Background: The solar parabolic trough collector is among the most promising technologies for converting solar energy into useful thermal energy. Nevertheless, it needs better heat-transfer fluid to operate optimally. The main purposes of this study are to determine the thermal and hydraulic performance of a parabolic trough collector and compare four synthetic organic heat-transfer fluids, namely, Dowtherm-rp, Dowtherm-j, Syltherm-800, and Therminol-vp1. This work is special in its approach to the comparative performance analysis of four high temperature heat transfer fluids: Dowtherm-rp, Dowtherm-j, Syltherm-800 and Therminol-vp1 and the ability to infer the thermal performance of each fluid in terms of operating parameters. Techniques: In this study, computational fluid dynamics tools with a finite-volume capability and a Monte Carlo ray-tracing method that are implemented in ANSYS-AIM 2020R1 were used. The calculations and plotting of the parabolic trough collector heat transfer on the base of the mathematical formulation of the heat transfer are done using MATLAB R2020a with the help of Microsoft Excel. Accurate capturing of complex conjugate heat transfer, radiative effects and hydraulic behavior in the system is done using computational fluid dynamics. Both localized and overall system performance under different operating conditions can be assessed using mathematical formulation and analysis. Findings: The maximum pressure drops of 49.619 Pa and 43.712 Pa are in Dowtherm-rp and Dowtherm-j respectively at a value of the operating parameter of 0.20. Conversely, Syltherm-800 and Therminol-vp1 have greater convective heat transfer coefficient, 146.924 W/m2-K and 173.726 W/m2-K respectively. Interestingly, Syltherm-800 and Dowtherm-rp have a considerable heat loss of 2906.7 W and 2564.623 W, respectively, at the same conditions of operation. Inferences: Therminol-vp1 and Syltherm-800 had a thermal enhancement index of 1.254 and 1.0, respectively. Also, Syltherm-800 and Dowtherm-rp have the highest thermal efficiency of 0.367 and 0.451 respectively. All in all, Syltherm-800 will have the best thermal and hydraulic properties, making it the most suitable fluid as a heat transfer media.