We take our noise measurements with the sound meter positioned 1 foot from the graphics card. I measured the sound floor to be 34 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 Fire Strike Ultra stress test 20 times. An idle reading comes after leaving the system on the Windows desktop for 30 minutes.
Part of the reason for the performance BIOS' extremely low temperatures is the fact it does run the fans slightly faster than most other RTX 20-series cards we have tested. It is still not loud – peaking at just under 42dB – but it is more audible than the Founders Edition.
The quiet BIOS, however, is simply incredible. It's the lowest noise reading I've ever seen from a graphics card and it's at the point where you'd have to press your ear very close to the card to be able to hear if the fans are actually spinning. It's hugely impressive stuff from ASUS.