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 Cyberpunk 2077 for 30 minutes.
The thermal results only tell half the story however. The fact is, despite running a fair bit cooler, the Nitro+ is also significantly quieter, to the point where it is practically inaudible. There isn't a big difference between the Silent BIOS, which saw the fans spin at 950rpm, versus the Performance BIOS which had the fans at 1040rpm, but either way, this is one of the quietest graphics cards I have ever tested.