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[JEMC]

WoodenPints said:

JEMC said:

We'll have to embrace AIO coolers or just go one step above and go with proper watercooling. Still, it's weird that CPU temps are more problematic than GPU temps nowadays.

There is a factor of GPU heatsinks have gone like 2-3x the size in last couple of gens yet CPU coolers are still the same size tower coolers or 360mm AIO

The thing is, tho, that CPU coolers already did go overkill many years ago.

10 years ago, the humble but reliable Hyper 212 was enough to cool any regular (aka, not HEDT) CPUs without problems, yet the market also had behemots like Noctua0s NH-D15 that were completely unnecessary. And yet, people bought them for the extra advantages they had, like lower noise.

And well, the NH-D15 is still capable of cooling regular CPUs "just fine", while the 212 has been relegated to mid-range processors.

GPUs didn't follow the same path because the two biggest reasons to purchase a GPU are brand and price, and an overkill cooling solution is not only expensive, but it also has the disadvantage of boing locked to one GPU, without being able to reuse it like CPU coolers do. So it made sense to go for the most basic solution that worked.

Nowadays, AIBs have to compete not only between them but also with Nvidia (AMD doesn't care that much about it), and that has brought an influx of unnecessarily big coolers. Just look at the (in)famous GTX 480, that had a peak power consumption of 320W and then compare it with the RTX 4080, that uses only slightly less power. The new coolers are twice the size or even bigger, and the difference isn't all that big. But now bigger coolers are a must, not only becaues they're necessary, but to not look bad compared to the rest.

So yeah, excuse me if I'm still a bit surprised to see how fast the situation has changed.

Bofferbrauer2 said:

JEMC said:

We'll have to embrace AIO coolers or just go one step above and go with proper watercooling. Still, it's weird that CPU temps are more problematic than GPU temps nowadays.

Well, look at the size of the coolers. 10 years ago, most high-end GPU still used dual-slot coolers, maybe 3-slot coolers for special overclocked versions. Now 3.5-4-slot coolers are the norm for those, and the cards have also become a lot longer. Just try to fit a current high-end card into a case from before 2010...