ASUS ROG RYUO IV 360 ARGB CPU Liquid Cooler Review

Thermal Testing – Gaming

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 Speed Test

In our gaming charts, ASUS’ new Ryuo IV CPU cooler performs well. At almost all RPM levels, it sits towards the bottom of our charts, signalling ample cooling performance in gaming workloads. That said, cooling performance wasn’t great when fan RPMs were set to 700, indicating poor low RPM fan performance.

1,500 RPM Fan Speed Test

At higher RPMs, we can see our gaming delta temperatures drop. This makes the Ryuo IV stand amongst some of the best coolers that we have tested.

Maximum RPM Fan Speed Test

With fan speeds of 2250 RPM, the Ryou IV becomes one of the coolest-running AIO in our gaming tests.