Does the included 5600X cooler (Wraith Stealth) allow max boost clocks?

[kingmustard]

I was considering buying a higher-end CPU cooler for the 5600X.

 

However, will the included cooler (the Wraith Stealth) allow max boost clocks, or will it limit the CPU in any ways?

 

I have good airflow in the case.

 

I will not be overclocking.

[SnowyMus]

22 minutes ago, kingmustard said:

will it limit the CPU in any ways?

In single core workloads, unlikely.

 

In multi core workloads, probably!

 

These CPUs tend to boost higher when they are at a cooler temperature. The Wraith Spire isn't a bad cooler and will allow your CPU to perform within its rated specifications without overheating, but I've found my Ryzen 5 2600 can get as hot as 84 °C with it when doing a heavy multicore workload. This isn't hot enough to thermal throttle, but it isn't going to boost as high as an identical CPU at, say, 50 °C.

 

For gaming, this is fine. But if you're going to do any sort of heavy multi threaded workloads such as encoding or rendering, spending a little extra on an air cooler isn't a bad idea.

Edited November 15, 2020 by Kavawuvi

[DoctorNick]

18 minutes ago, kingmustard said:

I was considering buying a higher-end CPU cooler for the 5600X.

 

However, will the included cooler (the Wraith Stealth) allow max boost clocks, or will it limit the CPU in any ways?

 

I have good airflow in the case.

 

I will not be overclocking.

Should be no problem. Might not hold the boost for as long though, but yes the cooler is meant to work fine at stock.

[DoctorNick]

2 minutes ago, Kavawuvi said:

In single core workloads, unlikely.

 

In multi core workloads, probably!

 

These CPUs tend to boost higher when they are at a cooler temperature. The Wraith Spire isn't a bad cooler and will allow your CPU to perform within its rated specifications, but I've found my Ryzen 5 2600 can get as hot as 84 °C with it when doing a heavy multicore workload.

Sinlge core boost is much cooler than multicore boost, so your statement dosen't make any sense.

[Tan3l6]

3 minutes ago, DoctorNick said:

Sinlge core boost is much cooler than multicore boost, so your statement dosen't make any sense.

Yup, I have no explanation for the "multi-core load is cooler than single core" 

 

[SnowyMus]

1 minute ago, DoctorNick said:

Sinlge core boost is much cooler than multicore boost, so your statement dosen't make any sense.

My response was to this question:

21 minutes ago, kingmustard said:

will it limit the CPU in any ways?

but I'll edit my post to include that

[svmlegacy]

It's been shown that Vermeer CPU's scale multi-core boosting into sub-ambient, which means all traditional coolers "limit" the chips in some way.

 

That being said, there's a case of diminishing returns with high performance coolers. Just run the stock wraith and decide for yourself.

[kingmustard]

4 minutes ago, DoctorNick said:

Should be no problem. Might not hold the boost for as long though, but yes the cooler is meant to work fine at stock.

So you don't think a Noctua NH-L9a-AM4 chromax.black (£46) (I wanted a low profile cooler) will perform much better?

[Tan3l6]

2 minutes ago, kingmustard said:

So you don't think a Noctua NH-L9a-AM4 chromax.black (£46) (I wanted a low profile cooler) will perform much better?

Why exactly that cooler if I may ask?

This one would be most likely much better :

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Gelid-Phantom-Black-Tower-Cooler/dp/B07CK6BXX5/ref=sr_1_2?dchild=1&keywords=gelid+phantom&qid=1605447012&s=computers&sr=1-2

[kingmustard]

2 minutes ago, Tan3l6 said:

Why exactly that cooler if I may ask?

My AIO cooler is on the wonk, but instead of getting another one, I will just go air.

 

I don't want a big, ugly tower fan, so I made this topic:

 

 

I decided on the NH-L9a-AM4 chromax.black as it was Noctua (so will be decent) and good-looking.

[DoctorNick]

2 minutes ago, kingmustard said:

So you don't think a Noctua NH-L9a-AM4 chromax.black (£46) (I wanted a low profile cooler) will perform much better?

A guy tested this with a 2600 https://turbofuture.com/computers/Noctua-NH-L9a-AM4-CPU-Cooler-Review-and-Benchmarks

[SnowyMus]

5 minutes ago, kingmustard said:

So you don't think a Noctua NH-L9a-AM4 chromax.black (£46) (I wanted a low profile cooler) will perform much better?

I looked for some reviews on the L9a and found something that may answer your question:

Quote

 

The Noctua NH-L9a beat out the Wraith Stealth cooler substantially, dragging the Wraith by roughly an 11 degree difference. The Wraith cooler was fairly weak here hitting a maximum of 88.9 degrees while the Noctua held up quite nicely hitting a maximum of 77.8 degrees.
 

https://turbofuture.com/computers/Noctua-NH-L9a-AM4-CPU-Cooler-Review-and-Benchmarks

 

I do think you can do better for the price, but yes, it will perform better.

EDIT: Seems DoctorNick ninja'd me on that

Edited November 15, 2020 by Kavawuvi

[kingmustard]

Just now, DoctorNick said:

A guy tested this with a 2600 https://turbofuture.com/computers/Noctua-NH-L9a-AM4-CPU-Cooler-Review-and-Benchmarks

Quote

Conclusion and Final Thoughts

 

So, there you have it. The Noctua NH-L9a is an impressive upgrade over the stock AMD Wraith Stealth cooler. Given the $40 price tag, this cooler is definitely a great alternative to the AMD Wraith Stealth for a quieter, more stable platform in a mini-itx/HTPC system. This is a cooler that I would absolutely recommend without reservation specifically for these “travel” mini-itx systems or home theater PC systems.

Appears it's quieter than the Wraith Stealth and performs a little better.

[svmlegacy]

3 minutes ago, kingmustard said:

So you don't think a Noctua NH-L9a-AM4 chromax.black (£46) (I wanted a low profile cooler) will perform much better?

The performance difference between this and the Wraith Spire is marginal at best. It is not worth £46 for the performance alone.

https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=noctua-nhl9-am4&num=2

[Tan3l6]

2 minutes ago, DoctorNick said:

A guy tested this with a 2600 https://turbofuture.com/computers/Noctua-NH-L9a-AM4-CPU-Cooler-Review-and-Benchmarks

The cooling is somewhat mediocre to bad though.

https://aphnetworks.com/reviews/noctua-nh-l9a-am4-chromax-black/3

[DoctorNick]

1 minute ago, Tan3l6 said:

The cooling is somewhat mediocre to bad though.

https://aphnetworks.com/reviews/noctua-nh-l9a-am4-chromax-black/3

Yeah, but it looks good though!

[SnowyMus]

4 minutes ago, Tan3l6 said:

The cooling is somewhat mediocre to bad though.

https://aphnetworks.com/reviews/noctua-nh-l9a-am4-chromax-black/3

I'd say its best use case is for a SFF PC case such as a Fractal Design Node 202 or a Silverstone ML08, since you can't fit a full-sized cooler in those.

 

It's not ideal for a full desktop cooler, but yeah, it does look nice. I know the Hyper 212 EVO is a meme cooler, but even that would be a bit better (and cheaper!).

 

But, even so, yes, the NH-L9A is better than stock.

[DoctorNick]

3 minutes ago, Tan3l6 said:

The cooling is somewhat mediocre to bad though.

https://aphnetworks.com/reviews/noctua-nh-l9a-am4-chromax-black/3

I would get a bigger cooler for sure. But I would overclock until it..

 

[freeagent]

For low profile I would probably go with something like this:

 

https://www.amazon.com/Thermalright-AXP-100-Designed-Systems-Copper/dp/B07HFF29TK/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=thermalright&qid=1605449058&sr=8-1