Thermal paste can also be called thermal grease, thermal gel, thermal compound, or heatsink compound. But the thermal adhesive is different from these things. The adhesive pads are made of thermally conductive glue, which sticks to the interface area between the processor and heatsink. Applying them is easier and less messy with low chances of error, yet less effective than thermal pastes. They can work until the GPU (graphic processing unit) or CPU (central processing unit) works at least overclocked speeds or at stock frequencies, just as thermal pastes do.