There has been a rumor floating around the internet that using Arctic Silver on an AMD processor voids the warranty on that chip. Well, one of our writers, DCFlux, set out to find out if that was, in fact, the truth. To do this, he went straight to the source and asked AMD.

AMD has directly confirmed that your warranty is void if you use any type of thermal grease other than Shin Estu G 749 (and even that is only for evaluation purposes). AMD also provides their reasoning for this rule.

Here is the exact email DCFlux received in from Steve Knauber of AMD in reply to his inquiry:

For permanent installation AMD only recommends using phase change material with the heatsink/fan. No thermal grease is recommended for anything other than temporary evaluation purposes. And the only thermal grease recommended for that is Shin Etsu G 749. Artic Silver is made up of a matrix with conductive particles. There is the possibility of creating electrical shorts on the package. Any failed processor used w/ Artic Silver or any other thermal grease other than Shin Estu G 749 would be subject to warranty voiding. The concerns with other thermal greases are due to thermal pumpout causing overheating with on off cycling of the PC over time. The above information assumes you are referring to use with Athlon. For Opteron Shin Etsu G 749 also is the only thermal grease recommended for permanent installation. Again the concern is due to pumpout with thermal cycling.

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