Following on from our stock thermal and acoustic testing, here we re-test the operating temperature of the GPU, but with noise levels normalised to 40dBa. This allows us to measure the efficiency of the overall cooling solution as varying noise levels as a result of more aggressive fan curves are no longer a factor.
As for noise-normalised thermals, here we increased the fan speed up to 1780rpm to hit 40dBa. This saw the TUF Gaming come in just over 64C on the GPU, so it’s a couple of degrees cooler than the Gigabyte Gaming OC and not much hotter than the Inno3D X3 OC. The Palit GameRock continues to impress however, with the best results of any air-cooled card we’ve tested.
Memory thermals remain middle of the road, with a peak of 72C when noise-normalised – 6C hotter than the Gigabyte Gaming OC.