Noctua has revealed the first thermal paste application recommendation for AMD's new Ryzen 7000 CPUs and its 'octopus'-shaped IHS. Noctua advised that there should be a single dot at the centre for Ryzen 7000 spanning 3 to 4 mm so that it can bring proper coverage of the whole IHS. 

The dot application is the most renowned application technique now. But the sudden shift from five dot pattern is itself a drastic change for Noctua with the same sized AM4 CPUs where you put four dots at the four corners of the IHS and a large dot in the middle. 

In order to have a cooler compatibility, AMD has created AM5 at the same dimensions like that of AM4 and it is amazing to see Noctua advising various thermal paste applications for both the sockets. Noctua even addressed AM5 as a smaller "CPU Size" compared to AM4 and this is the reason behind having thermal paste application differences. 

Noctua might have made right decision to go with a dot pattern for AM5. Ryzen 7000 has a new IHS design featuring an octopus shape having eight slots cut out of the IHS in order to make room for capacitors on the CPU's PCB. This is definitely something we haven't seen before. Just like AM4, all the older designs of AMD had perfectly linear box design for the IHS. 

One reason behind changing thermal paste recommendation is also that the cut-outs reduce Ryzen 7000's IHS surface area. As the single dot still works on AM4 and in similar sized sockets, thus it can also be said that it will work really great with AM5 too. 

Now the question is whether or not the edges of IHS that extend beyond the cut-outs are required to be covered by thermal paste or it won't make a difference. Though there's no exact answer yet, it should not be necessary if Noctua's application method is anything to go buy. 

It would be interesting to see what AMD's official recommendation would be. But we need to wait till Ryzen 7000 launches in September to finally get the results. So, stay tuned!