ASUS and Noctua Announce ASUS GeForce RTX 3070 Noctua Edition Graphics Card

[btarunr]

ASUS and Noctua today announced the ASUS GeForce RTX 3070 Noctua Edition: the world's first graphics card to use Noctua fans and a tailored heatsink that has been co-engineered by Noctua. Allowing for a reduction in noise levels of up to 15 dB(A), this refined cooling setup makes the Noctua Edition the quietest card in its class and the perfect choice for customers who demand serious GPU performance without sacrificing quietness of operation.

"Using our extensive thermal R&D experience, we've created a new GPU heatsink that's tailor-made for the performance characteristics of their state-of-the-art NF-A12x25 fans," said Kent Chien (Corporate Vice President and General Manager of the ASUS Multimedia Business Unit). "Our teamwork gives noise-conscious gamers and Noctua enthusiasts a unique graphics card that maximizes heat dissipation per decibel of noise emitted, all in a package that coordinates perfectly with other Noctua products in a DIY PC."



"Customers have been asking us to create GPU cooling solutions for quite some time, so we're excited and honoured to team up with ASUS in order to make this happen. Using our NF-A12x25 fans and fine-tuning the heatsink for use with them, we've managed to achieve a significant boost in performance-to-noise efficiency", explains Roland Mossig (Noctua CEO). "ASUS' GeForce RTX 3070 was certainly an outstanding card already, but we're confident that the further improved cooling solution of the Noctua Edition will be the cherry on top for noise-conscious customers."

Measured side by side, the improvements of the Noctua Edition are substantial with a massive reduction in noise levels of 15 dB(A) at medium fan speeds and 9 dB(A) at maximum fan speeds. When used in cases with good ventilation and at moderate ambient temperatures of 24°C or lower, the card will keep its fans at very low speeds even at 100% GPU load. In such a typical setting, the Noctua Edition achieves a reduction in noise levels of 5.7 dB(A) as compared to the standard version. Registering at only 12.6 dB(A), it is not only quiet but near inaudible. This enables customers with well-ventilated cases and moderate ambient temperatures to play games or run other GPU intensive tasks in almost complete silence.

The GeForce RTX 3070 Noctua Edition features a semi-passive fan control setup (ASUS 0 dB technology) that can switch the fans off completely whenever the GPU temperature goes below 50°C. This means that in typical configurations with low to moderate ambient temperatures and well-ventilated cases, the card can run entirely fanless at lower GPU loads such as during office productivity tasks, web browsing, or even light gaming. Even at high GPU loads such as during gaming or benchmarking, the fan speeds will stay extremely low as long as the ambient temperature inside the case isn't excessive.

The combination of semi-passive functionality, extremely low noise levels even in GPU-intensive tasks and the possibility of setting custom fan curves via ASUS' GPU Tweak software also makes the ASUS GeForce RTX 3070 Noctua Edition an ideal companion for Noctua's NH-P1 passive cooler paired with the NF-A12x25 LS-PWM fan for semi-passive operation. Combining these products in a suitable case makes it easy to build a system that will run completely fanless in typical productivity tasks and only relies on ultra-quiet fans for situations when extra GPU or CPU power are required, such as gaming or video editing.

In sum, the ASUS GeForce GeForce RTX 3070 Noctua Edition is the ideal card for quiet cooling enthusiasts who demand serious GPU performance without sacrificing quietness of operation.

For more information, visit the product page.

View at TechPowerUp Main Site

 

[Turmania]

4.3 slot thickness wow, just wow ! (310 x 147 x 87.5 mm)

 

[Valantar]

4.3 slot thickness wow, just wow ! (310 x 147 x 87.5 mm)

Yeah, guess that's what happens when you stick a standard 25mm(+ rubber pads) fan on an already quite thick GPU - that heatsink is at least two slots on its own. I would expect this to rival most water cooled GPUs in thermals and noise though - and it certainly isn't bigger than if you strapped a 240mm rad to your GPU

 

[Anymal]

W1zz, this is nobrainer for the review, if needed, we should send doge coins to you to buy it.

 

[Sybaris_Caesar]

Hey! I just noticed that this doesn't have ASUS's godawful RGB loading bar on the side.

 

[Dristun]

I think other brands will follow with collabs too - cards are already expensive, people are putting up and paying, total cost of production for premium lines probably won't get significantly higher if gigabyte, asus and so on actually start putting the "premium" into something else apart from VRMs and strap decent fans instead of the usual 80-90mm noname garbage.

 

[Palindrome]

They... really just shoved some NF12x25s under a GPU shroud and called it a day huh

I mean in fairness, I employ a similar solution with my testbench 2080 Ti. Off with the shroud and piddly stock fans, ziptied some SilverStone Air Penetrators (whoever came up with this name, you've got some balls) to them and it runs perfectly fine. Temps in the low-mid 60s, boost clocks at nearly 2.2GHz, happy days.

At least with this card you'll be able to match the ugly unique brown and beige aesthetic of your Noctua case fans with your GPU if that's your thing

 

[Chomiq]

One ugly GPU.

 

[MAXLD]

4.3 slot thickness wow, just wow ! (310 x 147 x 87.5 mm)

My old R9 290 + Raijintek Morpheus II + 2x Noctua NF-P12 , says hi. Hehehe, sure was bulky setup, but man the silence and airflow was sublime.

I think other brands will follow with collabs too

Collabs is something that was done in the past, with varied results. I had one of those Powercolor X1950 Pro with an Arctic Cooling collab cooler on it. In this case it wasn't great, the fan was hold by a membrane of some sorts that in just a couple of months ended up being wobbly and making a irritating knocking sound. Had to RMA the whole thing.

PowerColor Introduces X1950 PRO equipped with ARCTIC COOLING

TUL Corporation, a leading provider of graphic cards, today announced the PowerColor X1950 PRO 256/512MB with ARCTIC COOLING. The X1950 PRO features the first-ever GPU manufactured at 80nm fabrication process and to feature the new CrossFireTM Bridge Interconnect. PowerColor has also included...

www.techpowerup.com

This Noctua one is quite more trustworthy... slap some usual top Noctua fans on an adjusted heatsink, some custom connectors to pcb, some fine tuning profiles and there you go.

A true shame we won't probably see it anywhere in this current outrageous expensive market. In normal conditions I wouldn't mind pay the normal AIB OC gpu version of a card + a bit extra for a Noctua version. As long as there's no coil whine on it, this combo would be perfect.

 

[napata]

One ugly GPU.

Looks better than 80% of card designs out there. Most cards look like they're designed for (man)children.

 

[euricog]

One ugly GPU.

Ugly yes, yet very efficient. There are still those who value function over form, and for those, this is as pretty as it can get.

 

[Chomiq]

Ugly yes, yet very efficient. There are still those who value function over form, and for those, this is as pretty as it can get.

Function over form? With 4.3 slot design? Sure...

 

[Mistral]

4.3 slot thickness wow, just wow ! (310 x 147 x 87.5 mm)

On the plus side, it might fight off some miners...

 

[Chomiq]

On the plus side, it might fight off some miners...

That's assuming Asus cares about gamers more than it cares about profits. Also if it will prioritize this over the other SKUs. Not to mention the fact that recently 3070 Ti's and 3080 Ti's are restocked more often than the non-Ti variants.

 

[ThrashZone]

Hi,
Still wondering why they bother doing this on a 3070 was it not expensive enough ?

Get the cheaper ...3070/.... add a water block and no more fan noise issues.

 

[olymind1]

I don't spend this much money on a VGA card, but i would rather buy this than putting any water (cooling) near my PC.

 

[Valantar]

Hi,
Still wondering why they bother doing this on a 3070 was it not expensive enough ?

Get the cheaper ...3070/.... add a water block and no more fan noise issues.

"Get the cheaper GPU, add a $150+ water block, $100 radiator, $100 pump, and another $50 for fittings and tubing, and you'll have no more fan noise issues." Sure. Or you could buy this, which seems to be priced lower than their top-end 3070 SKU.

 

[Chrispy_]

Any idea on pricing?

People have been slinging 25x120mm fans on GPUs for decades using all manner of attachment methods, including NF-A12x25s. This one isn't particularly pretty and anyone can tell it's just the TUF heatsink with some different graphics printed on the backplate.

With an army of good radiator fans on the market and easy access to 3D printing, this thing needs to have a low markup over the TUF cards otherwise it'll just be a tax for logo fanboys to pay.

 

[Valantar]

Any idea on pricing?

People have been slinging 25x120mm fans on GPUs for decades using all manner of attachment methods, including NF-A12x25s. This one isn't particularly pretty and anyone can tell it's just the TUF heatsink with some different graphics printed on the backplate.

With an army of good radiator fans on the market and easy access to 3D printing, this thing needs to have a low markup over the TUF cards otherwise it'll just be a tax for logo fanboys to pay.

The recent leak placed it not that high above the TUF IIRC.

 

[Dr. Dro]

Finally, been following this one for some time.

I'm in love. I hope they make these a mainstay, i'd love a 4090 or 7900 XT with the Noctua cooling.

 

[qubit]

@W1zzard you just have to review this!

 

[TheDeeGee]

Hopefully they come with a black variant as well once the Chromax version of the A12x25 comes out.

I would have gotten this, but i switched to a Chromax Black/White build after nearly 15 years of brown.

 

[Deleted member 185088]

Why not a 3080, it gets way hotter especially the memory.

 

[Voodoo Rufus]

I do like this in concept, but it almost feels a lazy way to do it. Basically a custom shroud to bolt two standard 120x25mm fan frames to most likely a regular GPU heatsink?

 

[The Terrible Puddle]

Ugly and I want it