Endorfy Fortis 5 Black ARGB Review: All you need for AMD’s Ryzen 9 9950X3D

Most of my cooling reviews are designed to let you know what the best and most powerful cooling solutions are. But not everyone is looking to overclock the hottest Intel i9 CPU. Instead of focusing on the best possible performance, today’s review will be looking at Endorfy’s Fortis 5 air cooler, which won’t win any overclocking competitions, but runs quietly while delivering enough cooling performance to satisfy the needs of mainstream consumers and gamers.

Let’s take a look at the specifications and features of the cooler, then we’ll go over thermal performance so you’ll know how cool it will keep your computer’s processor. We’ll also look at noise measurements to let you know how silently this product operates.

Cooler specifications

Packing and included contents

The exterior of the box isn’t flashy, but it showcases the features of the product well.

Included with the box are the following:

• 140mm fan
• Thick single-tower heatsink
• Thermal paste
• Mounting accessories for modern AMD & Intel platforms

Features of Endorfy Fortis 5 ARGB

▶ Rigid backplate

The included backplate is extremely strong, and won’t bend even under pressure.

▶ AM Clearance

There’s no reason to worry about RAM clearances with Endorfy’s Fortis 5 ARGB. As you can see in the picture below, the fan doesn’t interfere or overhang DIMM slots, allowing full compatibility no matter how tall (or short) your RAM is.

▶ Six Direct Touch Heatpipes

It is generally rare to see coolers with more than four or five direct-touch copper heatpipes, but Endorfy’s Fortis 5 has six of them! In theory, direct touch heatpipes should allow for more efficient heat transfer. Is that really the case? Well, we’ll get to the benchmarks soon enough and you can decide for yourself based on our tests.

▶ Thick single tower heatsink

Most air coolers incorporate one or two smaller heatsink towers, but Endorfy’s Fortis 5 incorporates one larger, thick heatsink.

The backside of the cooler incorporates a canyon in the middle. While Endorfy didn’t specifically comment on this design, other companies with similar designs have claimed it helps increase to static pressure of airflow.

▶ 40mm Fluctus ARGB fan

There’s more to a cooler than just the heatsink or radiator. The bundled fans have a significant impact on cooling and noise levels, as well as how the cooler looks in your case. The included Fluctus ARGB fan has 9 blades, with teeth on the edges of each fan blade. I’m not sure if those teeth serve any real purpose, but they sure look menacing!

Many cheaper products include fans with MTTF ratings of only 40-60,000 hours of operation, but not Endorfy. They indicate confidence in the quality of their product with a rating of 100,000+ hours for the Fluctus 140 ARGB fan.

Real world testing configuration: Intel LGA1700 and AMD AM5 platform

My results may differ from others because I place an emphasis on having results that are comparable to real-world use.

This means that I test CPU coolers inside of a closed desktop case, which increases cooling difficulty compared to other testing methods. Open benches have lower ambient temperatures, which in turn makes weak coolers appear stronger than they really are. Some publications have also used generic thermal plates to test cooling solutions.

I reject both of these methods because they don’t accurately reflect the real-world conditions where a CPU cooler is used.

My previous reviews have also tested Intel’s latest platform, using the Core Ultra 9 285K Arrow Lake CPU. We’re going to be retiring this from our testing suite. Between BIOS updates and Windows updates, Arrow Lake’s thermal characteristics have changed in some scenarios, rendering much of our previous testing data useless.

With today’s review, we’re also testing AMD’s recently released Ryzen 9 9950X3D. This is a beast of a CPU, providing the best gaming and some of the best multithreaded performance on the market, and can prove quite challenging thermally when PBO is enabled for overclocking.

LGA 1700 and AMD AM5 Installation

The installation of this cooler is simple and should be easy to complete for most users. It’s also pretty much the same process for Intel and AMD systems.

1. You’ll first need to place the backplate against the rear of the motherboard on an Intel system, using the standoffs to secure it. AMD users will need to remove the default mounting mechanism and replace it with the included standoffs.

2. Next, place the mounting bracket on top of the standoffs and secure it with the included screws.

3. Apply the included thermal paste to your CPU. If you have any questions on how to do this properly, please refer to our handy guide on how to apply thermal paste.

4. Place the CPU block on top of the CPU and secure it with a screwdriver.

5. Attach the fan and then connect the PWM cable to your motherboard, and installation is complete.