Noctua NH-U12P: Top Performance AND Silence

Cooling at Stock Speed

Some users will never overclock their CPU, but they still want to run the coolest CPU temperatures possible to enhance stability and extend CPU life. We compile all temperature benchmarks with CoreTemp, a public domain utility that is quite stable with reproducible results on the Intel platform.

Performance at stock idle with the Noctua NH-U12P matches the best we have ever measured at AnandTech. When we tested with two of the new NF-P12 fans in a push-pull configuration performance actually dropped to ambient room temperature. This is an amazing level of performance, and it is the best result we have ever seen with any normal cooler under any conditions.

Where the very good Intel stock air-cooler keeps the X6800 at 31C at idle, the push-pull NH-U12P reduces that to 21C. This compares to the top Thermalright Ultra-120 eXtreme at 24C, Corsair water at 24C, Swiftech water at 27C, and ZEROtherm Nirvana at 23C. In comparing results, please keep in mind the test results from the new cooling bed using CoreTemp are not directly comparable to earlier cooling results.

It is more difficult to simulate all the various stress conditions a computer may encounter in different operating environments. For most home users, contemporary gaming is one of the most demanding CPU (and system) applications. Therefore, our stress test simulates running a demanding contemporary game. We loop the Far Cry River demo for 30 minutes and capture the CPU temperature with CoreTemp's "logging" option. We report the highest temperature during the load test. Momentary spikes are ignored, as we report a sustained high-level temp that you are likely to encounter in this type of scenario. This test configuration roughly equates to an 80% CPU load test using Intel TAT, another respected program for thermal measurements.

Let's compare cooling efficiency of the Noctua NH-U12P under load conditions at stock speed to the retail HSF and other recently retested CPU coolers.

The NH-U12P turns in an outstanding performance under load at stock speeds. CoreTemp results are 35C, which again represents the best air-cooling result so far at AnandTech. Performance with two fans in a push-pull configuration is even more impressive, yielding 32C under load. This exceeds our previous best load results at stock by 4C, which is impressive considering the competitors. This is a 15C to 18C improvement in cooling under load compared to the stock Intel fan, which reaches 50C under load at stock speed in our cooling test bed.

Cooling results with the Noctua NH-U12P at stock idle and load are record setting. Test results are the best we have ever seen - matching the top Thermalright Ultra-120 Extreme - or coming in a bit better - with the stock single fan. With two fans, the NH-U12P outperforms anything we have ever tested at stock speed.