Does new thermal paste need time to improve?

It is going to depend on what thermal compound you use, but I don't think it matters. Arctic Silver says that is cures, but I think most people say that they don't see any difference over time.

http://www.arcticsilver.com/as5.htm

Important Reminder:
Due to the unique shape and sizes of the particles in Arctic Silver 5's conductive matrix, it will take a up to 200 hours and several thermal cycles to achieve maximum particle to particle thermal conduction and for the heatsink to CPU interface to reach maximum conductivity. (This period will be longer in a system without a fan on the heatsink or with a low speed fan on the heatsink.) On systems measuring actual internal core temperatures via the CPU's internal diode, the measured temperature will often drop 2C to 5C over this "break-in" period. This break-in will occur during the normal use of the computer as long as the computer is turned off from time to time and the interface is allowed to cool to room temperature. Once the break-in is complete, the computer can be left on if desired.

I worked with thermal paste in different jobs and used it hundreds of times at CPU's.
The result is much better then without it.... :-D
BUT ... why did you want to know if it will be better after a while and maybe drops 2°C ?
I am confrontaded with that question the first time since 25 years...
And i am not able to answer it. I never looked so close and/or long on temp. stuff in my own Laptops/PC's and at work i don't had finished comp./laptops so long to say anything about later results (and the priorities are other ones)

Judged from your picture of the laptop:
When you want cool your laptop down, without paying anything, then use 2 empty CD/DVD spindel/shaft under it. Looks not great but have a good effect and stability.
Or when you want it the way that it looks better and have better results then pay a bit and use a cooling pad with 1 or 2 fans.

How much of a drop did you expect with new thermal paste? Seems like you got a 4°-8°C drop. Is that very much less than you hoped for?

Yes, thermal paste gets better when it dries. But laptop CPU's don't go much lower than 80C while gaming.

No.

If it does "dry" you need to replace it.

Whoever tells you that its better when its dry is just plain wrong.

a) If its dry it has voids where water used to be. No matter how small the voids are, there's still air where there used to be water, or some sort of fluid.
b) Its dry and crumbly, this leaves even bigger voids and air pockets than those mentioned above.
c) Its not malleable anymore. If your heatsink gets moved, it might not reestablish a good contact between the heatsink and the CPU.

Why your temps changed when you applied new thermal paste?

a) Because you bought better thermal paste than it was in before
b )Because you applied it over the whole surface. //when they apply it in the factory its done by machine and its probably not evenly spread over the whole cpu
c) All of the above. :)

edit:
Also not all thermal pastes are the same.

View attached image.

I have never understood why people spread the paste evenly. Just drop a click in the middle.

Nope , pea size drop in the middle is enough then place the heatsink+fan then your good to go , I got 3 extra fans installed paste brand was "ic diamond" supposed to be one of the best and I have a new tube of "Tuniq TX-4" also one of the best I used another brand before that wasn't great don't remember brand name right now, doh. Its useless to change the paste every year I read somewhere it can last 10 years, so changing paste is useless, unless you change the cpu then you have no choice...and most modern paste's don't have a settle period as soon as you start up the pc it hardens...

yes some does, it can take some time before it work better

I've never seen it really get much better. It might get better, but the difference will be marginal. A couple of C at best. Plus, with the temperatures you've had, it has already dried and become stuck in that spot for sure. So overall, I don't think there'll be a difference.

This is a great opportunity for me to sneak and ask a question aswell. I have aswell high temperature of the CPU demanding titles, and honestly this pisses me off a little, because I cannot play games like FF XV.
I don't know if I should just ignore the temperature, but I'm worried the CPU state will go bad if I let it stay that much in heat.
I decided even to play on low, and kinda have better conditions (82/87 degrees and in loadings rarely 92 degrees. But, I'm playing in low, and I still don't like my CPU staying that hot. What u would suggest, to just play one hour and go away or just avoid completely the idea? Luckyly, I didn't buy ff xv, it is through shared library from my partner library. I actually have it on Ps4 but soon enough I would leave house without the possibility to take the Ps4 with me, I would really like to play it on my laptop.
It isn't a matter of requirements but it is just the overheats, it makes me so mad.
Sorry to steal your topic, but I wanted so bad to ask advices!

Remember that modern CPUs are built to run hot. They throttle automatically if they truly overheat and do not take damage from running hotter than was previously considered safe. If your CPU runs in the 80-85 degree range when playing a very intensive game then that's perfectly acceptable and within specs. For a laptop it's even pretty good - their cooling systems are horrible and anything with the power to run a modern game in a laptop formfactor will run scary hot regularly.

Basically peaking at 80-85 degrees on a daily basis: fine. 85+ degrees constantly: problematic, but mainly because it points to either an underpowered computer or actual defects in your setup. If you move to a desktop then you can start to expect lower temperatures.

And no, thermal paste does not need a curing time, although many will claim it. Thermal paste is the gold plated audio cables of the computer building world - you can pay as much as you want for it but the main difference in real world applications is in your head. Literal mayonnaise will work almost as well as arctic silver in short term test under controlled conditions, so don't bother reading the temp specs on the arctic silver website - look at your own system instead and compare before and after. What you have is what you get.

default cpu fan are crap
try http://www.coolermaster.com/product/Lines/cpu-air-cooler/
....
Edit. a Laptop.. :)

those things are not for games....

You could underclock the CPU a bit and see If It works for better temps (If your lap has the right software or in BIOS) Delidding is something they do but Idk If you can do It on a laptop CPU. I wouldnt take the risk unless you know you have the right tools. Even the Pros have messed up CPUs.

I used to be a supermoderator in a PC modding forum. So, the short answer about thermal compound curing (at least in the case of AS5) is "yes," but as mentioned above, you're just going to see a 1-3C drop. Your CPU should not be running at 80-90C. I usually set alarms for anything over 65-70 (although in laptops this tends to run a little higher).

Gaming on a laptop is brutal to that hardware. There's a reason that hardcore gamers still run on desktops. And I don't ever use stock CPU coolers...they're generally garbage (also mentioned above). You can usually drop a good 8-15C just by using a better CPU cooler. Again, though, this can be problematic in laptops, since each one is generally a proprietary machine and you don't have as many alternate options (sometimes zero).

It's too bad that a cooling pad won't work in this case. But, being a modder, I like the above suggestion that you can open up the bottom and install mesh instead to allow air in there.

In any case, temps in the 80-90C range are way too high. I have a rig with an AMD FX-8350 in it (8-core) slightly overclocked, and it idles at 33C. This thing is known for being a freaking hotplate, but even under load, I never exceed the 55-58C range. And that's still air cooled. Have you checked to ensure that all of your cooling fans (there may only be one in that laptop) are working properly? Airflow is critical, and if you don't have it, then no CPU cooler can save you.

Yes, all thermal compound will "settle in" over time and spread itself a little better across the surface of your CPU, filling in any micro-blemishes on both surfaces, but the temperature drop from that settling in period won't be anything drastic - a couple degrees at most. Don't expect a miracle.

Modern Intel CPUs can run as high as 80C, so try to get it under that as much as you can. I'd be busting out the dremel and chopping that laptop chassis up to improve airflow.

I was wondering If undervolting is possible since It was a thing with AM2+ AM3, AM3+ CPUs (Maybe even Ryzen).
Seems like you can https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rwiiGGHsrxA
Didnt check the video, It´s just for reference. Check the first question below, they ask for your CPU model and at the last answer they talk about the max undervolt. Quote: "-60 mV anything above that usually unstable and can cause bsod".

Check some forums, etc. I´ve have undervolt in the past (AMD Athlon X2 7750 that had an insane stock voltage and an Athlon 5150) but I am no expert. Good luck & stay on the safe spot If you try It.

I have that exact laptop, sometimes I can feel that it is running hot, but if you tell me the tools you log the temperatures with I can do some tests to compare yours to.
I got mine around 2 or 3 years ago, and have never opened it. It was in the living room while I stripped all the plaster then had it re-plastered, and always use it resting on my lap AKA a dust nightmare!

i remember linus using liquid metal on a hot gaming laptop to great effect.
however that stuff is nasty and not without its danger.
but it doesn't get any better than that.