7950x air cooler

[Meddling-Monk]

Your old 8 core was struggling because it was old and slow, not because it only had 8 cores. A 7700x in gaming is just as fast, if not sometimes faster than a 7900x & 7950x. More cores does not equal more gaming performance (at least on Ryzen). Also more clock speed alone does not equal more performance. It's just a shame, as you probably could have saved yourself £100-£200 and put it toward something else in your rig, or upgraded to the 7***X3D later on, if you felt the need.

If you're happy with it, that's great. I'm not taking the ****. Just want to point out that cores and clocks are not everything, especially for gaming. It's a whole different kettle of fish when it comes to productivity. Something to bear in mind for future purchasing decisions.

Ah, I am aware of what you are talking about , however, you might have missed out the bit where I mention for "non games" as well. The system was not purely obtained for gaming, just it's use is for gaming "right now". I do much more than just gaming on my rigs. But looking after elderly and vulnerable family comes first, and when on downtime, it's gaming (for now). Although I do lean back into production work every so often to keep myself up to speed and maintain familiarity on toosl.

Back to OP, I'm using a Noctua U12A with the fan curve set at a very modest setting to keep noise low. The CPU being put into (currently) a 65W Eco mode never breaks 50C. I'd expect it to be around 70C when 105W Eco Mode is finally able to be activated through the BIOS. And at 170W, well, it's 95C of course.

In most cases, the cooler I don't think is that much of a big deal, certainly not for air coolers anyway. As I've noticed that whether it's 65W setting or 170W setting, the U12A at full speed or reduced speed, sits roughly in the same bracket of speed 4.5Ghz for 65W, or 5.0Ghz to 5.1Ghz sustained for 170W, but the temps are instantly at the previously mentioned numbers, but no amount of airflow appears to be impacting on them at all (even the 65W mode). So for air coolers, I think virtually any air cooler will be fine so long as they mount well onto the CPU. With possibly only one or two able to make a difference. Otherwise, I think water may be the better route.

 

[Eddie99]

As for the Eco 65W mode, that's an unfortunate byproduct of the BIOS on the Asus Proart X670E motherboard BIOS that is available since Novemeber. Because it does not adhere to the Eco 105W setting entered into the settings and stays at 170W (full) mode only (it did on previous BIOS versions but those are also less stable). So the only way to reduce it (for now) is to use Ryzen Master software to drop it to Eco 65W mode.

Can't you manually input the 105w Eco mode PPT EDC TDC values using precision boost overdrive?

 

[Meddling-Monk]

Can't you manually input the 105w Eco mode PPT EDC TDC values using precision boost overdrive?

I can, but there's a bug in the BIOS of this very specific motherboard with the setting is not kept through, thus there's no 105W Eco Mode option for users of this motherboard with the November BIOS (which is also the most stable and compatible one out of the released BIOS so far). The previous versions of the BIOS you could manually enter the values into the BIOS and it'll work as it adhered to it, but not the current one (November BIOS). So users of this motherboard (best feature set for price I would say) need to wait for the next BIOS release to (hopefully0 be able to get the 105W Eco Mode running (again).

 

[FredFlint]

I have a 7950X and use ECO 65W, It runs cool and still hits 5.77 boost. I got it as when I am working, I have a lot of things running, VM's, Android emulators, SQL Server, web browsers and Visual Studio. Most of them don’t need max frequency but they do use a lot of threads.
My old PC gets 18.6K CineBench and hits 80C at 105W and this gets 30K at 65W and max temp of 45C. The chip still hits 70C under high single threaded loads but it’s mostly < 45C. Benchmarks are only good at showing max performance, most everyday loads don’t get to 100% load so the power limit is not as big of a performance drop as you might think but the power saving and lower temps are worth having. I might move up to 105W at some point and see if it feels faster but am happy with it so far.

Edit:
I used a Wraith Prism RGB stock cooler for a few days at 170W before I worked out how to install my AIO, the strange thing is it got almost the same CineBench score of 38K using both coolers, I expected at least 1K extra using an Arctic freezer II 360. The Wraith Prism was really loud though.