AMD Unveils New Wraith Stock CPU Cooler @ CES 2016

Over the years, many designs for stock coolers have come and gone, with some good and others bad. Since the launch of AMD’s Bulldozer chips back in 2011, AMD has stuck to pretty much the same stock cooler design. While it’s not terrible, it hasn’t been that great, with high temperatures and noisy operation. To remedy this, AMD is launching an all new cooler, dubbed the Wraith.

With the Wraith, AMD is keeping the basic design, probably for compatibility reasons. Basic operation pretty much is unchanged, with what appears to be copper heat pipes leading away from a copper baseplate. The heat pipes curl around to an aluminium fin array that is cooled by a fan. Much has also changed as well, with the Wraith noticeably taller and beefier than it’s predecessor with a larger fin array. The fan is also improved with better sound characteristics and a black shroud with a lighted AMD logo.

AMD brings themselves one step closer towards parity with Intel who has been steadily improving their own coolers as well. The release of the new stock cooler comes perfectly in time for AMD’s new Zen architecture on 14nm FinFET. Ironically, Zen and the new 14nm FinFET process will likely reduce the heat load put out.