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.
To operate at 40dBa, we set the fan speed to 1880rpm, and that saw the Gaming OC deliver results comfortably better than the Founders Edition, but a few degrees hotter than the Inno3D X3 OC and the GameRock OC. Even the hot spot temperature is only a couple of degrees cooler than the Founders Edition.
Memory temperatures remained at 66C though, and that's still a best-in-class result for the Gaming OC when noise-normalised.