When it comes to cpu coolers there's only 2 areas of any concern, the rest is cosmetic. That being capacity and efficiency. Most ppl gloss over the first and rely on the second as gospel.
For instance. The Cryorig R1 has the same 250w+ rating as the NH-D15. Compare the 2 results and the Noctua comes out ahead by 1°C over the Ultimate and 3°C over the Universal R1. So ppl say the Noctua is better. Not really, it's just slightly better tuned, the Noctua fans are better tuned to the heatsinks exact needs, because Noctua put more effort into that area, resulting in better efficiency, which translates into lower temps.
Same capacity. And temps aren't far enough apart, the D15 and Ultimate being the same thing, the D15S and Universal the same, the Noctua being somewhat quieter.
That's efficiency. Not capacity. If 70° is reached at 250w, at 125w its going to be @ 50°, with a smaller capacity cooler like the 140w hyper212, 70 at 140w, at 125w it'll be 60°. A measure of capacity vrs efficiency.
And that's where many reviews fail. They stick a 6700k or 7700k at a 4.6GHz OC for a grand total of 150w and try and measure temps. So with efficiency kinda the same, capacity moot that 70° at 350w vrs 300w, you end up with a 2°C difference. No big deal, don't pay extra for a bigger cooler, not needed as it runs about the same temps anyways.
Slap a 250w load on a 300w cooler, you'll be seeing 80°ish when pushed. 50w is not much headroom. Even less on aircoolers that are barely rated over the wattage output of the cpu. The 360mm aios have @ 100w of headroom, same output is lower on the curve, lower temps.
And the line isn't linear, not a direct line from minimum to maximum capacity. It's a definite curve, where below @ 70% loads is a relatively slow curve, and above @ 70% rises sharply, enough so that the last 30% of ability or so only raises performance @ 5%ish.
But that's when pushed to limits. That's a Prime95 small fft 100% load on 16 threads. Got nothing to do with the temps you'll get out of one of the most efficient coolers around, the NH-D15 when you are gaming, running 8 threads that aren't at 100% loads and the cpu is barely hitting 90w. That's where the 280mm and 360mm run equitable temps, beaten by a decent margin by the Noctua's effectiveness.
Run a good, full turbo, full core, full thread render for an hour, totally different story altogether.
Well under its ability the D15 can't be touched, it's just that good, it's just that not even it can match the capacity of either of the AIO's, so under higher usage, has worsening efficiency and eventually gets beaten.
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