Key Takeaways
- Passively cooling the Intel Core i9-14900KS with the Noctua NH-P1 is possible but not recommended due to thermal throttling concerns.
- The processor can throttle even with a high-performing cooler, suggesting passive cooling is not optimal for this power-hungry chip.
- While the Noctua NH-P1 technically supports the 14900KS, avoid passive cooling unless your PC use is limited to basic tasks like web browsing.
Thermal design power (TDP) is vital when shopping for the best CPU cooler. The Intel Core i9-13900KS is a power-hungry chip that can draw more than 300W of power from the PSU, but after seeing how well the Noctua NH-P1 performed with the AMD Ryzen 7900, I thought “There’s no way it could handle the 14900KS, right?” There’s only one way to answer whether you can passively cool the 14900KS and that’s to put it to the test. In the name of science, I installed the Noctua NH-P1 with no fan and the Intel Core i9-14900KS on our open-air test bench to see what would happen.
The results show that you can use the Noctua NH-P1 to passively cool an Intel Core i9-14900KS. Whether you should is another question.
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Does the Noctua NH-P1 work with the 14900KS?
Technically, the Noctua NH-P1 supports the LGA 1700 socket and so supports the processor. Noctua notes on the official website that the NH-P1 can be used passively with the Intel Core i9-14900K, another power-hungry processor. The company hasn’t tested the cooler with this specific CPU but it shouldn’t be too different to the 14900K outside of running benchmarks and resource-intensive software. It’s a passive cooler, which will quickly saturate with the amount of heat this CPU can generate so expectations should remain in check.
In our testing with the Intel CPU, I found it to thermal throttle with an AIO liquid cooler and 360mm radiator. If a range-topping CPU cooler from Arctic cannot prevent the 14900KS from thermal throttling, I thought we would be in for quite the ride with a passive heatsink strapped to the integrated heat spreader (IHS). The Noctua NH-P1 was designed for a silent PC build with no fans and a reliance on natural convection. Using an open-air testbench with zero active cooling, we’re replicating this without an optimized case.
For optimal performance, I’m looking for an idle temperature of between 30-40C and up to 70C for gaming and general computing. Any higher than that and we run the risk of thermal throttling. The Intel Core i9-14900KS can hit 6.2GHz, drawing a lot of power, but modern processors have smart algorithms to help them dynamically adjust boost speeds on the fly and this should provide the heatsink vital seconds to dissipate heat for the next spike.
Why you probably shouldn’t passively cool the 14900KS
Our extensive testing showed it is possible to cool this CPU passively, but I would advise against doing so. Sitting idle on the Windows 11 desktop saw the processor bounce between 33C and 50C, depending on the background task. Intel’s E-cores help here by handling anything Windows requires without firing the main guns. Loading the XDA homepage caused the CPU to thermal throttle slightly. Things quickly cooled down as the cooler was able to get rid of the excess heat.
The problem with using a passive cooler such as the NH-P1 is the lack of active cooling to speed up the dissipation. The radiator has to rely on natural convection, which has its limits. This didn’t provide me with much hope for running Cinebench, but it’s still on the to-do list. Running CPU-Z, the CPU thermal throttled immediately, holding clock speeds at 4.2 GHz and power draw at 90W. That’s a drop of 2.0 GHz from the advertised maximum speed and I saw the chip easily pull at least 300W with the cooling headroom.
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Scoring 985 and 16681 for single and multi-core, respectively, is still a good showing. Single-core performance is identical to what I measured during the review with the 360mm AIO, though the multi-core score only took a slight hit. Cinebench would be a different story, so I fired it up and ran the single-core test. The 14900KS thermal throttled immediately on opening the software, though I suspect this was due to the processor knowing what was coming. Single-core testing held the 14900Ks at 46C for core temperatures and between 60C and 90C for the package. No thermal throttling was noted though Windows did eventually BSOD.
Cinebnech’s multi-core test caused the CPU to thermal throttle immediately. Then a BSOD hit and on reboot, no video was being sent to the monitor aside from static after passing the UEFI splash. It seems Windows became frustrated with what I was attempting to accomplish. The Intel Core i9-14900KS can be cooled passively but I wouldn’t recommend it if you plan on using your PC for anything other than web browsing and the 14900KS performance would be wasted.