We take our noise measurements with the sound meter positioned 1 foot from the graphics card. I measured the noise floor to be 32 dBA, thus anything above this level can be attributed to the graphics cards. The power supply is passive for the entire power output range we tested all graphics cards in, while all CPU and system fans were disabled. A reading under load comes from running the 3DMark Time Spy stress test for 30 minutes.
As we mentioned on the previous page, the 6800 XT runs relatively warm as its fan curve is very conservative – under load we saw the fans spinning at just 40%, or around 1350rpm. I would suggest AMD has taken note of all the negative feedback it has received for its loud coolers over the years, and deliberately tuned the 6800 XT to be as quiet as possible. It's quieter than even the RTX 3070 Founders Edition, which is quite the turnaround for AMD.