Performance Testing

Please refer to the dedicated test setup page here as it applies to this review as well and I did not want to go over it separately to save on review space.


Let's remind ourselves that the fan is rated for 800–1800 RPM (+/- 10%). Bitspower sent over three fans in total via a triple pack, and they hit an average of 1749 RPM at 100% PWM duty cycle and went down to an average 540 RPM at 26% PWM duty cycle before remaining constant all the way down to 1%. There was not a lot of variation between the three samples, which is nice to see, and the RPM profile is fairly linear in the response range, and also longer than the rated range, which is also nice to see. It could have been more linear compared to some of the more recent fans tested, but this is such a small issue that I will not even use it as a negative on the next page.

Context is needed to talk more about the fan's performance and noise, so I have below comparison charts for some fans tested so far at set RPM values (or as near as they can get to those).


I have included fans in charts where the rated RPM is within 50 RPM of the chart cutoff point, and have also removed fans either too old or simply redundant with the introduction of an updated version. In addition, I have removed fans that only appear once or twice in the charts above since they are not good for comparison as more entries get added into the test database. The specific RPM values chosen reflect usage scenarios most popular with watercooling even though some fans (the Noctua NF-A12x25, for instance) go higher. The charts are to be considered for comparison within this result set only and are not to be compared with results from another test elsewhere owing to different testing conditions.

The direct comparison comes in the form of the recently tested Touchaqua NJORD, which employs a simpler design for both the rotor and the lighting, and the more premium placed Bitspower Njord Dual Fin outperforms it easily with its airflow/noise ratio. In general, we also see that this fan fares better in the 1000 and 1250 RPM tests by pushing more air through the radiator in relation to its noise output. A close comparison is CORSAIR's excellent ML120 PRO RGB fan in that the Bitspower Njord Dual Fin is almost nearly the same as far as absolute noise goes, but it does push less air.