It isn’t an uncommon practice for manufacturers to put old thermal paste under the heat spreaders of their CPUs. It hasn’t been long since the CPUs used to come with this goop between the nickel plate and the silicon die. AMD and Intel are two names which have also followed this practice and have multiple microprocessors this way. This glue serves the purpose of IHS, an integrated heat spreader.
The most recent and common solution now is to use an indium solder underneath the IHS and mostly all CPUs ship with this solution. This is a special kind of a solder which melts at a lower temperature as compared to that thermal paste. This makes it ideal for use on processors as it doesn’t damage the silicon. This also guarantees good and reliable thermal transfer as it securely bonds the HIS and dice together.
There is one catch, however, that the thermal conductivity of this indium solder isn’t that great as compared to other purer forms of metal like copper and aluminum. Another thing that has great conductivity is the liquid thermal interface material.
This is why one of the mad lads @Madness7771 on Twitter is cornering chips like the Ryzen 7 5800X3D to switch to the liquid metal thermal interface material to help reduce temperatures further.
He has actually gone on to do this himself since his card was showing temperature reaching 90 degrees centigrade under stress tests. Similar results were seen from the same CPU on the Falcon Northwest Tiki test. It remains unclear why this SKU is reaching such temperatures but this can most likely be attributed to the poor attachment between the IHS and the CPU. This is most likely because @Madness! was able to decrease the temperature on his card by 10 degrees centigrade.
Though this method has shown significant improvement, we still don’t recommend this as it might come with numerous risks. However, if you are still feeling adventurous enough, go ahead and pop the lid off your 5800X3D.
I can't believe I'm saying this but the 5800X3D has been delidded!
It doesn't hit 90°C anymore 😀 pic.twitter.com/xV5QQfCdoE— Madness! (@Madness727) June 25, 2022