Noctua recommends a single dot at the middle, spanning 3 to 4 mm for proper coverage of the entire IHS. AMD's AM5 CPU requires a dot-sized paste application only. This is a drastic change from the five dot pattern recommended for AM4 CPUs.

Noctua has released the first thermal paste application advice for AMD's new Ryzen 7000 CPUs - and its corresponding 'octopus'-shaped IHS. Noctua advises a single dot in the middle, 3 to 4 mm, for sufficient coverage of the whole IHS for Ryzen 7000--and that's it. The dot application is not a new concept, and it is still likely the most common application technique today. However, Noctua suggests a five-dot arrangement with comparable-sized AM4 CPUs, in which four little dots are placed at the four corners of the IHS and one giant dot is placed in the center.

Noctua mentions AM5 as having a smaller "CPU Size" than AM4, which explains the thermal paste application variances. However, Noctua's choice of a dot pattern for AM5 may be valid. The Ryzen 7000 has a very interesting IHS design that we've never seen before, with an octopus form and eight slots cut out of the IHS to create place for capacitors on the CPU's PCB. All of AMD's previous designs used a precisely linear box architecture for the IHS, similar to what we see on AM4. The cuts significantly limit the IHS surface area of the Ryzen 7000, which is probably why Noctua reduced its thermal paste suggestion from the AM4's five dot design to a single dot. The single dot still works on AM4 and identical sized sockets, therefore it will undoubtedly function well with AM5.

We'll be watching to see what AMD's official suggestion is, as well as what we discover in our own testing. However, we will have to wait until September to see how the Ryzen 7000 performs. So keep an eye out!