Noctua introduced the NT-CP1 AM5/4 on November 12, a carbon nanotube thermal pad for AMD AM5 and AM4 processors that goes between the CPU and its cooler in place of thermal paste. In its announcement, Noctua says the pad, made by Carbice, keeps improving over its first few hundred to few thousand thermal cycles, where pastes lose performance over time. It costs $24.95 or EUR 24.95 and is on sale through Noctua’s Amazon stores, with other shops to follow.
A 90µm sheet that is peeled, pressed on and left to bed in
The pad is precut to 33x33mm, which fits both the AM5 and AM4 processors, and is installed by peeling, pressing and peeling again. Noctua describes an aluminium backbone, a polymer coating that keeps it in place and makes the surface electrically non-conductive until the layer is penetrated, and nanotubes that conform to the surface of the chip and cooler as the pad is heated and cooled. Pastes and most other pads degrade through pump-out, delamination and cracking, Noctua says, while this one stays stable for years once its initial phase is over.
Full performance takes weeks or months of normal use unless the CPU is cycled on purpose
Noctua’s activation guide says no run-in is required and that regular use reaches full performance over several weeks or months. For a faster start, a cycle counts only when both sides of the pad stay above 60°C for at least two minutes and then below 50°C for at least two minutes. The guide suggests five-minute load and cooling phases, with the CPU package above 85°C under load and below 45°C when cooling.
Its Prime95 script defaults to 100 cycles of five minutes under load and five minutes cooling. That would take about 16 and a half hours, and it is fewer cycles than the few hundred the announcement gives as the start of the improving phase, so the script appears to speed up only the early part of the process.
The pad reached shops after the September date Noctua gave in June
Noctua and Carbice announced on June 1 that Noctua would distribute Carbice pads exclusively for the retail market, with the NT-CP1 AM5/4 as the first product and availability scheduled for September 2026. It went on sale on November 12, after that September date.
No temperatures, test results or comparison with thermal paste accompany the launch
The announcement and the guide appear to give no figures for how many degrees the pad gains or loses against paste, or for how much it improves between the first day and the end of its activation phase. The claims of long-term stability are Noctua’s own, and no independent test appears alongside them. A buyer today is therefore likely paying for a description of how the pad behaves over time, with no measured result behind it.