How AMD's Wraith Cooler Came To Be

[Johnpombrio]

WTH? Click once, read many? a TRIPLE post and no way to delete. BTW, I have the same issue when talking about water cooled CPU coolers which does nothing to cool the components around them as well. No wonder some boards have had to return to the tiny, whiny fans of years past.

 

[cleeve]

By putting this "cool looking" LED logo-ed shroud on the fan, AMD is also preventing ANY cooling of the components like the voltage regulators, the back of the graphics card, the heat pipe from other components on some mobos, and the memory modules. The heat instead is being pumped directly towards the side of the case where the graphics card is and the where the front and rear fans have the least effect on getting rid of the heat.

I think you misunderstood how the Wraith cooler fan shroud is designed.

The shroud clearly covers the sides of the fan, not the sides of the cooler. No airflow is impeded in any way. It works like any CPU air cooler.

 

[photonboy]

The PROBLEM with this cooler is that there's no fan control. It runs at one speed. If it was SILENT in idle that would be fine, but it's not and it COULD be or nearly so.

In the article linked below they call it "whisper quiet" but then if you watch the video for noise it's not quiet at all (not quiet by MY definition at least). Probably some surface amplification and no case damping but regardless definitely not whisper quiet like it COULD be if the fan would spin down when not needed.

Article (watch video for noise): http://www.pcworld.com/article/3019993/ces/meet-wraith-amds-whisper-quiet-new-stock-cpu-cooler.html

I just don't get the point of spending time and effort to include a much better cooler then gimp it when it comes to idle noise.

 

[de5_Roy]

don, congrats on making the amd stock HSF seem relevant again. oh, on your new job too.

btw, niels... "greener pastures"..? surely you jest...

now where's angelini gone....

 

[madmatt30]

^ this is true - itll still offer some secondary cooling to ram & vrm's.evennif it didn't it isn't really amd's responsibility to cool substandard board components (here's looking at you asrock & MSI)
I still stick to my guns though , they've essentially spent a lot of money redesigning what is essentially a zalman cnps8000.

 

[cleeve]

The PROBLEM with this cooler is that there's no fan control. It runs at one speed. If it was SILENT in idle that would be fine, but it's not and it COULD be or nearly so.

Idle noise is extremely quiet, you'll see once its released. The video sound level had to be increased so you could hear it (i assume this because I've heard the cooler and you can barely tell its running). Note how loud the video makes it sound when the cooler is simply picked up and put on a table. The video shows the relative noise between the two, but in the real world you can't really hear the cooler perform.

AMD chose a single fan speed to ensure that the noise would stay incredibly quiet under all circumstances.

 

[eklipz330]

why are people putting AMD down, like this was some major expense? What if they just whipped a cooler together and it just happened to be so good, that they decided to advertise it? I'm really sure that was what happened.

 

[madmatt30]

AMD chose a single fan speed to ensure that the noise would stay incredibly quiet under all circumstances.

that makes no sense at all to me - a 1600rpm fan running at 800rpm at idle speeds or low loads will be quieter than at full speed.

why are people putting AMD down, like this was some major expense? What if they just whipped a cooler together and it just happened to be so good, that they decided to advertise it? I'm really sure that was what happened.

they wont just have thrown it together cheap - it will have took a lot of time ,a lot of moeny & a lot of debating mate.
Youre missing the point , a lot of people who are criticising are big amd fans - myself included - we want them to succeed.
Unfortunately while they make a good product they have a history of making bad business & marketing decisions & thats not a good thing when you're your in a fairly tight position financially & your major competitor can afford to spend more on advertising yearly than your entire company is worth.

They could easily have gone to one of the major cooler manufacturers who have no official ties with intel & said - 'design & build us a cpu cooler & fan at a competitive price' & I have no doubt you would likely have ended up with a better product for a lot less financial outlay.

 

[cleeve]

that makes no sense at all to me - a 1600rpm fan running at 800rpm at idle speeds or low loads will be quieter than at full speed.

Its well thought out, actually. A fixed fan speed means the motherboard won't override and crank it up necessarily, so the low noise level is maintained in all circumstances. The cooler has the thermal capacity to pull it off.

They could easily have gone to one of the major cooler manufacturers who have no official ties with intel & said - 'design & build us a cpu cooler & fan at a competitive price' & I have no doubt you would likely have ended up with a better product for a lot less financial outlay.

Actually, no. Wraith has a very aggressive silence and thermal spec that other coolers couldn't meet in the stock cooler size constraints. A lot of envelopes were pushed to get the Wraith made.

AMD simply decided to up its game in the cooling department, for the current generation (and beyond) and it created an amazing product.

If you think there was a binary decision to make a better cooler or release new processors sooner, you are under the wrong impression. Wraith has zero impact on how quickly next-gen Finfet processors come to market.

AMD just listened to feedback and decided to make better, quieter coolers. If you're determined to find a downside to that, I guess you could. But I don't think it makes sense to do so, it's a pretty clear positive.

 

[damric]

Congrats Don. You'll be missed.

 

[CRITICALThinker]

To all the people who commented on or would have commented on the heat output of AMD processors and GPUs, I would like to point out the differences in TDP determination, thermal throttling point, and overall heat output. For starters, AMD TDP is a worst case, while intel uses an average TDP and will throttle if necessary to stay under on some models (mobile). Secondly, AMD processors to date, including much of their GPUs tend to have a lower temperature range (the 8350 is around 70C) where the 290 series was an outlier. Intel and NVIDIA are cutting close to the limits of the silicon with their 105C throttling ranges.

And finally, actual heat output, with an apples to oranges comparison between apples and oranges products, side by side my boxing day 2011 rig and my laptop produce similar amounts of heat while gaming, yet when both are being used for the same task at a high idle my laptop (rated at 45 watts) will heat up my room to uncomfortable levels within 2 hours, while my desktop which is rated at 235 watts between CPU and GPU alone can run all day on the same tasks while the large pane of glass that is my window regulates temperature. it is not the wattage but the overall heat output that is the real issue here.


This ended up being a rant didn't it lol

 

[Lutfij]

^ that last line!

 

[AS118]

It's interesting and fun that a former Tom's Hardware guy was responsible for this positive change at AMD. At least it shows that AMD has good taste when it comes to recruiting. Marketing has been one of their great weaknesses imho for a while, and hopefully he'll help improve it.

 

[blazorthon]

Great, AMD can cool their overheated processors. Leave the cooling to the aftermarket and spend the R&D on a new performance chipset/Socket/processor. Get in the GAME AMD, we need you to compete.

Spending more money on one thing does't necessarily improve it much if at all. There are other limits that money cant fix, at least not on the smaller scales that a project like improving the stock CPU cooler would entail.

Also, it should be noted that although AMD's CPUs use more power right now, they still tend to run a lot cooler than Intel's CPUs with stock coolers, so calling AMD CPUs overheated is rather inaccurate.

 

[blazorthon]

WTH? Click once, read many? a TRIPLE post and no way to delete. BTW, I have the same issue when talking about water cooled CPU coolers which does nothing to cool the components around them as well. No wonder some boards have had to return to the tiny, whiny fans of years past.

Yes, you can delete posts. Click on view comments in the forum at the top of the comments section.

Here's a direct link in case it isn't showing up or something:

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/id-2938891/amd-wraith-cooler.html#17327526

From the forum, you should be able to delete your posts. I can.

 

[Cons29]

this better not bump up the cost too much. because those who want performance buy 3rd party coolers anyway (most of the time)

 

[zodiacfml]

Congrats to Don! I hope I can find my greener pastures soon.
Anyway, the timing is perfect for the new manufacturing process that will be available for Amd. This cooler will allow enthusiast levels of overclocking without the need of an aftermarket cooler which puts any Cpu in the future to compete with Intel on a performance/cost ratio.

 

[iam2thecrowe]

Great, AMD can cool their overheated processors. Leave the cooling to the aftermarket and spend the R&D on a new performance chipset/Socket/processor. Get in the GAME AMD, we need you to compete.

I'd love to see Zen processors outperform Skylake, but I've huge respect for AMD regardless.

With 10% of Intel's budget and personnel, AMD has developed x86 CPU's, ARM CPU's, GPU"s APU's, adaptive sync that does not require additional hardware, their own memory modules (not to mention HBM integration), and an entirely new graphics API that has become the basis of DirectX12.

But of course, no one cares that they only have 1/10th of Intel's money to spread between both their CPU and GPU divisions. They want AMD CPU's to outperform Intel's and cost less.

AMD is very much "in the game", imho.

While most of that is true, it's not that people want them to outperform intel, they NEED to come close or they just wont sell any cpu's and there won't be any more AMD to speak of.

 

[shrapnel_indie]

+3db's is twice as loud to the human ears.. not +10dbs...

Incorrect. A boost of 3dB is not really all that noticeable to the human ear. (It's actually only 1.23x louder, not 2x.)

Interestingly, our perception of loudness is not the same as sound pressure level. Although the actual formulae
is somewhat complex, as a rough rule of thumb, an increase of 10db SPL is perceived to be approximately twice as loud.

Thus a 20 Db gain would seem to be about 4 times as loud.
And a 40 Db gain would seem to be about 16 times as loud.

Source: Trace R&D Center - University of Wisconsin-Madison

Now, if you are referring to intensity (power) instead of [perceived] loudness, then, yes, 3 dB would be 2x the power.

 

[shrapnel_indie]

The PROBLEM with this cooler is that there's no fan control. It runs at one speed. If it was SILENT in idle that would be fine, but it's not and it COULD be or nearly so.

In the article linked below they call it "whisper quiet" but then if you watch the video for noise it's not quiet at all (not quiet by MY definition at least). Probably some surface amplification and no case damping but regardless definitely not whisper quiet like it COULD be if the fan would spin down when not needed.

Article (watch video for noise): http://www.pcworld.com/article/3019993/ces/meet-wraith-amds-whisper-quiet-new-stock-cpu-cooler.html

I just don't get the point of spending time and effort to include a much better cooler then gimp it when it comes to idle noise.

I guess they didn't bother with MB fan control, or set it on MAX/100% performance. For the most part, Motherboard fan control can be enough if the MoBo BIOS supports it... and all modern UEFI BIOSes should, if not blame the MoBo mfr for it. Then again, IF the recording equipment had Automatic Level Control, it could have bumped the recording levels for the fan. (I haven't listened to it, so if there is talking involved during the sound of the fan, ALC may not be a potential problem.)

 

[Dimas_1]

I want use amd cpu and be proud, i want my athlon time, give me that and i ll leave my intel slavery time, fux with locked n unlocked cpu, we deserve tinkering our own things, fix it please amd, sorry for my bad english

 

[Haravikk]

This is good news; I've always hated that stock coolers tend to be so bad, meaning that saving money on a third party cooler is an exercise in compromise, usually resulting in a hotter, noisier build.

If AMD pushes to add better stock coolers to even some of their lineup, then it will hopefully push Intel to do the same, and maybe even shake up the cooler market a bit, as for too long now budget coolers haven't offered much improvement, or even been all that cheap in the first place.

 

[Alec Mowat]

Great, AMD can cool their overheated processors. Leave the cooling to the aftermarket and spend the R&D on a new performance chipset/Socket/processor. Get in the GAME AMD, we need you to compete.

I'd love to see Zen processors outperform Skylake, but I've huge respect for AMD regardless.

With 10% of Intel's budget and personnel, AMD has developed x86 CPU's, ARM CPU's, GPU"s APU's, adaptive sync that does not require additional hardware, their own memory modules (not to mention HBM integration), and an entirely new graphics API that has become the basis of DirectX12.

But of course, no one cares that they only have 1/10th of Intel's money to spread between both their CPU and GPU divisions. They want AMD CPU's to outperform Intel's and cost less.

AMD is very much "in the game", imho.

AMD could invent the world and hand it out for free. They are not helping anyone unless they make some return on their investment.

 

[Lutfij]

This may be disturbing for me to comprehend:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kuT-bnGcrUM

If it isn't going to be bundled in with lower tier CPU/APU's then I'm already with a sad smiley Hoping AMD change their mind...

 

[alchemy69]

So without the shroud and LEDs it could have been quite and more energy efficient but with them it "looks cooler"? I know which means more to me in a cooling fan inside a closed case.