The Cougar Forza 85 is decent, if a bit overly priced, air cooler. In terms of pure performance with the fans at maximum RPM, it does fairly well as it manages to perform similarly to the be quiet! Dark Rock Pro 4, Noctua NH-U12A, and the DeepCool AK620 on our Intel test bench. However, the issue here is all those coolers are far quieter than the Cougar offering, which hit a max of 57 dBA. Once you limit all the coolers to the same noise level, the Forza 85 falls off sharply in terms of cooling capabilities. It is bad enough that many air coolers at 2/3 of the price deliver equal performance at the same 45 dBA. So while the Forza 85 can absolutely dominate them at higher fan speeds, users will have to accept greatly elevated noise levels to do so. On our AMD test system, things further fall apart. While once again it does decently well at max RPM, in the noise normalized tests, it is outperformed by other more affordable options. Suffice it to say for the Cougar Forza 85 to be truly competitive; it would need to be closer to the $55 price point than its nearly $70 current price.

Performance and noise characteristics aside, the cooler does offer perfect memory and graphics card clearance, which is a nice bonus. It is also well-built with no glaring flaws or cut corners. The only semi-negative would be the mounting hardware on AMD, which could be better. While their solution is similar to most on the market, it can be better and made easier for the potential user to install on AMD sockets through the use of standoffs rather than loose-fitting spacers. In terms of the visual aesthetics, some will be quite happy that Cougar opted to straight up avoid ARGB lighting with this model, which will appeal to many that are now a bit tired of having that feature shoved in their face.

I will give Cougar credit that the Forza 85 is an attractive base design, but that is where things end. It needs further refinement to shine. Most of that is on the fan front. It isn't the right fit for the current heatsink design. A quick fan swap to a DeepCool FK120 made that quite clear, as it resulted in a 3°C drop at max RPM, where it was 5 dBA quieter. At the same 45 dBA, it was 4°C cooler meaning the main culprit here is the fan design. A better fan and a more user-friendly mounting system for AMD users would greatly improve the Forza 85's appeal.

In summation, the Cougar Forza 85 needs more work to be competitive in the market. As of now, the fan holds back its potential, while the current price makes little sense for what it does offer. Therefore I would opt to look at other options on the market over the Forza 85.