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.
We've established the RTX 3070 Founders Edition runs cool, and it runs very quiet as well. We measured noise output at 38dBa, with the fans spinning at 48%, or 1700rpm. This may not be as class-leading as some of the aftermarket cards we have reviewed, but it is still very easy on the ears and is simply not bothersome while gaming.