Hey everyone! I'm in the process of refreshing my gaming rig and considering upgrading to the 9800X3D CPU, which I've heard has fantastic power efficiency and thermal performance. However, I currently use a single tower air cooler (Deepcool AG500). I'm curious for those who have experience with the 9800X3D—are the thermals really as great as advertised in real-life usage? Is my current cooler sufficient, or would it be worthwhile to invest in a dual tower cooler? Thanks for your insights!
4 Answers
I recommend getting at least a dual tower cooler. Even with my 7800X3D, which is very efficient, I hit 83°C under stress, and the 9800X3D can pull up to 160W in some scenarios. Just a heads up that it can reach 130W during gaming, so cooling is important!
I opted for a 360 AIO cooler, and my temps rarely exceed 60°C. I'm considering switching back to a tower cooler in the future just for ease of maintenance, but for now, the AIO is doing great.
The 9800X3D tends to stay cool during gaming because it doesn't run at full power all the time. A single-tower cooler should be fine even at the maximum 120W. However, if you want it to remain quiet under heavy load, a dual-tower cooler like the ID-Cooling Frozn A620 would be a solid choice.
You don't necessarily need to upgrade your cooler, but if you're looking for better multicore performance, a dual tower cooler might be a good move. For single-core tasks or general gaming, your current setup should suffice.
I read that the 9800X3D actually runs cooler than the 7800X3D because of how they designed the 3D cache, so you might be okay with a decent cooler.