Asus teased its new Threadripper concept cooler for AMD's Threadripper platform here at CES 2020. Even though this cooler is a concept for now (we're told the final version could come to market in Q3), Asus's timing is good: AMD announced its new Threadripper 3990X here at the show, too. AMD's newest chip promises to be a fire-breather with 64 cores and 128 threads chugging away with far more threaded horsepower than any of Intel's chips, data center Xeons included, but that's sure to generate plenty of heat.
The Asus ROG cooler comes with three Noctua iPPC NF-A14 2,000-RPM PWM fans, but as 'fans' of Noctua fans know, that means there's no LED action, giving the AIO an all-black theme.
Asus designed the all-copper radiator to provide optimal thermal dissipation in a somewhat slim design.
The lack of RGB lighting doesn't mean the cooler doesn't have some bling: The cooler head comes with an OLED screen that displays temperature, but you'll also be able to customize the images on the screen.
The unit also comes with a full-coverage cold plate that provides superior cooling compared to the Asetek-compatible cooling adapters that allow you to use a standard smaller cooling head that doesn't have as much surface coverage on Threadripper's heat spreader. That's sure to be a key consideration with the new Threadripper chips, as they will have much higher thermal output on the dies lined around the periphery of the chip.
AMD spec'd the 3990X at the same 280W TDP, but due to the fact that TDP doesn't always have a direct relationship to what we see in the real world, you can rest assured the chip will benefit from better cooling. But that's not to say that the current-gen models couldn't benefit, too. As we've shown in our testing, AMD's boost mechanisms dish out higher performance with better cooling, so investing in a robust cooler pays off.
Asus says its cooler is a concept for now, but that we will see a new product based off this design in the Q3 2020 timeframe. Unfortunately, the representative didn't have any expected price points, and given that this isn't a final design, it could change a bit before it comes to retail.
