Conclusion and Verdict
As no surprise any air cooler is going to struggle to keep this chip from throttling. That is unless you utilize a second fan. When we applied a second fan, we were able to keep the 11900K from thermal throttling. I am glad to see Cougar included a set of the fan holders to do so. Now these temps will never be an issue in normal day use unless you have an extreme overclock applied. So, unless you are planning to run a super intensive CPU application for long periods of time, this cooler will certainly so the job. I do recommend using a second as it can easily lower the temps by 4-5 degrees.
Speaking on that this fan was extremely quiet and had a very smooth spin. The fan has a nice weight and rigid feel. This is no cheap fan for sure. This cooler is great example of where we are at with air coolers. The have their limits and with future chip we are going to need to see a huge step in air cooling before everyone goes to liquid out of necessity. This cooler has a ton of heat pipes and has the sides closed off so all the air flows over the pipes. Even with that the cooling isn’t enough for extreme loads. I don’t think we are far from needing extreme cooling for everyday activities at the pace we are at. Will this cooler keep your chip cool for gaming? Absolutely. Will it handle 100% CPU loads? Unfortunately, not very many Air coolers can keep the newer chips from thermal throttling. With two fans installed, this cooler did outperform several other air coolers I have tested in the past.
I like the design of the fin array and all nickel-plated design. The whole unit is shiny and looks really cool. I like that it is simple yet stylish. There is no RGB but you could literally use any fan set up you wanted.
You can buy the Cougar Forza 85 CPU Cooler for around USD $89 – from Amazon – https://amzn.to/3TiDtNo
Pros:
- Easy Install
- Quite fan
- Good fin design with closed off sides
- Nickel plating was flawless
- Testing results were as expected
Cons:
- None
Final Thoughts:
The Cougar Forza 85 is a decent air cooler. It will provide everything you would expect from an air cooler. This air cooler performed better than other air coolers I have tested.
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