Performance
The performance of the NH-U12S chromax.black cooler has been tested on the above-average gaming rig. Its most important is the Ryzen 7 3700X processor. It’s very popular in the last months, and that’s why we decided to use it in our tests.
Our comparison includes three tests. The idle mode is a PC left without any load besides standard Windows services running in the background. The mixed-mode base on a PCMark 10 extended test that uses popular applications and simple games. The max load is a CPU+FPU AIDA64 stability test. Shows about maximum CPU load during the most demanding work on all CPU cores.
Tests also include one and two fan setup of the NH-U12S cooler. A second fan is an option, but I’m sure that readers wish to see if it’s worth to spend additional money.
The results of the NH-U12S are amazing, especially under full load, where we could see up to 85°C. It’s a scenario which won’t ever happen in most home and office computers, but it’s good to know what is the limit. Coolers like SilentiumPC Fera 3 have a similar design but fewer heat pipes and smaller cooler’s base. It clearly affects overall performance. Our test results are even better under load than these of the Scythe Fuma 2, which is clearly larger cooler.
On the market is also available Noctua NH-U12A cooler (not on the comparison list), which so far isn’t available in chromax.black version but is worth to mention. I was surprised that the NH-U12S with two fans was only slightly worse than the NH-U12A (which has two fans as standard). The difference under full load was about 2°C. On the other hand, the best performing Noctua cooler so the NH-D15 chromax.black (will be reviewed soon) is performing 3-5°C better while its surface is much larger. Considering the size, Noctua NH-U12S performs excellently.
The mixed load test is not showing full truth because the maximum temperature in this test is more like a peak for a really short time on single cores. Most of the time, we can expect about 50-60°C rather than anything above 70°C.
Some readers can be surprised about the difference between one versus two fans. The difference is about 2-3°C, so pretty close to what we could see on the NH-D9L with one and two fans. The advantage of this solution is a lower temperature, but also both fans spin a bit slower. The measured noise of the test rig with a passive cooled graphics card was about 26-27dB. The additional fan was adding 1dB what isn’t much. The cooler is quiet and should satisfy most users, even at a higher speed.
Those users who are thinking of buying the NH-U12S chromax.black for their Ryzen 9 3900X processor can count on about 6°C higher temperature under load. The cooler handles that 12-core CPU without issues.
More advanced users can try their luck in overclocking as the NH-U12S can clearly handle higher CPU wattage. However, we weren’t able to see any higher CPU clock of our 3700X than 4.3GHz on all cores. This is the CPU limit, and even better cooler won’t help.
Our results are showing the high performance of Noctua NH-U12S chromax.black. I’m sure that all who decide on this cooler will be fully satisfied either it will run with one or two fans.
