Intel discontinued the company's Cryo Cooling Technology on July 1, 2023, with the 13th Generation Raptor Lake parts being the last supported chips. That means some of the best CPUs have just lost one of the few sub-ambient cooling options available, though in practice not many people ever chose to go this route. In a nutshell, this cooling tech brings the CPU down to 0 degrees Celsius to boost overall performance.
Intel introduced its Cryo Cooling Technology with 10th Generation Comet Lake processors, so it has been around for four generations of Intel chips. The duration more or less aligns with the life expectancy of an Intel socket, so it may not be news for some. Intel is killing off Cryo Cooling Technology with Raptor Lake, so the technology will not support the latest 14th Generation Raptor Lake Refresh.
As spotted by hardware detective momomo_us, Intel stopped working on the Cryo Cooling Technology as of July 1. Nonetheless, the chipmaker will continue distributing functional, security, and other miscellaneous updates until December 31, 2023. After that, owners of Cryo Cooling Technology products will potentially be left in the cold, with no support for newer Intel processors.
The thing with Intel's Cryo Cooling Technology is that it wasn't just about the hardware. Intel had envisioned it to be a small ecosystem comprised of software, firmware, and hardware working in harmony. The chipmaker's unexpected move to discontinue Cryo Cooling Technology puts its partners in a difficult predicament. Luckily, not many vendors had jumped on the Cryo Cooling hype train. Cooler Master released its MasterLiquid ML360 Sub-Zero, and EKWB launched the EK-QuantumX Delta TEC and subsequent QuantumX Delta TEC EVO E2 waterblocks.
Intel Cryo Cooling Technology only works with Intel processors, at least in theory. However, celebrity overclocker Der8auer proved you can use Cryo coolers with AMD's chips. In his experiment, he demonstrated a workaround to get Cryo Cooling Technology to work on the Ryzen 9 5950X, and the results were as impressive as those of Intel chips. There may yet be hope for Cryo Cooling owners if someone reworks Intel's software to play nice with AMD processors and perhaps releases a more user-friendly adapter bracket for AMD.
It's a shame that Cryo Cooling Technology never took off outside of the three retail products. Instead of being more power-efficient, new processors are going in the opposite direction. Pulling more power means more heat to dissipate, and that's where Cryo Cooling Technology could be a practical option. However, it looks like Intel has woken up from that dream and ultimately just decided to sweep Cryo Cooling Technology under the rug.
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Zhiye Liu is a news editor and memory reviewer at Tom’s Hardware. Although he loves everything that’s hardware, he has a soft spot for CPUs, GPUs, and RAM.
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Albert.Thomas While the first Cryo Cooler wasn't quite practical, I was looking forward to a refined version 2.0Reply
I guess that's not going to happen now :( -
Order 66 I didn't even know this existed until it got killed off. It's a shame that it did, because CPUs are only getting more power hungry. I mean, AMD's new threadripper CPUs can use 350W (7995wx).Reply -
tlmiller76
I came to say the exact same thing. Their announcement that it's dead is the first time I've ever heard of it. Can't have been overly popular.Order 66 said:I didn't even know this existed until it got killed off. It's a shame that it did, because CPUs are only getting more power hungry. I mean, AMD's new threadripper CPUs can use 350W (7995wx). -
bit_user I assume this used a peltier device? I don't really see how else it could achieve sub-ambient temperatures.Reply
I've never seen a review of a CPU cooler that used peltier devices that was worthwhile. I think they're just too inefficient at cooling. Plus, whenever you're cooling below ambient, you've got to worry about condensation. -
tlmiller76
Inefficient, yes. But so neat!!bit_user said:I assume this used a peltier device? I don't really see how else it could achieve sub-ambient temperatures.
I've never seen a review of a CPU cooler that used peltier devices that was worthwhile. I think they're just too inefficient at cooling. Plus, whenever you're cooling below ambient, you've got to worry about condensation. -
bit_user
Same as Intel's top-end workstation CPU: the Xeon w9-3495X - and it only has 56 cores!Order 66 said:CPUs are only getting more power hungry. I mean, AMD's new threadripper CPUs can use 350W (7995wx).
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thestryker
Yes, and the first one was basically just a straight up TEC which is why that one wasn't very good.bit_user said:I assume this used a peltier device? I don't really see how else it could achieve sub-ambient temperatures.
The second version was much more interesting though still not terribly efficient. They changed the cooler operating parameters so you could run more reasonable temps. I think Roman (der8auer) was the only person who went through them.bit_user said:I've never seen a review of a CPU cooler that used peltier devices that was worthwhile. I think they're just too inefficient at cooling. Plus, whenever you're cooling below ambient, you've got to worry about condensation.
Realistically though the nature of a TEC means as the power goes up they're harder to use. -
Vanderlindemedia Tec's are completely inefficient. They eat power and your cooling rig needs to be able to take care of both heat of the CPU and TEC. That can be in the 600 ~ 900 watts of range easily.Reply