No Power Limits Cinebench Results
With Raptor Lake’s i9-13900K pushing speeds of 5.5Ghz+, even the strongest of coolers hit TJ max while running Cinebench R23 and other demanding scenarios. As the 13900K is designed to aim for its top safe temperature, we’ll be comparing the overall benchmark score and the CPU’s clock speeds instead.
The results below are for a 10-minute testing run. But to be sure that was sufficiently long to tax the cooler, we also retested both Thermalright’s Assassin X 120 R SE and DeepCool’s LT720 with a 30-minute Cinebench test. The results didn’t change much at all with the longer test. The average clock speeds maintained dropped by 29Mhz on DeepCool’s LT720 and 31Mhz on Thermalright’s Assassin X 120 R SE. Looking at this another way, that’s an incredibly small 0.6% difference in clock speeds maintained, a margin of error difference that tells us that the 10 minute tests are indeed long enough to properly test the coolers.
Because of the difficulty of cooling the i9-13900K in this workload, the best way to compare coolers here is to record the average power consumption of the CPU. Looking at this by total watts cooled only, the Liquid Freezer II is performing better than any air cooler tested, but a bit behind the other high end AIOs we’ve tested with this CPU so far. However, that’s only part of the equation. Let’s look at the noise levels.
As Cinebench R23’s multi-core benchmark will push coolers to their limits, it’s also a great test for recording the worst-case scenario of fan noise levels. Here the results are a bit different than above, with the Liquid Freezer II providing the second quietest performance of all the coolers we’ve tested. Only Thermalright’s single-fan low-profile AXP120-X67 air cooler is quieter, although that cooler is the worst performer in the previous test.
While the other high end liquid coolers tested cooled a few more watts than the Liquid Freezer, they did so at the expense of noise, as they’re the loudest units of those compared here.
We’re also charting the total Cinebench R23 benchmark scores to show how little is lost (or gained) with different cooling solutions. Between the weakest and strongest coolers, we have a benchmark score variance of roughly 13%. Arctic’s Liquid Freezer does well here, scoring just over 39,000 points in the multi-threaded test.
200W Cinebench Results
When restricting power consumption to a more reasonable 200W, the Liquid Freezer II 360 performs on par with Fractal’s Celsius+ S36. This is fairly good, about 4-8 degrees C better than most air coolers achieve.
The acoustics of this unit are simply superb. Looking at acoustic levels when restricted to 200W, the Liquid Freezer II once again lands in second place, behind the Fractal AIO. At only 41.9 DBA, the sounds of the cooler were barely distinguishable from the speed-limited system fans.
125W Cinebench Results
The lowest power limit I test at is 125W, mainly because this is also the lowest level where I can reliably measure noise measurements. Lower power consumption causes the noise of the CPU cooler to fall below the noise created by the system fans (even while restricted to 35% speed).
When limited to 125W, the Liquid Freezer II 360 runs silently and is essentially indistinguishable from the rest of the system fans. In terms of tested cooling performance, it’s tied here with DeepCool’s LT720 for the coolest CPU temperature.
Conclusion
Arctic’s Liquid Freezer II 360 ARGB will keep the CPU cool while running silently - even in the hottest of scenarios. It handled over 290W in our long-term testing, making it ideal for those who run demanding workloads. This is a superb cooler with pristine acoustics. You can’t go wrong pairing it with Intel’s i9-13900K.
- MORE: How to Buy the Right CPU Cooler
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