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We leave the system to idle on the Windows 10 desktop for 5 minutes before taking a power draw reading. For CPU load results we read the power draw while running the Cinebench multi-threaded test as we have found it to push power draw and temperature levels beyond those of AIDA 64 and close to Prime 95 levels. Cinebench has a short run time on high-performance CPUs which influences the validity of the temperature reading, so we run AIDA64 stress test to validate data.
The power consumption of our entire test system (at the wall) is shown in the chart. The same test parameters were used for temperature readings.
Power Consumption
Power draw readings are accurate to around +/- 5W due to fluctuations in the value even at sustained load. We use a Platinum-rated Seasonic 760W PSU and install a GTX 1070 video card that uses very little power.
Power consumption numbers from Ryzen 5 1500X are decent for a quad-core, eight-thread part but they are significantly higher than those displayed by the similarly-priced Core i5-7400. That’s understandable, though, given the significant increase in performance when using our Cinebench test run. At stock, the Ryzen 5 1500X commands 75% more power than the Core i5-7400 in Cinebench and hands back a 50% performance increase.
On the positive side, power draw from AMD’s 4C8T chip is less than an overclocked Core i5-7600K, despite the Ryzen 5 part delivering higher performance in Cinebench.
Overclocking results in a sizeable increase to the 1500X’s power usage. A system-wide 127W power draw during Cinebench loading can still be considered low, which may be a positive factor for mini-ITX users.
Temperatures
Temperature recordings were taken using the superb, cost-effective Cooler Master Hyper 212X for the Ryzen 5 1600X and the Core i5-7600K. The supplied coolers are used for Ryzen 5 1500X (AMD's Wraith Spire) and Core i5-7400 (Intel E97379-003 with an Aluminium slug).
Each CPU cooler's fans were running at full speed. Ambient temperature was maintained at around 20°C.
Despite AMD’s Wraith Spire cooler being significantly more capable than the heatsink and fan bundled with the Core i5-7400, the chip from Intel delivers lower temperature levels. This is due to its smaller power draw when compared to the Ryzen 5 1500X. Put simply, there is less heat for the inferior CPU cooler to contend with.
The Wraith Spire on Ryzen 5’s 1500X delivers solid performance that has us happy to recommend it for usage with sensible overclocked voltages. Our testing was conducted at 100% fan speed, which was surprisingly bearable for AMD’s cooler, so PWM-driven results will vary. The upgrade to a cost-effective CPU cooler such as the Hyper 212X is not a necessity for the Ryzen 5 1500X and Wraith Spire bundle.
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