Noctua Delays Highly Anticipated White Fans and Next-Gen NH-D15 Cooler

Highly regarded CPU coolers and fans maker Noctua has updated its roadmap, including delays to highly anticipated products. The company has pushed back its white Chromax fans and a next-gen NH-D15 CPU cooler until the first quarter of 2023. Noctua first teased an update to the 2014 vintage NH-D15 at Computex 2019, so it has been a long time coming.

We reported on the last update to the Noctua roadmap in January, and fans of the brand were quite excited about the white fans and the NH-D15 upgrade, so I imagine there will be a number of disappointed PC builders.

Noctua hasn't commented on the specific changes in the new roadmap. In some small print above the new roadmap it indicates that it is just a reflection of current plans and that these goals, and specifically the timing of product releases, might change as the months march on.

Reasons for the delays include "further research and development, fine-tuning, manufacturing capacities or coordination with other projects." Noctua adds, with some pride, that its products are so well refined they "often require extra time to perfect."

Noctua Roadmap changes — (Image credit: Future)

Above you can see the roadmap as it was in January, with the April 2022 update underneath. You'll see that Q2 2022, the current quarter, is missing the 24V to 12V converter and 8-way fan hub that were expected. Instead we are going to get a previously unannounced release of Noctua-branded fan grills.

Noctua's next-gen 140mm fans and 24V 40 mm fans have been bumped by a quarter and the current best estimate for them to be released is Q4 2022. The next-gen Xeon CPU coolers still appear to be on track for Q3 2022 though. A new entry appears in Q4 2022 and that is for slim 60 mm fans.

Last but probably most significantly for our readers the whole of the previously Q4 2022 product launch lineup has been shifted to Q1 2023. This includes the highly anticipated white fans, Noctua's next generation NH-D15 cooler, and what is expected to be a fun desktop fan for erm… fans of Noctua.

One thing we can be sure of, when the next NH-D15 does arrive, it will support both Intel 12th Gen Core processors in LGA1700 sockets and AMD AM5 processors in LGA 1718 sockets.

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Mark Tyson is a news editor at Tom's Hardware. He enjoys covering the full breadth of PC tech; from business and semiconductor design to products approaching the edge of reason.

11 Comments Comment from the forums

artk2219

Gross, I can only imagine how bad those fans will look in most users computers after a few months use.
Reply
drivinfast247

artk2219 said:
Gross, I can only imagine how bad those fans will look in most users computers after a few months use.
They'll still look better than brand new brown and beige fans.
Reply
Phaaze88

Of course, another push back... darn it.
Reply
saltweaver

Then I can expect Zen4 or RaptorLake delay till Q1 2023.
Reply
hotaru251

drivinfast247 said:
They'll still look better than brand new brown and beige fans.
questionable.

White is the WORST color to try to match.

White for 1 brand is not same as a different brand's white. thus it looks off.

their brand color scheme isnt everyones cup of tea but it has its fanbase.

more sad about the next gen cooler...
Reply
artk2219

hotaru251 said:
questionable.

White is the WORST color to try to match.

White for 1 brand is not same as a different brand's white. thus it looks off.

their brand color scheme isnt everyones cup of tea but it has its fanbase.

more sad about the next gen cooler...

I agree, brown and tan aint the prettiest, but it is noctua's signature color scheme, and those concerns aren't even taking into account oxidation and UV exposure, those fans will likely look pretty gross in a few years. That being said I'll freely admit that this is coming from a biased perspective, I actively avoid white for anything I wear or own because everything shows up on it, or it discolors, or its a pain to match, ehhhh yeah no thanks.
Reply
watzupken

There is little reason for Noctua to rush out a next gen CPU air cooler. Even at this point in time, the current revision of NH15 is still one of the best. While competitors are catching up, they have not soundly beaten Noctua in terms of performance vs noise.
Reply
Phaaze88

watzupken said:
There is little reason for Noctua to rush out a next gen CPU air cooler. Even at this point in time, the current revision of NH15 is still one of the best. While competitors are catching up, they have not soundly beaten Noctua in terms of performance vs noise.
I agree that the D15/S is one tough cookie to match, but cost is still an important factor for many out there... and Noctua's user friendly Secu-firm kit won't be enough to turn their heads over that.
If those folks can get comparable performance for much less, I'm sure they'll be plenty happy.

For the price, NH-D15/S has like one competitor - Thermalright. The FUMA 2, is a runner up of sorts, but it starts to lag behind the big Ds with higher heat loads and going up from there - think 200w+?
The stock fans hold it back, but then the great low noise profile would be lost from swapping in stronger fans.

As you go down the stack from D15/S, the number of options from the competition opens up.
Looking at it that way... U12A, U14S, U12S, etc, are bloody expensive. D15/S is, ironically, the most cost effective of the stack.
Reply
hotaru251

watzupken said:
There is little reason for Noctua to rush out a next gen CPU air cooler.
except 12th gen already shows nh-d15 is reaching its limits.
Reply
saltweaver

hotaru251 said:
except 12th gen already shows nh-d15 is reaching its limits.
Yes, Zen4 and RaptorLake are running for 24 core models so every cooler factory would need to adapt upon release.
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