Wraith Spire vs Wraith Stealth: Cooler Comparison

It’s quite common practice to replace the stock cooler with something much more advanced and it is irrespective of the chip being Ryzen or Intel. However these AMD Wraith coolers that we are about to check out today have earned quite a reputation for thermal stability and silent operation. In particular Wraith Spire vs Wraith Stealth is a popularly investigated cooler comparison topic.

Although in this post we will primarily be discussing the Spire and the Wraith, there are 5 in the Wraith series. Prism, Max, Spire(RGB), Spire, Stealth are those. These coolers for the AM4 socket and Ryzen processors line up starting from the low-profile Stealth, all the way to the top-of-the-line Wraith Prism.

Wraith Spire vs Wraith Stealth Cooler Specs Comparison

Some specs of the Spire remain undisclosed on paper. However it is the bigger out of the two and is the cooler of Ryzen 7 2700 and Ryzen 5 2600X. The heatsink is larger but has a smaller number of blades than the stealth. Also the spire has a copper base plate whereas the stealth doesn’t. So with the specs in mind let us hop on to the benchmark scores for productivity, gaming and the heavy processing stuff.   

Benchmark Performance

Experts tested these with the Ryzen 5 1400 at the stock speed and overclocked speed at 3.8GHz. Wraith Spire vs Wraith Stealth showed interesting outcomes in all these tests. In the CPU stress test lasting 5 minutes at the stock speed the spire and the stealth topped out at 55 and 57C respectively. Once overclocked the temperatures rose until 84C for the spire and 87C for the stealth.

With the Blender application the spire outperformed the stealth by 8 degrees when run for over an hour. Although ideally there was only a 2 degree difference. The CPU used was the Ryzen 5 2600 during the Blender test. Now for the overclocking. When tested with 1.2 volts and overclocked up until 4 GHz the spire out ranked the stealth by a whooping 17 degrees. Needless to say the fan speeds were quite audible now operating at 2500+ RPM.

Gaming Performance

Most graphics units and CPUs are tested on a particular set of games like Assassins creed: Valhalla, Metro Exodus mainly to record fps. But here the purpose is temperature and cooling. Therefore some techies tested both the wraiths with the Dirt rally game at full HD with Ultra settings. Interestingly enough in this test both the cooler’s performance were almost parallel.

Wraith Spire

At the stock speed and at overclocked speeds the CPU temperature difference remained at three degrees. Techspot tested these with the Ryzen 5 2600 using the Overwatch bot match stress test. Using the Spire the temperature peaked out at 47 degrees while the Stealth kept going until 60. The results were almost similar even when overclocked. At 4 GHz and 1.2 volts the fan speeds too remained almost the same.

Gaming, unlike heavy processing, doesn’t utilize everything the CPU has to offer, so the notable differences are seen only during stress tests. Right out of the box, you can tell the Wraith Spire is the more premium option. It’s heavier, feels more substantial, and has that distinctive aluminum top fin stack with the “AMD” logo (which, on the RGB version, looks fantastic). It just looks like a proper cooler. On the other hand, the Stealth is simpler and more utilitarian. The spire, with CPUs like Ryzen 5 3600 and 5600X, handles gaming and general use with ease. Under sustained multi-core loads, the fans will spin up, but temperatures generally stay in a very safe 70-80°C range. The Stealth is adequate, but just barely for some chips. On a Ryzen 5 3600, it’s fine for light gaming and office work. However, push it with a sustained render or a CPU-intensive game, and you’ll hear the fan ramp up significantly to keep temperatures under 85°C.

Wraith Prism vs Wraith Stealth

Just for the sake of knowledge and curiosity lets see how powerful the King of Wraiths is. Ideally its performance totally dominates the Stealth. With the Blender test the Wraith Prism outperforms the Wraith Stealth by 15 degrees. Once overclocked to 4GHz the Prism shows a whooping 24 degree difference in the CPU.

Wraith Stealth

The performance with gaming is identical to that of the performance of heavy processing too. With Overwatch the Prism outranked the Stealth by 13 degrees ideally. When overclocked the temperature difference was 12. Therefore out of the three Wraiths there’s no doubt that the Prism stands out on top. It’s heavy, solid, and built like a tank compared to its siblings. The copper core heat pipe base is visible, and the entire assembly screams “performance.” This is the only one of the three I’d feel comfortable using on a 105W CPU like a Ryzen 7 5800X. It handles the heat load significantly better thanks to its copper core and heat pipes. It also has a clever dual-fan function: a smaller inner fan for focused airflow and the main outer fan. The result? Better cooling and, crucially, it can often do it quieter than the Stealth under the same load because it doesn’t have to spin as frantically.

Conclusion

It is true that the Spire wins in the Wraith Spire vs Wraith Stealth battle. However it is not a massive, mind blowing win for the Spire. The numbers in the CPU temperatures differ by a very minute amount and for many it is almost insignificant. Therefore although there is a considerable price drop in the Stealth than the Spire, they essentially perform the same. However, for those who are looking for zero loopholes when it comes to CPU cooling, checkout our post on the best CPU coolers.  

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Ashen Kavinda

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