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Our acoustic measurements are less precise on this mid-range test system, the noise floor of the totally quiet testing room is 34 dBA as measured with a Benetech GM1351 Digital Sound Level Meter.
We take our measurements with the decibel meter on the top and middle section of the case, overhanging the side panel (PSU side, not Motherboard tray side) by exactly 1 inch to avoid any airflow pressure coming from the exhausting H100i V2.
The underlying noise level of the system, emitted by all the non-GPU hardware combined, is 35 dBa thus anything above this level can be attributed to the graphics cards. The PSU is passive for the entire power output range we tested all graphics cards in and all CPU and System fans have a fixed fan speed completely isolating them from any changes in temperature across the system.
Noise levels were measured after 5 minutes of load under three scenario: Furmark, Unigine Heaven and desktop idle in sequential order with 2 minutes downtime in between each test.
Noise levels were low and this graphics card is impressively quiet under all usage scenarios. In our testing it wasn't as quiet as MSI's Gaming X Plus version but the difference in noise is slight and certainly not uncomfortable. There was also no notable coil whine on our test sample.
That’s a pretty heavy Asus tax when the MSI GTX1080 Gaming X Plus 11gbps is currently available for £460 (£503+£43 msi cashback) if you shop around.
I picked up the MSI GTX1080 Gaming X plus (shorten the names ffs lol) over the Asus because I have a morbid fear of small triple fans after living with a Vapor-X for 3 years, it’s good to see they have the acoustics in check. After a lot of research I still think the MSI is the quieter of the two even if it drops a degree or two which I can live with.