Fan Noise

In past years, gamers would accept everything for a little bit more performance. Nowadays, users are more aware of the fan noise and the power consumption of their graphics cards.

In order to properly test the fan noise that a card emits, we use the Bruel & Kjaer 2236 sound-level meter (~$4,000). It has the measurement range and the accuracy we are looking for.


The tested graphics card was installed in a system that was completely cooled system passively. That is, passive PSU, passive CPU cooler, and passive cooling on the motherboard and solid state drive. Noise results of other cards on this page are measurements of the respective reference design.

This setup allows us to eliminate secondary noise sources and test only the video card. To be more compliant with standards like DIN 45635 (we are not claiming to be fully DIN 45635 certified), the measurement was conducted at a distance of 100 cm and 160 cm off the floor. Ambient background noise in the room was well below 20 dBA for all measurements. Please note that the dBA scale is not linear but logarithmic. 40 dBA is not twice as loud as 20 dBA, as a 3 dBA increase results in double the sound pressure. The human hearing perception is a bit different, and it is generally accepted that a 10 dBA increase doubles the perceived sound level. 3D load noise levels were tested with a stressful game, not with Furmark.

Idle noise levels are decent, almost quiet. You can barely hear the card when it is installed in a case.

The picture changes completely once you fire up a gaming session. AMD's fan will ramp up very quickly to cope with skyrocketing temperatures. Enable "Quiet" BIOS, which limits fan speed to a maximum of 2000 RPM, and the card will run into its 94°C temperature limit after only a few minutes, which results in lower clocks and performance (to stay below 94°C). The "Quiet" BIOS will not deaden down the card, but its noise levels can be tolerated.

Using the "Uber" BIOS results in RPM limitations falling away and the fan spinning up as fast as it has to in order for the card to stay below its temperature target (94°C by default). You will hear nothing but the card's fan noise, which makes hearing enemy footsteps or similar sound effects impossible unless you play with headphones.

Overall, I am disappointed by the acoustic experience the R9 290X provides. AMD should have invested some time into developing a good cooler, like NVIDIA did with the GTX Titan.

One improvement over the HD 7990 is that the R9 290X has no coil noise.