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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. 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, we feel the best way to compare coolers here is to record the average power consumption of the CPU. When it comes to total cooling capacity, DeepCool’s LT720 is the best-performing unit we’ve tested thus far, cooling an incredible 315W (avg) in this test.
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. You might notice that our noise charts start at 36dB - this is the noise floor of our testing environment. This makes 36dB our baseline measure, as we’re unable to measure noise levels below this threshold. Keep in mind that noise measurements are logarithmic, meaning the differences between the noise levels of the coolers will be bigger than these graphs would suggest.
While DeepCool’s LT720 has the best total cooling capacity of the units we’ve tested thus far, it achieves this at the cost of noise. When pushed to full fan speeds, the LT720 is the loudest CPU cooler we’ve recently tested.
We’re also looking at Cinebench R23 benchmark scores to show how little is lost – or gained – with different cooling solutions. Between the weakest and strongest coolers, there is a total benchmark score variance of 13.7%.
DeepCool’s LT720’s has the strongest cooling capacity of the coolers we’ve tested thus far with the 13900K, and as a result has the highest Cinebench R23 benchmark score recorded during our testing.
200W Cinebench Results
When restricting power consumption to a more reasonable 200W, DeepCool’s LT720 continues to lead in overall thermal performance, with a 3 degrees Celsius lead over its closest competitor.
Looking at acoustic levels when restricted to 200W, DeepCool’s LT720 sits in the middle of the pack. Not too loud, but not silent either.
125W Cinebench Results
As with our unlimited and 200W testing results, the LT720 continues to hold the crown for best thermal performance in 125W workloads. 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 LT720’s fans run very quietly. However, the pump can be heard just barely over the sound of the system fans in this scenario, but this is due to my motherboard’s default settings which encourage higher pump speeds.
Conclusion
The LT720 is a great pairing for demanding CPUs like Intel’s i9-13900K. The refinements of DeepCool’s 4th generation, in-house, water pump design helps the LT720 to take the crown for total cooling capacity - the strongest of any unit I’ve tested thus far, cooling an average of 315W during Cinebench R23 tests. If you need a cooler that can handle the hottest of workloads, DeepCool’s LT720 can handle the heat.
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