# ASUS GeForce RTX 3080 Noctua OC



## W1zzard (May 23, 2022)

The quad-slot ASUS GeForce RTX 3080 Noctua is the quietest RTX 3080 we ever tested by a huge margin. Even when fully loaded and delivering more than 60 FPS at 4K resolution is the card nearly inaudible. Not only noise levels are incredible, temperatures are very impressive, too.

*Show full review*


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## GunShot (May 23, 2022)

Interesting review. But, it seems like this review would've been a lot more informative if the Noctua were against only other 3080 10GB skus from ASUS reference 3080, MSI, EVGA, etc., though.


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## SteveJK88 (May 23, 2022)

Fantastic product! How about coil whine?
I've tried 5 (five) 6900 XTs (3x Sapphire Nitro+, Powercolor Red Devil Ultimate, MSI Gaming Z Trio) and all have serious coil whine noise.
Report on coil whine should be very useful in the noise section of every review.


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## progste (May 23, 2022)

My dream card!


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## chodaboy19 (May 23, 2022)

> The fans are standard full-size NF-A12x25 120 mm fans. This makes it super easy to swap out the fans in the future, for different models or to replace a broken fan, they even use standard 5-pin connectors.



Should it be 5-pin or 4-pin?


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## W1zzard (May 23, 2022)

chodaboy19 said:


> Should it be 5-pin or 4-pin?


Whoops, it is 4-pin of course. Fixed


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## progste (May 23, 2022)

chodaboy19 said:


> Should it be 5-pin or 4-pin?I


Yes, 4 pin PWN


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## W1zzard (May 23, 2022)

SteveJK88 said:


> Fantastic product! How about coil whine?
> I've tried 5 (five) 6900 XTs (3x Sapphire Nitro+, Powercolor Red Devil Ultimate, MSI Gaming Z Trio) and all have serious coil whine noise.
> Report on coil whine should be very useful in the noise section of every review.


The biggest problem with coil whine is reproducing and measuring it. It not only depends on the card, but also on the PSU. The biggest factor is the FPS rate. The higher, the more coil whine, also depends on the actual FPS rate to find resonance.

Any ideas how to test this?



GunShot said:


> Interesting review. But, it seems like this review would've been a lot more informative if the Noctua were against only other 3080 10GB skus from ASUS reference 3080, MSI, EVGA, etc., though.


Not sure I understand? Which data are you looking for?


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## THU31 (May 23, 2022)

Second HDMI port is the best feature of this card from my perspective. I hope we see more of this again in the future.

Or at least let us choose the primary output somehow (a switch on the PCB or something). I hate that POST and BIOS only show on DisplayPort if such a display is connected.


Cooling performance is crazy, but since I am undervolting for heat output reasons, I would not have a use for it anyway.


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## fevgatos (May 23, 2022)

Tried it with a 3090 (deshroud + 2xa12x25 fans). I can keep it below 70c at 470watts, while it is actually inaudible.


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## HisDivineOrder (May 23, 2022)

What I take from this is that if these companies wanted to actually make good coolers all they need do is source good fans from known companies instead of creating obtuse solutions that use no-name fans. That is to say, they keep making these coolers huge but refuse to even consider spending money on better fans. And that is silly. Good performance with silence should be their goal, but it clearly is not.


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## TheDeeGee (May 23, 2022)

Imagine the WOW factor when it was a Chromax design.


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## Chaitanya (May 23, 2022)

Another con for against this SKU is it came too late in life cycle of 30 series of GPUs.


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## firewrath9 (May 23, 2022)

HisDivineOrder said:


> What I take from this is that if these companies wanted to actually make good coolers all they need do is source good fans from known companies instead of creating obtuse solutions that use no-name fans. That is to say, they keep making these coolers huge but refuse to even consider spending money on better fans. And that is silly. Good performance with silence should be their goal, but it clearly is not.


all i take from this is 4.1 slot coolers are better than 2.75 or 3 slot coolers


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## Bradeh (May 23, 2022)

Why isn't standard practice is beyond me, it doesn't even need to be Noctua, use Arctic for example. You are buying an expensive luxury product which could be so much better and yet massive corners are cut.


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## wheresmycar (May 23, 2022)

HisDivineOrder said:


> What I take from this is that if these companies wanted to actually make good coolers all they need do is source good fans from known companies instead of creating obtuse solutions that use no-name fans. That is to say, they keep making these coolers huge but refuse to even consider spending money on better fans. And that is silly. Good performance with silence should be their goal, but it clearly is not.



Agreed!

Even better, these manufacturers know deshrouding, ducts and adding aftermarket fans (even cheapie Arctic ones) make a HUGEEEEEE difference in thermals and noise levels. Maybe one of them will set a trend with easier customisable options, possibly deshrouded and fanless SKUs at a cheaper cost with additional mounting kits/ducts/aftermarket fan compatibility/etc etc. IMO, most of the transformishly looking stock shrouds look UGLY anyway... also its hardly impossible for them to think outside of the standardised box with GPU power consumption blowing holes in the ceiling. Noctua GPU relations is a step in the right direction, regardless of the size of the target audience, it would be nice to see easier modifiable options.


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## ppn (May 23, 2022)

too late too little 10GB, less than that of 4060, and probably slower.. i mean 3060 did match 2070, but next gen middle could demolish the current top.
Shows some potential for air cooling, I was seriously considering water loops for the 40 series and later. But there is also the heat. 400 watts can raise my room temperature by 4C inaudible or not, it makes it very uncomfortable. and barely does 1,7Ghz undervolted to 0,9 by default and outputting 350 watts at the same time. or this is just Furmark, when 2.1Ghz should be the norm by now.


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## zlobby (May 23, 2022)

That's brown power for you!


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## qubit (May 23, 2022)

I've been wanting to see a proper review for this card. Hero: @W1zzard 

Unbelievably quiet and low temps, I'd sure hope so with a 4-slot cooler made by Noctua. But yeah, the grey and black alternative colour scheme that Noctua do would have been a big improvement.


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## ppn (May 23, 2022)

Thats 12cm fans mostly, and it doesn't matter what color or who made it. The heatpipes are made by the same OEm as the TUF version, just added more dissipating surface to it.. Now all the others can start making cards like that, especially on the upcoming $999-1999 and 600 watt cards.. There is no excuse to use 10mm 7,5/8/10 cm fans anymore, it's just mocking us to implement subpar cooling.


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## progste (May 23, 2022)

ppn said:


> Thats 12cm fans mostly, and it doesn't matter what color or who made it. The heatpipes are made by the same OEm as the TUF version, just added more dissipating surface to it.. Now all the others can start making cards like that, especially on the upcoming $999-1999 and 600 watt cards.. There is no excuse to use 10mm 7,5/8/10 cm fans anymore, it's just mocking us to implement subpar cooling.


As you may see from CPU coolers it's not as simple as strapping any 12 cm fan. You need good airflow whithout excessive noise and it's not easy to do that, even among premium fans there is only a few that do it right.
Who made them matters a lot.


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## Icon Charlie (May 23, 2022)

How can this be Editor's choice when all I see is just a glorified piece of 2 year old hardware that is priced for whom?   For that amount why not go for a 6900XT or 6950XT if the price of this non 3080ti comes out.  This does not make sense to make one of these now considering the newer generation cards are around the corner.

And FYI I have had issues with Asus with their components of late.  Early in the 2000's they were known as a top quality brand that you could rely on. however after 2010 1 out of 3 products that I have purchased for myself and/or my clients has FAILED.   That's a quality control issue as well as quality in components as well.

Brand name Die Hards, people will buy it just on brand name alone.  There is nothing OW WOW on this.  Tweaks here and there on older hardware.

My concern is the increase of wattage on this generation giving EXCUSES for cutting corners on overall performance for the next generation.  We are hearing some real high numbers on video cards.  I don't want an oven in my room.


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## progste (May 23, 2022)

Icon Charlie said:


> How can this be Editor's choice when all I see is just a glorified piece of 2 year old hardware that is priced for whom?   For that amount why not go for a 6900XT or 6950XT if the price of this non 3080ti comes out.  This does not make sense to make one of these now considering the newer generation cards are around the corner.
> 
> And FYI I have had issues with Asus with their components of late.  Early in the 2000's they were known as a top quality brand that you could rely on. however after 2010 1 out of 3 products that I have purchased for myself and/or my clients has FAILED.   That's a quality control issue as well as quality in components as well.
> 
> ...


There is no other way to have a 3080 this cool and quiet on air cooling, that justifies an editor's choise.


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## Pictus (May 23, 2022)

W1zzard said:


> The biggest problem with coil whine is reproducing and measuring it. It not only depends on the card, but also on the PSU. The biggest factor is the FPS rate. The higher, the more coil whine, also depends on the actual FPS rate to find resonance.
> 
> Any ideas how to test this?


Hummm...
Check for coil whine with unlimited FPS, 60, 120 and 144 FPS.


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## progste (May 23, 2022)

Pictus said:


> Hummm...
> Check for coil whine with unlimited FPS, 60, 120 and 144 FPS.


but then he would have to test with different PSUs and maybe even with 230 and 120 volt...


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## W1zzard (May 23, 2022)

ppn said:


> Now all the others can start making cards like that


No doubt, various board partners have been asking me lots of questions recently 
Ultimately this will be good for us


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## Yttersta (May 23, 2022)

WTF lol :-D That's barely louder than a quiet room with very competitive temperatures in the quiet mode! Amazing. Too bad they released this so late, I'd have loved a couple of these in our computers at home.


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## mechtech (May 23, 2022)

hmmmm I'm only into quin-slot coolers now.  Quad slot coolers are sooo last year


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## konga (May 23, 2022)

This style of cooler design (big fans, comparatively smaller heatsinks) is the future of air-cooled high-end GPUs. It's just so much better than using small, low-profile fans blowing against monstrously thick heatsinks. I feel like inertia in the manufacturing process has led to some highly inefficient cooler designs for the 3090 Ti, and I hope that's not going to continue with the 4090. If you're going to be doing 3.5 - 4 slot designs at all, then this is the way.

By the way, you say you need 4 free slots. Can you confirm if you can put a card into slot #5? (a low-profile one such as an nvme adapter)


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## Ravenmaster (May 23, 2022)

A whole extra 2fps in Cyberpunk2077 at 4K... yeah... nah. Think i'll stick with my good looking card that is quiet enough.


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## Assimilator (May 23, 2022)

Huge, heavy, ugly, expensive, unnecessary. It may be novel but it sure as shit isn't innovative. Not sure why anyone would bother buying this when they can get an FE and waterblock.


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## claes (May 23, 2022)

I can think of 300 reasons or so


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## progste (May 23, 2022)

Assimilator said:


> Huge, heavy, ugly, expensive, unnecessary. It may be novel but it sure as shit isn't innovative. Not sure why anyone would bother buying this when they can get an FE and waterblock.


Because liquid cooling requires maintenance, this will run pretty much the same for 10+ years.


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## MarsM4N (May 23, 2022)

W1zzard said:


> The biggest problem with coil whine is reproducing and measuring it. It not only depends on the card, but also on the PSU. The biggest factor is the FPS rate. The higher, the more coil whine, also depends on the actual FPS rate to find resonance.
> 
> Any ideas how to test this?



CS:GO @1280x720 (or any low demanding game that pushes 500+FPS)*+* a PSU with really bad ripple (*Corasir RM1000* might be a good candidiate) *+* a *Spectrum Analyzer App*

Just test through some of the worst PSU's you can find.


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## W1zzard (May 23, 2022)

MarsM4N said:


> CS:GO @1280x720 (or any low demanding game that pushes 500+FPS)*+* a PSU with really bad ripple (*Corasir RM1000* might be a good candidiate) *+* a *Spectrum Analyzer App*
> 
> Just test through some of the worst PSU's you can find.


But is it fair to report that "all cards have coil noise", but only with this worst case setup, and as soon as you buy decent stuff, or dont play a game with 500 FPS it goes away?


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## MarsM4N (May 23, 2022)

W1zzard said:


> But is it fair to report that "all cards have coil noise", but only with this worst case setup, and as soon as you buy decent stuff, or dont play a game with 500 FPS it goes away?



Well, to my understanding a PSU with high ripple is just a "turbo charger" for coil whine.

But saying "all GPU's have coil whine" is not very accurate.  There are GPU lineups with very low complain rates & others where people flushing reviews with bad reps.
I guess another big factor is how much power is pushed trough the coils (stress). A heavily overclocked GPU with a underprovisioned power phase & lower quality coils will be more prone to coil whine.


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## wolf (May 24, 2022)

Love what Noctua is doing here, this card embodies what people seek to achieve with deshrouding but from the factory, especially since it seems like my TUF 3080 deshrouded with 2x120mm fans seems so exceptionally close to how this cards thermal and acoustic performance is.

I'd love to see Arctic get back in the game making GPU coolers, especially if they did factory cards like this. They had the quite successful accelero series, make a new series but use the full size P12's and you've got a winner imo


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## mama (May 24, 2022)

Lot of cheaper 3080s out there...


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## milewski1015 (May 24, 2022)

mama said:


> Lot of cheaper 3080s out there...


Sure, that's why Wiz listed "Pricing unknown, probably quite expensive" in the cons column. The target audience for a card like this is likely someone that wants to purchase an air-cooled card that is as quiet as possible.


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## SteveJK88 (May 24, 2022)

W1zzard said:


> The biggest problem with coil whine is reproducing and measuring it. It not only depends on the card, but also on the PSU. The biggest factor is the FPS rate. The higher, the more coil whine, also depends on the actual FPS rate to find resonance.
> 
> Any ideas how to test this?



I've tested those RX 6900 XT on:
- 3 motherboards (X570 Gigabyte Gaming X | B550i Gigabyte Aorus Pro AX | B550 MSI MAG Tomahawk)
- 3 different CPUs (2x 5600X | 1x 3400G)
- 3 different PSUs (Fractal Design ION+ 860W | be quiet! Straight Power 11 1000W | Corsair HX850W)
- 2 different houses (230V) with and without UPS protection (APC Back-UPS Pro 1200 S | BR1200SI)
- 2 different monitors (BenQ MOBIUZ EX3415R UWQHD 144Hz | Samsung Odyssey G5-G55T UWQHD 165Hz)

SAME-EFFIN-COIL WHINE.

Then, at last, I've started tweaking the max GPU clock speed and I've started to see a pattern (thanks to the glorious GPU-Z): the lower the Watts needed, the lower the coil whine.
I've been using "The Forest" as a test-game because it easily triggered the noise from the cards:
- Downvolting the GPU did not affect coil whine.
- Lowering the Max power to -10% from the AMD Software did not affect coil whine.
- Then, when I started lowering the max boost clock, the noise got reduced. When I've set it to the reference 2250 MHz, the noise got low (but still present). The point was not the GPU clock, but the power needed. The more I was closer to the 200W, the more silent got the coil whine.



Pictus said:


> Hummm...
> Check for coil whine with unlimited FPS, 60, 120 and 144 FPS.



60 - 144 - 240 - unlimited FPS on a 240Hz monitor should be better.

60 is for "i don't care" gamers.
144 is for "so my eyes can see past 60FPS" gamers.
240 is for "pro" gamers.
∞ is for "I can see anything" gamers.

But still, coil whine should be tested against resolution too.

I guess the best catch should be the Samsung Odissey G9-G95T.
With the resolution of 5120x1440p (~7.4MP) is almost dense as a 4K (~8.3MP).
It runs @240Hz with FreeSync and G-Sync.

EDIT:
or the new Odyssey Neo G8 32-inch 4K 240Hz



progste said:


> but then he would have to test with different PSUs and maybe even with 230 and 120 volt...



Good call about the 120V.

Guess the test should implement the best quality PSU available like the Seasonic Prime Ultra Titanium 850 W used in the review.
Then, IF there's coil whine, test the card with other two high-quality PSUs, but just running one test. If the coil whine is the same, there's no need to repeat all the iterations.

Yes, it's a hell of a job. I know.

At least add the info in the noise part of the reviews. "In this particular test setup, the card (did't/) suffered from coil whine".
That should help.


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## beedoo (May 24, 2022)

SteveJK88 said:


> Fantastic product! How about coil whine?
> I've tried 5 (five) 6900 XTs (3x Sapphire Nitro+, Powercolor Red Devil Ultimate, MSI Gaming Z Trio) and all have serious coil whine noise.
> Report on coil whine should be very useful in the noise section of every review.


Interesting. I have a Liquid Devil 6900XT and no coil whine there...


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## eidairaman1 (May 24, 2022)

Assimilator said:


> Huge, heavy, ugly, expensive, unnecessary. It may be novel but it sure as shit isn't innovative. Not sure why anyone would bother buying this when they can get an FE and waterblock.



Heck you can get a monoblock from Alphacool for these AIB cards.

Brown makes it look like dookey.

4 slots wasted too.

Next.


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## Bradeh (May 24, 2022)

Watercooling is still incredibly niche and won't be mainstream anytime soon, to dismiss this to say go water doesn't help the majority of buyers. The point should be that manufactures should provide better aircooling design rather then providing subpar solutions.


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## chrcoluk (May 24, 2022)

Not sure I agree with a 4 slot GPU not been a problem for space I hope thi sis not the start of a new trend, but interesting to see noctua fans combined with a gpu officially supported.



Assimilator said:


> Huge, heavy, ugly, expensive, unnecessary. It may be novel but it sure as shit isn't innovative. Not sure why anyone would bother buying this when they can get an FE and waterblock.


Ultimately when it comes down to it you right, however interesting it may be to have noctua fans on this, still no way worth the premium over an FE card, and the slot size of the thing is ridiculous.


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## PapaTaipei (May 24, 2022)

I wonder how much of a difference it would have made by using all copper on the fins and pipes.


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## Mussels (May 25, 2022)

If this card existed when i was GPU hunting, i'd probably have gone straight for it.


Those noise levels just make everything else look bad.


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## MarsM4N (May 25, 2022)

Mussels said:


> If this card existed when i was GPU hunting, i'd probably have gone straight for it.
> Those noise levels just make everything else look bad.



Agree, it makes all other Nvidia cards look bad.  The first & *only* Nvidia card to rech below 30 dBA.

Meanwhile: stock RX 6900 XT: *27.1* dBA & RX 6800 XT: *27.4* dBA


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## W1zzard (May 25, 2022)

Review has been updated with the $950 MSRP provided by ASUS


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## Taraquin (May 25, 2022)

Impressive! I would consider a chromax black variant! My dream would be standardized heatsinks on most GPUs so we could attach the fans we prefer! RGB, high performance etc.



MarsM4N said:


> Agree, it makes all other Nvidia cards look bad.  The first & *only* Nvidia card to rech below 30 dBA.
> 
> Meanwhile: stock RX 6900 XT: *27.1* dBA & RX 6800 XT: *27.4* dBA


Hey, the TUF with silentbios comes close atleast  It is interestning to see how much better good fans perform vs stock GPU-fans. We saw the same on the 3070 Noctua review, heatsink etc is close to the TUF-edition, with TUF doing 28dB at 62C, while Noctua did 26dB at 60C.


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## madshi (May 25, 2022)

Thx W1zzard for testing cards like this. Great stuff for those of us who love silent parts. I sure hope Asus will release the same cooling solution for 40xx cards.


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## Abula (May 29, 2022)

Really impressive card, specially how quiet it is.  If Asus continues this trend, ill be buying a 4090 from them.  Hope other follow into implementing standard 120mm PWM fans.


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## Yrd (Jun 17, 2022)

Still waiting for this card to release. Was planning on buying it, in early June. It is no longer "early" June. When is this available?


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## HenrySomeone (Jun 20, 2022)

Icon Charlie said:


> How can this be Editor's choice when all I see is just a glorified piece of 2 year old hardware that is priced for whom?   For that amount why not go for a 6900XT or 6950XT if the price of this non 3080ti comes out.  This does not make sense to make one of these now considering the newer generation cards are around the corner.
> 
> And FYI I have had issues with Asus with their components of late.  Early in the 2000's they were known as a top quality brand that you could rely on. however after 2010 1 out of 3 products that I have purchased for myself and/or my clients has FAILED.   That's a quality control issue as well as quality in components as well.
> 
> ...


Triggered AMD fanboy detected


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## Count von Schwalbe (Jul 19, 2022)

@W1zzard, I can't seem to find this one in the GPU database - it looks like it has identical specs with the ASUS TUF RTX 3080 GAMING OC, but with a better cooler?


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## Yrd (Aug 24, 2022)

W1zzard said:


> Whoops, it is 4-pin of course. Fixed



I know this may be forgotten, at this point, but do you remember when taking the fans/shroud off? Were the fans glued to the sinc like the 3070 version. I couldn't find mention of it in the review.

I finally posess the thing and first try they did not come off. I was afraid to use too much force and do damage.

I tried quoting the first comment but it wasn't popping in. I'm not sure an @ would get a response from you.


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## Mussels (Aug 24, 2022)

@W1zzard 

Any idea on the glue question?


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## W1zzard (Aug 24, 2022)

No idea, I see screws here



http://imgur.com/LsFVx2h


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## Yrd (Aug 24, 2022)

W1zzard said:


> No idea, I see screws here
> 
> 
> 
> http://imgur.com/LsFVx2h


Yes i took those off first then there are 4 screws on the ends of the card. Two on each side. Still did not come off. If it's glued then I will try again with more manly muscles.


Edit: I think those top screw only hold the shroud to the fans, now that I think of it. Can't try for another day, because I'm away.


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## HenrySomeone (Aug 24, 2022)

Yrd said:


> Yes i took those off first then there are 4 screws on the ends of the card. Two on each side. Still did not come off. If it's glued then I will try again with more manly muscles.
> 
> 
> Edit: I think those top screw only hold the shroud to the fans, now that I think of it. Can't try for another day, because I'm away.


Why would you want to disassemble it right after getting it though? Not for better cooling, that's for sure...


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## Yrd (Aug 24, 2022)

HenrySomeone said:


> Why would you want to disassemble it right after getting it though? Not for better cooling, that's for sure...


Just to put the black fans on instead. I have a whole color theme going, thrown off by this card. The fans are replaceable according to this review. If I have to remove the whole sinc I won't bother.

I have 4 of these same fans in black intended for something else that I chose not to do.


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## HenrySomeone (Aug 24, 2022)

Hmmm, okay, I guess, but unless you have it mounted vertically, you'll never see the fans anyway due to how low they sit because of the thickness. Come to think of it, since the card is so thicc, is it even possible to mount it vertically?


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## Yrd (Aug 24, 2022)

Xtia xproto case. It will be seen.


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## shovenose (Aug 24, 2022)

Really nice card, if I was in the market for a GPU in that price range I would definitely seek that out vs a “normal” card


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## Mussels (Aug 25, 2022)

shovenose said:


> Really nice card, if I was in the market for a GPU in that price range I would definitely seek that out vs a “normal” card


I just wish generic third party air coolers were still a thing so i could noctua any GPU i wanted in the future


Looks like you'd disassemble the card like any other, and undo those screws. If glue has been used, warm them up first.


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