Performance Tests

Idle Temperature Testing



Idling temperatures for MX-2 on a non-overclocked processor average around 28°C while the other two do 30°C and 30.5°C. It also performs admirably when the processor is overclocked and at idle but these tests are very close between all of the competitors due to the low amount of heat generated by the processor when it is at idle.


Load Temperature Testing



Under load while running at 3.0GHz MX-2 manages to keep it the processor cooler than both the Ceramique and Ultra 5+. When we overclock the CPU to 3.6GHz, thus generating more heat, the temperature rises to 49°C and again the Arctic Cooling compound proves that it is at the top of the heap in this test.

From all tests performed, it looks like Arctic Cooling MX-2 is the winner by a small margin when it comes to average temperatures. It runs about 1°C cooler than the OCZ Ultra 5+ and 1.5°C cooler than Ceramique on average. To tell you the truth, because we are using average instead of maximum temperatures, we were not expecting the MX-2 to be such a clear-cut winner. Luckily for Arctic Cooling, we were proven wrong and the MX-2 performed above our expectations.