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We have built a system inside a Lian Li chassis with no case fans and have used a fanless cooler on our CPU. The motherboard is also passively cooled. This gives us a build with almost completely passive cooling and it means we can measure noise of just the graphics card inside the system when we run looped 3dMark tests.
We measure from a distance of around 1 meter from the closed chassis and 4 foot from the ground to mirror a real world situation. Ambient noise in the room measures close to the limits of our sound meter at 28dBa.
Why do this? Well this means we can eliminate secondary noise pollution in the test room and concentrate on only the video card. It also brings us slightly closer to industry standards, such as DIN 45635.
KitGuru noise guide
10dBA – Normal Breathing/Rustling Leaves
20-25dBA – Whisper
30dBA – High Quality Computer fan
40dBA – A Bubbling Brook, or a Refridgerator
50dBA – Normal Conversation
60dBA – Laughter
70dBA – Vacuum Cleaner or Hairdryer
80dBA – City Traffic or a Garbage Disposal
90dBA – Motorcycle or Lawnmower
100dBA – MP3 player at maximum output
110dBA – Orchestra
120dBA – Front row rock concert/Jet Engine
130dBA – Threshold of Pain
140dBA – Military Jet takeoff/Gunshot (close range)
160dBA – Instant Perforation of eardrum
Nvidia have made great reference coolers for years, and the cooler on the GTX980 is more than up to the job. Any noise from the GTX980 will likely be masked out by a couple of chassis fans. The Maxwell architecture certainly helps Nvidia when it comes to fan activity – when idle, the fan is spinning at 1,000 rpm. Under gaming load, this rises to around 1,700 rpm and under Furmark load, it rises to 2,100 rpm.
I’m not too excited about this gen.. I was expecting alot more from maxwell. Either way I will own the card when it comes out. I would like to see what the card actually performs like myself and see if the new features can bring it to Amd’s IQ level..
Waiting for the Next Gen Volta
How is this card running cool? Look at the reported temps it is the hottest of all tested. Across all reviews it averages roughly 73-75 degrees gaming and higher under extreme loads. If you were to overclock it, it would be extremely hot, reference r9 290x hot, way too hot!
And you haven’t taken fan speed into consideration. Turning the fan up to 100% on a reference high end GTX is still very much bearable in terms of noise. Extra fan noise for extra performance and stable temps. That’s how it always goes. Unlike the 290x that was a searing, red hot 95c at STOCK and ridiculously loud fans from AMD’s shitty reference design. If you want to keep those overclocks quiet then you buy an third party design. No one should ever intend to run a reference card overclocked off its balls anyway. Stop whining.
In sli the top card will be at the 90+ degree mark, no overclock. Just look at the numbers. Fan speed will not correct this. The really interesting card in all of this is the 970. I think it represents a revolution in price/performance, while the 980 cards are overkill for low res and just as incapable as all the others at multi display and/or 4K resolutions. The 20nm or sub 20nm cards are only a year or so away. As for stop whining, are you emotionally invested in a simple bit of conjecture? Its ok to have an opinion without espousing childishness.
Now you can read the most recent owner reviews on newegg and see how true my comments were in actual practice. This is not a jab. It is just a continuance of a prior conversation. Please do not get upset.
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814487068&SortField=0&SummaryType=0&PageSize=10&SelectedRating=-1&VideoOnlyMark=False&IsFeedbackTab=true#scrollFullInfo