Intel CPU is a special case. They use a shit TIM (practically functions as an insulator) between the die and heat spreader. Switch heatsink is directly on the die, so the situation is different. And we're still talking about a power profile that's ~10% of what a desktop CPU outputs. It's just not comparable at all. I'm skeptical of the heat difference. No one is measuring these directly, and placebo effect is a thing. Liquid metal may make a minor difference, but as you say, it's a lot riskier to apply. Especially in a portable device.
All of my Nintendo devices going back to 1991 are still working fine. I'm not really concerned about the longevity. At some point the battery will hold less of a charge, I can always change the TIM if/when I replace the battery.
you can check all consoles, even the ones with best thermal compound still have a huge difference to a good normal thermal compound that you buy, not to mention liquid metal which will drop a lot on everything that its used...
And at least with MX-4 just knowing its safe for 8 years of use is a HUGE plus.
The guy on this forum that used liquid metal 4 example claim that the fan almost never speed up anymore...
...
So i did this
- Ordered liquid metal from overclockers (same brand as the one in Linus's video)
- Opened switch with ifixit kit (a must the screws are tiny)
- cleaned all of nintendo JUNK paste off the heat pipe/gpu/cpu with removal products this took a few goes to get it all off.
- applied liquid metal directly to GPU/CPU
- placed back thin copper sheet
- used artic silver ontop of copper sheet to metal heatpipe plate
- on back of heatpipe plate that touches metal casing applied artic silver allot.
done
i have no actual proof as my switch isnt hacked and i have no way of seeing system temps, is what i can say is the unit is cool, even playign mario for hours back doesnt get hot like it used to, fan never spins up (sometimes i have to put my ear to it to see if its even running) and battery seems to be a smudge better.
Again i have no evidence but "feels" like its improved it.
A quote from him.
Also theres a video on youtube from Gamers Nexus that he see that every time the console hits around 59-60Cº theres FPS drops on Zelda, he also believe it could be due to thermals as 60Cº he was getting, was not exactly the real die temperature as we can't still get to that, when CFW comes out maybe we can finally get the thermal reading on the die, can't wait for that function and to see how much I can reduce in temps with the cooling mods I'm planning to do when the CFW comes out.
EDIT:
And to end theres also a video on youtube of a guy that made complete cooling mods on his Switch and one thing he noticed and even shows on camera is that after the mods on Zelda on the forest part there is no more stuttering or FPS drops.
On my Switch that part of the forest looks like deep shit LOL, but I'm also on V1.0, latest version improved it a lot, but still had lag and he fixed it portable with the cooling mods.
Watch at
5:30, there you have the proof of it improving things...
And he used Artic Silver 5 which by it self is worse than Artic MX-4, but he also did other mods like adding thermal pads and some minor stuff.
ps: This is the reason why since you already open the console to remove the battery plug, just also use propper thermal compound and it will only improve everything a lot with not much money needed...