The Noctua NH-D15 G2 LBC Cooler Review: Notoriously Big, Incredibly Good
by E. Fylladitakis on August 12, 2024 12:00 PM EST- Posted in
- Cases/Cooling/PSUs
- Noctua
- Cooler
- Air Cooling
Testing Results, Maximum Fan Speed
Starting things off, let's take a look at the NH-D15 G2 LBC performance with the fans at their full speed (12 V). The speed on our charts is the one of the slightly faster fan, with the secondary fan running at about 50 RPM less.
| Core Temperature, Constant Thermal Load (Max Fan Speed) |
When the fans of the Noctua NH-D15 G2 run at maximum speed, the cooler shows outstanding performance, with an average thermal resistance of just 0.0849 °C/W. This makes it slightly better than the original NH-D15 and grants it the lowest thermal resistance of any air cooler we've tested to date. Impressively, its thermal resistance is comparable to that of many dual-fan liquid coolers. There are a few other implementations that do get very close in terms of raw thermal performance but their noise output is measurably higher.
Noctua's fan speed offset tweak also seems effective, as the noise output of the NH-D15 G2 is meaningfully reduced compared to the first generation. This reduction occurs despite minimal differences in fan technology or speed between the two versions, suggesting that the tweak has shifted some of the cooler's noise to the lower frequency, less perceptible parts of the audio spectrum (as interpreted by A-weighting). Alternatively, it may be a sign that Noctua has reduced the number and/or magnitude of sound waves reflecting through the cooler.
Testing Results, Low Fan Speed
Using a PWM voltage regulator, we reduced the speed of the fans manually down to 950 RPM for the primary fan and 900 RPM for the second fan.
| Core Temperature, Constant Thermal Load (Low Fan Speed) |
When its fans are running at 950 RPM, the Noctua NH-D15 G2's thermal performance sees a slight decline compared to the first-generation NH-D15, with an average thermal resistance of 0.115 °C/W. Despite this minor dip in cooling efficiency, the NH-D15 G2 still delivers exceptional thermal performance, rivaling many top-tier air coolers.
The slight reduction is offset by a significant drop in noise output, producing only 33.3 dB(A) and making it quieter than its predecessor. The NH-D15 G2 is also quieter than any other dual-tower air cooler that can even come close to it in terms of thermal performance, with only Be Quiet!’s Dark Rock Elite holding its ground against it.
Thermal Resistance VS Sound Pressure Level
During our thermal resistance vs. sound pressure level test, we maintain a steady 100W thermal load and assess the overall performance of the coolers by taking multiple temperature and sound pressure level readings within the operating range of the stock cooling fans. The result is a graph that depicts the absolute thermal resistance of the cooler in comparison to the noise generated. For both the sound pressure level and absolute thermal resistance readings, lower figures are better.
This chart reveals where the Noctua NH-D15 G2 stands when thermal performance is directly tied to noise output, with the cooler clearly leading the chart. It also reveals that the new version is significantly upgraded over the now aged NH-D15 – the NH-D15 does provide similar thermal performance when the fan speeds are low but the performance of the NH-D15 G2 significantly improves when the fan speeds increase. Albeit the differences are not major, no other air cooler manages to cross their lines with Noctua’s NH-D15 G2. Those that do reach the same figures of thermal resistance, they do so at significantly higher sound pressure levels.
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Hresna - Sunday, August 18, 2024 - link
Water-cooling is an option for people that want to operate recent-gen intel at full-power stock defaults, but it’s not the only option. The chips remain very performant if you tune them down a bit, and the efficiency increases substantially. They will never be as efficient as their Ryzen contemporaries in PPW, but their feature set might still make them worthwhile for a lot of use cases.Granted, turning down a CPU for efficiency is a decidedly unpopular thing to do, even among enthusiasts. But I think we might see it become a bit more common for them to release with more conservative performance profiles. AMD even seems to have left a good amount of headroom on their 9000 series, perhaps looking to avoid some of intels’ recent pitfalls.
Some data on 13th gen power scaling:
https://www.reddit.com/r/hardware/comments/10bna5r...
Silver5urfer - Tuesday, August 13, 2024 - link
Wasn't there a factory defect on these ? Noctua did not announce any recall but it was under investigation.https://www.tomshardware.com/pc-components/cooling...
That said the Cooler this round is overpriced. I have the Chromax Black DH15 on an LGA1200 socket. There's very minimal advantage going the G2 route. Also no Chromax edition, no G2 Chromax fans either, the heatsink cover is also not there yet. Skip it.
As for convex/concave designs, Intel LGA1700 is a disaster that must be avoided at all costs due to CPU bending, Socket PCB bending, latest RPL silicon degradation due to poor silicon engineering. There's no reason why anyone should even consider buying this cooler for that platform, not only it will be inadequate for a 13th 14th gen i9 processors but also worthless. The heat density is also higher on 13th and 14th like of 11th gen, too hot for an Aircooler.
Khanan - Tuesday, August 13, 2024 - link
It was a small problem with the first batch and was fixed quickly by Noctua / not even all were affected (afaik).rpg1966 - Tuesday, August 13, 2024 - link
The final chart that Anandtech includes is great. But I don't understand why none of the tech sites I read don't plot noise vs temp-over-ambient, maybe additionally colouring or sizing each plotted point to indicate the price.Ryan Smith - Tuesday, August 13, 2024 - link
The issue comes down to temp-over-ambient at what power level. It's a 3 dimensional function, which makes for a very ugly plot.That's why E opted for noise vs thermal resistance. TR is (mostly) constant, so it allows you to plot noise versus just a single variable on a 2D graph.
rpg1966 - Wednesday, August 14, 2024 - link
Understood. It might take a couple of charts, e.g. one at 100W, one at 200W (or whatever)? Anyway, good job with the last chart, great info.casteve - Tuesday, August 13, 2024 - link
Thanks for the review. I love the thermal resistance vs sound pressure graph...but..this is clearly an air cooler designed for much higher loads than 100W. At 100W, I'd throw the U12A and U12S on there as the competition - The U12S is half the price, and at 100W cools just fine and is significantly quieter. I'm guessing the 550rpm @ low speed is at or below your noise floor.Add the 200W results, please.
NorthRocks - Monday, August 19, 2024 - link
Currently using 2-3 original D15 models.The fact that the older models actually performs better at lower RPM makes upgrading seem bit pointless to me. The CPUs I use (Ryzen 9 7900X etc.) seldom run at maximum power.dqniel - Monday, August 19, 2024 - link
Absolutely insane price. The performance and support is good, but so is the performance and support of other companies... without the insane price.Oxford Guy - Thursday, August 22, 2024 - link
Considering how long these last and inflation, $150 is hardly insane.