do you need to remove the battery before do anything else ?

Greetings, Mr. Luke Miani. I have a macbook pro 15" 2018, model A1990, with i9 processor and touchbar. Model known for being very hot and not delivering the expected performance of the i9! I want to replace the thermal paste, but I'm in doubt about which thermal paste I should use, to better cool the i9 and not need to change the thermal paste every year. I would like to know which thermal paste do you recommend? If you can make a video where you compare the best thermal pastes for Macbooks Pro. I think it will be of great help to many who like and learn a lot from your videos.

Who’s here before he changed it to paste

I have a 2012 macbook pro that always ran hot. I ran across a video by snazzylabs about thermal paste so i tried changing it for the first time last week. I didn't really believe the hype but after applying mx4 its like a whole new macbook. It runs super quiet now, so quiet that i had to download mac fan control to make sure my fan was still working. I was actually planning on upgrading my mac bc i thought the reason for it running so hot was because it wasnt sufficient enough to handle macos anymore smh. Im not upgrading anytime soon now!

Massive improvement of the performance on my MacBook Pro mid 2015

my old 2012 MBP fell down from 20 degrees. Now I can use it as was intended, a laptop to be used on your lap.

Absolutely love my Late 2013 MacBook Pro Retina. Ive changed out the thermal paste, and using TG Pro. The app has a setting: Temporary increase fans when needed to keep cpu limit at least __% to avoid throttling. (You decide what percentage to use). It's not perfect, but the app does it's best to deliver. Don't laugh, but when I'm doing some intensive work, I have a one of those 'lap desks' that tilts up, leaving a space in the base. I pop a 12 hour thermal ice pack in that space. (Since it's in an open air environment, you'll get about 90 minutes to 2 hours cool time.

thanks for confirming my experiences. I've tried the liguid metal types even with PC.c. Conclusion. Thermal paste...the costly stuff...is a waste. Good tutorial.

Wish you would've done a second round of tests with Mac Fan Control.

You're right I just changed my thermal paste and it didn't make a difference except for what you touched on in the video.

I just put some MX4 in my 2017 Macbook Air. OMG, I wish i would have done it sooner. There was no thermal paste on the GPU from the factory. Dropped my idle from 60C to 45C and now the integrated GPU has come to life from 350MHz, to full 1GHz. With my Istat menus, I have noticed an increase my CPU clock speeds as well. Luke is right though, the fans will not kick on until 90C. Using Macs fan control will allow you to create your own fan speed curve, i recommend it because I like a cool mac on my lap when I type and has the side effect of making your $1000+ macbook alive longer.!

switching from had to ssd lowered my temp 3 degrees I'm happy

About to do it

4 years later, still never disassembled, the difference is massive. Cleaning and repasting 2012-2015 MBPs, I usually get 10-15C lower idle temps and going from throttling within 10 secs in a Cinebench run to staying under 95 the entire time. And that is on Apples fan curve!! I do use Kryonaut or similar rather soft high performing paste, so it will need to be repasted again more often.

I'll agree with the fan/cpu theory. My refurbished 2018 Mac Mini tended to run high temperatures before I ever heard the fan kick on. I ended up buying some external USB fans to help cool it down, and it cut the temperatures significantly. Not sure if I should worry about it or not though since it's under warranty and I don't know if the high temps are the norm with the 2018 Mac Minis since they claim they have a better cooling system.

1:46 is it me or does it sound like a creeper explosion here? Or have I been watching too much MC lately

Long story short, YES, it does improve performance. Dont go cheap on the thermal compound. Like and suscribe to Luke so that the next video tittle isnt just a question, but he answer too

I'll tell if it was worth it if You do same test with better thermal paste like ie. Arctic Silver 5 etc.

Preventative maintenance performed annually. Not using battery power, a can of compressed air, a tiny circular brush for the fan blades and one screw driver bit for the MacBook Pro cover screws is all you need to keep the cooling fans and the CPU connecting duct clean enough to keep "almost" everyone cool and happy.

its especially is usefull on macbook airs many of them dont have paste on the IGPU

I have just put antec formula 6 on my Xbox one x. Whisper quiet I’ll prefer diamond paste great thermal conductivity and not electronically conductive. Plan to put that on all my equipment.

hey luke like, i reflowed my imac 2011 27" gpu and replaced the thermal paste on the cpu and gpu...it went great and i made the machine come back to life but now the cpu is locked at 1,60ghz ...if i put it to sleep when it comes back the cpu works faster but after a few seconds it goes back to 1,60ghz... it may be some cable thats ruined but i think it may be a firmware thing where apple makes the speed lock and u gotta change something on the firware...im not sure ...can you help?

What about thermal pads instead of thermal paste? Would you recommend the thermal grizzly pads for example?

Arctic silver 5, not the best nor the worst, but for a Mac I would suggest getting some liquid metal tbh. Frankly, Apple undervolt the cpu heavily already and runs the fans as slow as possible without cooking the cpu for the sake of quiet. Thermal paste shouldn’t matter too much. But if you need you mac at the max for long period of time, extra fan curve and liquid metal is a good option.

whats that for a reverb fx effect on your "thermal paste" shout. it sounds so good=D

Question for Luke Miani what u got against the MacBook Air I own one personally it’s been a good lightweight Mac for me since I gave my 2008 MacBook Pro to my 13 yr old niece

Would be interested to know if the thermal paste / new thermal pads would make any difference to the gpu in a 2011 iMac. Thanks in advance!

I literally just did this 2 days ago. I got about a 10-15% improvement using MX-4!

good video but I wanted to see how much should I apply to it.

in my MacBook Air late 2017 the CPU temperature reaches 90 degrees Celsius and more from just watching RU-vid videos so I will definitely change the thermo paste

I know I’m late on this, cause this video is old, but hear me out. It’s important to know that not all thermal pastes are the same. Some respond to certain CPUs and GPUs differently, some have different compositions that react differently to desktop CPUs (with heatspreaders) and laptop CPUs (without heatspreader). I have noticed that for CPU’s without a heatspreader, IC Diamond Thermal Compound works quite well. I have a similar computer to this one (MBP 2015 15”) and I used MX4 on it. It performs well the first couple of weeks, but it starts sucking given time. On the other hand, when I used IC Diamond, that never happened, the performance got better and it stayed better. So... thank you for coming to my Ted Talk, I accept tips.

I generally install SMC Fan Control no matter what. I couldn't care less if my laptop is 'noisy'. I'd rather have the heat out of there quickly and for as long as possible.

I love me some thermal past.

Yeah, cleaning out the dust, looking for corrosion, seeing if any spiders made their home inside the computer, or crumbs etc. always good. New thermal paste every now and then, good with that too.

Biggest problem with Imac's is heat build up from the hard drive & display . Two ways of reducing or removing heat 1) install a ssd this takes out the heat. 2) after 10 yrs the thermal becomes less effective. Also all pastes are not the same, the thermal conducive rates vary. Does it effect performance ?, not really it effects reliability more which in some ways does impact performance.

still very high idle, my 2018 macbook pro 15 inch idles at 32c. Also cinebench r20 is very inconsistent, i think they need to fix it, for some reason after a change in hardware or software it throws lower numbers and then a day later and many rund later it chucks out numbers that are correct and it does it consistently after.

My late 2013 retina Dual GPU model runs at 73 Celsius & 74 Celsius on max load with MX4 thermal paste. They must of changed it with software updates. Mine never gets too hot even under load.

If you want to deal with the poor fan curves on Mac, there is a one really good fan utility that I use(I forget the name) that lets you alter fan curves or just run them on full blast continously

Thermal present... Heh heh he... (Okay I'll see myself out)

Why didn’t you take normal thermal grease? Why did not take MX4? Weren't you able to buy it? Who will put the cheapest thermal grease in a laptop with a price in a car?

Changing it’s future is helpful too. 😋

Luke, can you do more videos please

My 17” inch gets to around 85-90C before the fans even spin up. 🤯

Hey, should I install a fan speed app ( mac fan control) or let apple adjust the fan speed automatically

Yes

if the temp is not lower and performance is not better, then I suppose the fan niose is much quieter. So please do a fan noise comparison.

I'd want to see the temperatures and performance after the break in period.. Have a look at the last 2 sections of this document about the break-in period.. Maybe your results under load were because you had just freshly applied the paste. www.arcticsilver.com/pdf/appmeth/int/vl/intel_app_method_vertical_line_v1.1.pdf

2009 unibody termal past . do u think changing to ssd and 8 gb and termal paste makes a difference on running catilina. I heard catilina doesnt run good on them suggestions. Please.

"this is not good" **apple ringtone** "hello??" (before answering)

In the future I’ll be able to say I got to this video when it said “past”

1% of the comments: normal comments 99% of the comments: *_p a s t_*

You might re-paste your re-paste..... it’s a little tricky to get it optimum....also the brand makes a big difference..... just a thought

is there any details about Snazzy Labs 2018 mbp repasting? I did watch video about 13inch, is it the one?

I might a 2015 Retina MBP I love the design and can upgrade the SSD in them. I have a 2017 Macbook Pro rn with a 128GB SSD (idk what I was thinking when I bought it I should of got at least 256GB) and looks like u cant upgrade the storage in them rip

Luke, aren’t you concerned that the keyboard backlight is flickering? A few years ago, I had a 2008 MacBook Pro and I experienced the keyboard backlight flicker.

Try Rugape Turbo switcher... for the fun of it....maybe.

Thermal Paste* fix it Luke 😭😭😭