其中，① Liquid metal is usually made from Gallium Alloy, which has higher thermal conductivity and can significantly improve cooling efficiency; ② Liquid metal has potential risks such as conductivity and corrosion, requiring higher manufacturing processes and installation maintenance; ③ This material is not yet widely adopted by PC manufacturers.
According to the Star Daily on January 9 (Editor: Song Ziqiao), NVIDIA's latest Blackwell architecture graphics card has been unveiled at CES 2025. Among them, the flagship GPU GeForce RTX 5090 Founders Edition is thinner than its predecessor.
The latest news indicates that to make it lighter and thinner, NVIDIA has redesigned its printed circuit board (PCB) and cooling system, adopting a three-piece PCB and dual-flow cooling system design.
Notably, the new cooler features the use of Liquid Metal Interface Material (TIM) instead of traditional thermal grease to manage the 575W TGP thermal design power, marking an innovation for the Founders Edition graphics card.
GPUs generate a lot of heat under high load running conditions; to prevent GPU overheating, NVIDIA employs various cooling technologies, including advanced radiator designs, efficient cooling fans, and liquid metal thermal interface materials.
What are the advantages of liquid metal compared to thermal grease?
Liquid metal is usually made from Gallium Alloy, which has higher thermal conductivity and can significantly improve cooling efficiency by more effectively transferring the heat generated by the GPU to the radiator, thus allowing the graphics card to run stably at high power of 575W.
Higher thermal conductivity: the thermal conductivity of liquid metal is typically around 73W/m•K, while thermal grease can only reach a maximum thermal conductivity of 11W/m•K.
Better filling effect: Liquid Metal has good fluidity, enabling it to penetrate the tiny gaps between the CPU and the cooler, providing tighter contact and better thermal conductivity.
Greater durability: Liquid Metal is less volatile and has a longer lifespan, while thermal paste may harden or degrade over long-term use, resulting in reduced cooling effectiveness.
However, Liquid Metal also poses potential risks such as conductivity and corrosion (this material conducts electricity, and improper handling may cause short circuits; certain liquid metals may corrode aluminum coolers, requiring the use of specific coolers or additional protective measures). Furthermore, the application and replacement process of Liquid Metal is relatively complex, requiring higher manufacturing processes and installation maintenance.
This has led to Liquid Metal not being widely adopted in the GPU cooling field. Currently, only ASUS extensively uses Liquid Metal in high-performance laptops and graphics cards, while other PC manufacturers are more cautious. Some systems from Acer and Alienware also use Liquid Metal. The most common application of Liquid Metal may be in Sony's PS 5 gaming console, which is used between its custom AMD processor and cooler.
