Tried replacing thermal paste on a 2015 MacBook Pro and the temp dropped 15 degrees

I had this 2015 MacBook Pro that was running at 95C under load and the fan sounded like a jet engine. Decided to swap the thermal paste with some Arctic MX-4 I had laying around on Tuesday. After cleaning off the old crusty stuff and applying a fresh pea-sized amount, it dropped to 80C under the same workload. Has anyone else seen that big of a difference from just repasting an older laptop?

2 comments

2 Comments

rivershah28d ago

Jumping off what you said about the old paste being crusty, I bet that's the whole story right there. Idk if it's because Apple uses some cheap paste or it just dries out over time, but my 2013 Air was basically running on dust and glue when I opened it up. The paste was cracked and flaky, not even covering the whole chip. After cleaning it off and putting on some regular Noctua paste, my temps dropped by a solid 12-14 degrees under a heavy export in Logic. It's wild how much of a difference just having good contact makes, especially on those older Intel chips that run hot to begin with.

richard_ramirez27d ago

Damn, you might've just convinced me to finally re-paste mine.