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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.
Ambient noise in the room is around 20-25dBa. 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.
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 Refrigerator
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
The XFX R9 280X Black OC Edition is slightly quieter than the faster Sapphire R9 280X Toxic Edition, although we wouldn't class either as loud, or intrusive. The quietest card however is the Asus R9 280X Matrix Platinum, a clear benefit of the massive 3 slot cooler.
Thats the nicest looking GPU I have ever seen.
Good board, but I think Sapphire nailed it with the Toxic Edition – looks a better built card too.
Still this is cheaper, so horses for courses.
I’m with Ben on this one, its one of the most understated, but visually stunning cards I’ve seen in a long time!
Performance is great, but price is even better, I’d love one in my system 😉
Have you checked with xfx about clock times because scan still is listing black edition with this clock speed 1080-6200 MHz, so this is the same card you have reviewed with lower clock speed?