Can the Ryzen 9 7950X, the top CPU of the Ryzen 7000 series, be operated with an air-cooled CPU cooler?Overseas media TechPowerUp verified it.
Prior knowledge
As a preliminary knowledge, if the CPU temperature is 95 degrees or less, the Ryzen 7000 series will actively increase the operating clock as necessary, such as during high-load processing. The upper limit is 95 degrees,Operation at a maximum of 95 degrees is specified.When it hits 95 degrees, it slows down the clock so it doesn’t exceed that temperature. in short,It is possible to operate at a high clock so that it can be cooled firmly.
A temperature of 95 degrees can be a little unnerving, but AMD says it will work 24/7 without risk of damage or degradation. If you’re worried about the default setting of 95 degrees, you can lower the upper temperature limit. However, in that case, of course, the operating clock will also drop.
operation test
TechPowerUpverified operation at the default setting of 95 degrees with the following CPU coolers:
- 420mm simple liquid cooling – Arctic Liquid Freezer II 420
- High End Air Cooling CPU Cooler – Noctua NH-U14S
- Low End Air Cooled CPU Coolers – AMD Wraith Spire
420mm high-end simple water cooling, high-end air-cooling CPU cooler, low-end air-cooling CPU cooler, operating clocks when using these are here.
Operating clock is the average value of all threads used
When running 32 threads at full load, the simple water-cooled Liquid Freezer II 420 averaged 5240MHz. On the other hand, the air-cooled NH-U14S has a fan speed of 100% at 5171MHz, 80% at 5157MHz, 60% at 5147MHz, and even at 60% there is only a difference of 100MHz.
The clock of the Wraith Spire drops quite a bit, but it does not exceed the upper limit of 95 degrees specified by the specification, and it seems to have worked without problems.
The difference in performance for each CPU cooler is as follows. First, Liquid Freezer II 420 vs. NH-U14S.
There is no big difference in actual performance between Liquid Freezer II 420 and NH-U14S. Quiet oriented people will be able to get sufficient performance even if they operate with the fan rotation speed lowered.
Next is Liquid Freezer II 420 vs. Wraith Spire.
As expected, when it comes to Wraith Spire, if the fan speed is low, the performance will drop by 20% or more in Blender, Cinebench, etc. Even so, when the fan speed is set to 100%, the maximum performance drop is around 10%.
in conclusion
All Ryzen 7000 series, not only Ryzen 9 7950X but also Ryzen 9 7900X, can be operated with an air-cooled CPU cooler.However, in order to obtain high performance, it is desirable to choose a CPU cooler with high cooling power.