Cooling Performance

For cooling testing, I did change things up from our previous test suite. Our old Ryzen test setup tested across multiple CPUs but the new one focuses on the latest Intel CPU the i9-12900K which is known for generating a lot of heat. I did still do testing with a stock fan profile as well as at 100% fan speeds, but cutting down on the CPU count helped simplify the testing overall. I should also point out that most of the tests are done with the CPU power limits set to the suggested 250 watts with the exception of the unlimited power test. This is the same wattage our CPU review was tested at as well but remember that most of the higher-end motherboards default to a much higher wattage that will auto overclock your CPU even more.

My first test was using AIDA64’s FPU workload which is an extremely demanding workload that normally pushes thermal and power limits. I ran the workload for a half hour until thermals leveled off and recorded the temperature using the CPU die sensor. When using the stock fan profile the MasterLiquid PL240 Flux came in a degree lower than the other coolers. Cranking the fan speed up to 100% it was right in line with the Sapphire cooler with its higher fan speeds.

With that same AIDA64 FPU workload, I did also go in and turn the PL1 and PL2 wattages up to allow the CPU to go as high as it could being limited just by thermals. For this, I just documented the wattages on each cooler. Here the MasterLiquid PL240 Flux came in just one watt lower than the H100i. The C280 was higher, but that is with a larger dual 140mm setup.

Next up I switched AIDA64’s workload over to the CPU workload which I consider to be more realistic to gaming and standard PC use where the FPU workload is more demanding like rendering can be. You can see just how big of a difference the workload makes just by the range of temperatures that the coolers are running in here. The MasterLiquid PL240 Flux did well here, matching the larger C280 when running the stock fan profile and matching the Sapphire AIO at 100% fan speed even with the Sapphire fans running at a higher RPM.

For the last test, I changed the workload over to Blender Benchmark with the BMW render. This render doesn’t run for as long as I am able to run the AIDA64 workloads which does help keep the temperatures a little lower than the FPU results. But the MasterLiquid PL240 Flux did well with the stock fan profile. At 100% fan speed, it did a little worse, matching the C280.