Shiny aesthetic, better thermals! Thermal Grizzly updates its high-performance AM5 heatspreaders
Thermal Grizzly updates its AM5 GPU Heatspreaders, again
Thermal Grizzly has just confirmed that it has developed a “3rd generation” version of its AM5 CPU heatspreaders, adopting a new electroplating technique. This new design restores the shiny/reflective appearance of its 1st-generation design while retaining the improved thermals of its 2nd-generation design. This new coating should also be part of Thermal Grizzly’s newest Mycro Direct-Die Pro CPU water blocks.
Thermal Grizzly’s AM5 heatspreader is a product that can be used to replace AMD’s default heatspreader on delidded AM5 processors. This heatspreader is designed to deliver better thermals than AMD’s stock heatspreader. It is also 2mm thinner than AMD’s stock heatspreader.
While thermals are within tolerance of their 2nd-generation design, Thermal Grizzly’s newest water blocks will have a shinier/reflective appearance. While it doesn’t make the cold plate any more performant, users definitely prefer shinier water blocks.
This design change is part of Thermal Grizzly’s ongoing efforts to develop new products and reevaluate existing ones.
In September 2025, the nickel-plating process was switched to an electroplated bright-nickel method. As a result, the AM5 High Performance Heatspreaders of the 3rd generation now look similar to those of the 1st generation. The new batches using the updated process offer the same performance within measurement tolerance as the previously matte-nickel-plated High Performance Heatspreaders (2nd generation). At present, it is still possible that matte-nickel-plated High Performance Heatspreaders will be shipped. High Performance Heatspreaders with the original nickel plating (1st generation) should no longer be circulating in retail.
The same applies to the Mycro Direct-Die Pro water coolers. Here as well, the process has been changed to the electroplated bright-nickel method, meaning mixed inventory with matte-coated coolers may appear in retail. Performance has also not changed here within measurement tolerance.
It looks like 1st gen, but performs much better
Thermal Grizzly’s new 3rd generation heatspreader may look like its 1st generation version, but it delivers much better performance. Thermal Grizzly’s 2nd-generation and 3rd-generation AM5 heatspreaders can deliver up to 5 degrees cooler thermals than their 1st-generation design. This is thanks to more optimised nickel plating processes, which result in lower levels of thermal resistance.
The team at Thermal Grizzly is continuously working to live up to the slogan “High Performance Cooling Solutions.” This includes not only the ongoing design and testing of new products, but also the evaluation of existing products for compatibility with, for example, newly released processors. As part of our quality assurance, we conduct constant reviews and refinements. In close cooperation with one of our industrial partners, we have recently focused specifically on the nickel plating process.
We carried out extensive testing with different plating methods and layer thicknesses, leading to some interesting findings. By optimizing the nickel plating process used in our AM5 High Performance Heatspreaders, we were able to reduce the thermal resistance of the nickel layer significantly. In real-world applications, this optimization can result in temperature reductions of up to 5 °C compared to our previous coating!
– Thermal Grizzly on their 2nd generation AM5 heatspreader’s optimised nickel plating
You can join the discussion on Thermal Grizzly’s update AM5 CPU coldplates on the OC3D Forums.
