OC3D 2020 CPU Cooler Roundup

Thermal Testing – Stock i9-9900K  

Our CPU thermal testing is conducted on an Intel i9-9900K under heavy loads using Prime95 version 26.6’s “Small FFT’s” test. This is a high CPU workload, and represents the maximum load that anyone can ever expect a processor to be under with consumer-grade scenarios. Basically, if our CPU stays under 95 degrees during this test, it will always sit under that temperature.

Any cooler that allows our processor gets over 95 degrees is an automatic fail, causing our test to automatically end. These failed coolers sit at the bottom of our charts with no charted data beside them. As you can see below, some coolers can pass our test when running at their top fan speeds and fail when using lower fans speeds. This is why we test all of our coolers with multiple fan RPM settings.     

As you can see below, there is a huge variation in thermals across the products we tested. Typically, air coolers offer higher temperatures than their liquid cooler counterparts, though heatsinks like Noctua’s NH-D15 are able to sit in a relatively strong position on our charts given its retail price. 

It will be interesting to see how the order of our charts change as we increase the power consumption of our i9-9900K processor.