Noctua Cooler Not Performing Properly?

[Joealex24]

Today I installed my new NH-U12A on my R5 3600, replacing the stock cooler. I've gone from idle temps of 38-40c to 33-34c. My cinebench r23 multi core runs went from 9111 points and 92c peak 89-90c average to a 9173, 89 - - and 9148 with peak 89c and average 86c. This doesn't seem like anywhere near the expected performance increase :/. I'm using pbo. Case is meshify c. I did clean the IHS with a microfibre cloth before applying the paste but maybe I didn't apply the paste very well?

[aisle9]

Did you peel the sticker off of the heatsink base?

[Joealex24]

2 minutes ago, aisle9 said:

Did you peel the sticker off of the heatsink base?

there was just a piece of plastic which I took off yeah

[MadAnt250]

12 minutes ago, Joealex24 said:

Today I installed my new NH-U12A on my R5 3600, replacing the stock cooler. I've gone from idle temps of 38-40c to 33-34c. My cinebench r23 multi core runs went from 9111 points and 92c peak 89-90c average to a 9173, 89 - - and 9148 with peak 89c and average 86c. This doesn't seem like anywhere near the expected performance increase :/. I'm using pbo. Case is meshify c. I did clean the IHS with a microfibre cloth before applying the paste but maybe I didn't apply the paste very well?

Did you ramp up the fan speed, I think the fan on the stock cooler may spin faster.

[aisle9]

1 minute ago, Joealex24 said:

there was just a piece of plastic which I took off yeah

Ok. Did you change anything with the fan curves at all? If not, check and make sure you used enough thermal paste, and reseat the cooler.

[Joealex24]

1 minute ago, MadAnt250 said:

Did you ramp up the fan speed, I think the fan on the stock cooler may spin faster.

 

1 minute ago, aisle9 said:

Ok. Did you change anything with the fan curves at all? If not, check and make sure you used enough thermal paste, and reseat the cooler.

I moved the fan curve up after the first test run. Pretty sure its at 100% past 75c or something so like 2000rpm for these fans. If I take the cooler off can I just put it back on or do I have to clean and reapply the thermal paste? I don't want to redo the thermal paste right now but can do in the next day or two (I might get some isopropyl alcohol then as well).

[Arrogath]

There's a few things you should check:

The noctua mounting hardware is firmly and correctly installed on the motherboard

 

Look at the processor and cooler cold plate when removing to check coverage, the most fool proof method of paste is a thin layer across the entire IHS

 

Are you using the "noise reducer" in line resistor that noctua occasionally provides? If yes I would recommend you don't, you can always just control fan speed via software

 

Is the fan installed with the proper direction for the airflow of your case, are your case fans set properly to draw and exhaust air?

edit: Try with and without PBO, could just be your motherboard is overvolting too much for little to no frequency improvement. PBO is kinda crap

[Joealex24]

2 minutes ago, Arrogath said:

There's a few things you should check:

The noctua mounting hardware is firmly and correctly installed on the motherboard

 

Look at the processor and cooler cold plate when removing to check coverage, the most fool proof method of paste is a thin layer across the entire IHS

 

Are you using the "noise reducer" in line resistor that noctua occasionally provides? If yes I would recommend you don't, you can always just control fan speed via software

 

Is the fan installed with the proper direction for the airflow of your case, are your case fans set properly to draw and exhaust air?
 

can I remove the cooler to check without having to reapply thermal paste?

[Arrogath]

Just now, Joealex24 said:

can I remove the cooler to check without having to reapply thermal paste?

Linus does it all the time, I have as well when I'm troubleshooting and have to remove the cooler multiple times. As long as the coverage was good before it should be fine, but since you're have thermal issues you will probably want to try a new fresh mount at some point

[Joealex24]

18 minutes ago, Arrogath said:

Linus does it all the time, I have as well when I'm troubleshooting and have to remove the cooler multiple times. As long as the coverage was good before it should be fine, but since you're have thermal issues you will probably want to try a new fresh mount at some point

 

29 minutes ago, aisle9 said:

Ok. Did you change anything with the fan curves at all? If not, check and make sure you used enough thermal paste, and reseat the cooler.

thermal paste was spread perfectly across the whole ihs not spilling over the sides

[Arrogath]

Instead of PBO in bios maybe download ryzen master and try the newest version of Ryzen Clock Tuner. It is capable to changing between profiles similar to how the Dark Hero board can, allowing you to swap to an undervolted/optimized all core overclock only during heavy usage to keep your single core boost normal. You could also potentially get your all core overclock close to the 3600's single core boost with some luck with silicon quality

edit: to be clear, CTR is a third party tool that leverages Ryzen Master for an efficient overclock according to your tested silicon quality

[Joealex24]

4 minutes ago, Arrogath said:

Instead of PBO in bios maybe download ryzen master and try the newest version of Ryzen Clock Tuner. It is capable to changing between profiles similar to how the Dark Hero board can, allowing you to swap to an undervolted/optimized all core overclock only during heavy usage to keep your single core boost normal. You could also potentially get your all core overclock close to the 3600's single core boost with some luck with silicon quality

edit: to be clear, CTR is a third party tool that leverages Ryzen Master for an efficient overclock according to your tested silicon quality

Yeah I've heard of that might try at some point. Turned off smart fan mode so they are now constantly at 2000rpm and averaged just over 70c in cinebench r23 peak 75c which I think is good? The fan curve mustn't have been reaching 2000 for some reason.

[Arrogath]

3 minutes ago, Joealex24 said:

Yeah I've heard of that might try at some point. Turned off smart fan mode so they are now constantly at 2000rpm and averaged just over 70c in cinebench r23 peak 75c which I think is good? The fan curve mustn't have been reaching 2000 for some reason.

the fan curve is probably based on the "cpu temp" not the "cpu package temp" while having a max temperature/max fan of what the max package is... which the "cpu temp" will never reach since your clocks drop off before that point. If you can change the curve you could just bump the 100% point back 5-10 degrees, that's usually around where my processors package vs socket temp is. If the noctua fan isn't noticeable it might be worth while to just leave it @ 100%, you'll get snappier performance in general keeping the cpu cooler

[Mark Kaine]

58 minutes ago, MadAnt250 said:

Did you ramp up the fan speed, I think the fan on the stock cooler may spin faster.

that isn't how it works at all, funny enough I replaced my stock fan cooler with a noctua NH-U12S today and I didn't change my fan curves at all, and it's spinning at 500rpm instead of 2500rpm, that's the whole point of a tower cooler like this, and why it's much more silent and my temps went from 95C in prime95 to 77C max...

 

I think OP didn't put enough thermal paste,  or too much, or didn't tighten the screws properly (they say until it doesn't spin anymore... which takes longer than you'd think)

 

 

Also my Superposition scores went up!  Cause the PC runs much cooler now - besides the annoying, sawing sound of the stock cooler the reason I brought this cooler, idc about cpu scores at all but the thing was running too hot costing me performance... 

 

Idle temp went from ~40 to 30 btw

[MadAnt250]

2 minutes ago, Mark Kaine said:

that isn't how it works at all,

Sounds like the fan curve is needs some tweaking.

1 hour ago, Joealex24 said:

Yeah I've heard of that might try at some point. Turned off smart fan mode so they are now constantly at 2000rpm and averaged just over 70c in cinebench r23 peak 75c which I think is good? The fan curve mustn't have been reaching 2000 for some reason.

 

[Mark Kaine]

1 minute ago, MadAnt250 said:

Sounds like the fan curve is needs some tweaking.

Maybe but I'm saying the noctuas fan speed is much lower (over 50% slower) and I'm getting way better temps so I think something else is off with OPs cooler or rather mount. 

 

 

[MadAnt250]

3 minutes ago, Mark Kaine said:

Maybe but I'm saying the noctuas fan speed is much lower (over 50% slower) and I'm getting way better temps so I think something else is off with OPs cooler or rather mount. 

It could be mounting, and should be checked, but the OP has great temps in cinebench with the fans set to full speed which is not bad as far as noise goes, and is much slower than the stock cooler fan, it could be the fan control being weird and not ramping the fan speed up like it should. For all we know the fans could be installed incorrectly, which is a mistake people make sometimes. 

IDK, something is a bit off, taking it off and trying again wont hurt.