Cooler Master V8 ACE 3DHP CPU Cooler Review

Meet the Cooler Master V8 Ace 3DHP

Cooler Master’s taking single-tower CPU cooling to the next level with its new V8 ACE 3DHP CPU cooler

Cooler Master is aiming for the high end of the CPU cooling market with its new V8 ACE 3DHP CPU cooler, using its 3D Heatpipe (3DHP) technology to create a high-end CPU cooler that’s smaller than its competitors and only needs a single tower.

The V8 ACE 3DHP targets coolers like Noctua’s NH-D15 G2, promising strong cooling, a smaller form factor, and a much lower price tag. Sadly, we have not reviewed Noctua’s NH-D15 G2, though we will be comparing this cooler with other modern CPU air coolers. Will it sit amongst the best? It’s time to find out!

Premium Packaging

Opening the box of the V8 Ace 3DHP is a premium experience. The cooler sits inside a purpose-built foam support, and the box opens with the simple pull of a tab. In some ways, it feels like opening an Nvidia Founders Edition GPU. Clearly, Cooler Master wants users to have a good unboxing experience.

A V8 with six “real” heatpipes

Cooler Master’s 3D Heatpipe (3DHP) technology allows Cooler Master to do more with less. A 3D heat pipe can do more work than a standard heatpipe. For this reason, the V8 name for this cooler does not signify the use of eight heatpipes. The V8 Ace 3DHP uses four traditional heatpipes and two 3D heat pipes (3DHP). Cooler Master is essentially claiming that their 3DHP heatpipes can do the work of two standard heatpipes.

Cooler Master innovates with 3DHP tech

With its 3DHP tech, Cooler Master aims to solve some of the problems with traditional heatpipes. Traditional heatpipe designs can result in hot spots on a CPU cooler’s coldplate. With 3DHP designs, cooling is more even thanks to its extra prong. Instead of a U-shaped design, the extra prong on a 3DHP adds extra cooling near the centre of the heatpipe, resulting in more even thermals.

Cooler Master’s 3DHP tech made its debut with its V4 Alpha 3DHP Black CPU cooler. With their new heatpipes, Cooler Master did the work of four traditional heatpipes with two. With their new V8 ACE 3DHP cooler, it uses two 3DHP heatpipes with four traditional heatpipes to do the work of eight traditional heatpipes. Their cooler’s central heatpipes are 8mm 3D heat pipes, enabling stronger overall cooling performance.

Cooler Master claims that this V8 ACE 3DHP can compete with Noctua’s NH-D15 G2 with a smaller overall design and a single fin stack. That’s the power of their 3DHP tech.

AMD VS Intel – The Cooler Master V8 ACE 3DHP has two versions

With the V8 Ace 3DHP, Cooler Master has created dedicated AMD and Intel versions of their CPU coolers. Standard “one-size-fits-all” designs leave performance on the table by not considering specific aspects of modern CPUs. With their V8 ACE 3DHP CPU cooler, Cooler Master has tuned specific versions of their cooler for AMD and Intel processors. This tuning involved chemical and mechanical elements.

Cooler Master has chemically optimised its Intel and AMD models to best suit their specific processors. This means that their heatpipes are optimised to work better at specific Q-Max values, matching the specifications of Intel and AMD CPUs.

Mechanically, Cooler Master has optimised the shape of their CPU cooler base plates for AMD and Intel CPUs. The AMD version uses a flat surface, whereas the Intel model has a convex baseplate. This matches the characteristics of AMD/Intel CPUs, enabling optimal CPU-to-cooler contact.

Without this convex base, the V8 Ace 3DHP would not achieve maximum contact with the centre of Intel CPUs. This would deliver sub-optimal cooling results. We tested both versions of the V8 Ace 3DHP to see the difference for ourselves. Note below that the two coolers have different-looking base plates. While both appear flat (visually), there is a slight difference.

OC3D CPU Cooler Gaming Test

With this new CPU testing rig, we wanted to experiment with analysing the “gaming” performance of CPU coolers. After all, all-core stress tests are not a common workload for most PC users. Games do not usually put huge levels of stress on all cores of your processor, especially if your CPU has a high core count. We also wanted to see if your choice of CPU cooler impacts GPU thermals under a GPU-focused stress test. After all, your CPU cooler can have a huge impact on the overall airflow pattern of your PC.

This testing procedure uncovered something. What we found was that AIO CPU liquid cooling solutions gave us lower GPU thermals. This makes sense, as these solutions pump hot air directly out of our test system and act as an exhaust. That said, the impact on GPU thermals was minimal. We only saw drops of 2-3 degrees during this test. Given this lack of difference, we will now focus exclusively on CPU thermals with this test.

For our CPU game test, we used Final Fantasy XIV Endwalker’s benchmarking tool for our gaming test. This test can run for a long time and moves between CPU and GPU-limited parts of the game. This test was used at a resolution of 1080p at maximum settings.

1,000 RPM Fan Test

At 1,000 RPM fan speeds, this CPU cooler isn’t delivering strong results. Honestly, these results left us very confused. As you can see below, the fan speeds at higher RPMs deliver much stronger results, especially when compared with other CPUs coolers. That said, at 1,000 RPM this cooler’s performance drops off. Perhaps this cooler’s fin stack is too dense? That would explain such a large performance drop at low RPMs.

1,500 RPM

At 1,500 RPM fan speed, we can see that the V8 ACE 3DHP delivers much stronger results than at 1,000 RPM. We can also see that Cooler Master’s dedicated Intel version of this cooler performs better than its AMD counterpart. That makes sense given our use of an Intel CPU for testing.

Maximum Fan RPM

When fan speeds are cranked up, the Cooler Master V8 ACE 3DHP comes into its own. It moved down our charts to stand amongst some of the best air-based CPU coolers that we have tested. Fan speeds make a big difference with this CPU cooler.