Threadripper 3990X CPU Cooling Comparison – Taming the Beast

1. Introduction - Taming the 64-core Beast2. Test Samples - IceGiant, Noctua, be quiet!, Corsair3. Testing on the 3990X - Our Approach4. Test Procedures5. PBO-1000 Testing - CPU Temperatures and Power6. PBO-1000 Testing - VRM Temperatures7. PBO-1000 Testing - Clock Speeds and Cooling Dynamics8. Manual OC Testing - CPU Temperatures9. Manual OC Testing - CPU Power and VRM Temperatures10. Noise Testing11. What's Going On With be quiet! and Cooler Master?12. Closing Thoughts - Cooling Threadripper 3990X is Tough!13. View All Pages

Cooler orientation and the fact that some units see the power delivery system pumping less juice into the CPU make the VRM temperature results somewhat misleading.

be quiet! and Corsair perform well but that is helped by the units delivering notably less power through the VRM. This results in less heat loss and lower operating temperature for the MOSFETs. Corsair's AIO also has airflow direction in its favour with respect to our test motherboard.

Focussing on Noctua and IceGiant – both of the coolers that showed lofty power delivery numbers – we see orientation influence putting the ProSiphon Elite into a strong position. Despite delivering just shy of 500W to the CPU, the VRM temperature with the ProSiphon Elite’s fans at full speed was a very reasonable 78C. 84C with the speed-reduced 455W mode is also a strong outcome.

Noctua’s power delivery numbers are almost directly comparable to the 1500 RPM IceGiant run. Therefore, the higher operating VRM temperatures for the Austrian cooler are clearly an outcome of the orientation with respect to our motherboard. Nevertheless, a maximum of 90C after 30 minutes of heavy loading is perfectly acceptable in our opinion.

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