Fan Noise

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

In order to properly test the fan noise 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 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.

Noise levels in idle match the AMD reference design, which isn't bad, but the card could certainly be quieter, especially with idle temperatures only reaching 36°C. The BIOS is configured to never go below 20% fan speed, no matter the temperature.

Gaming noise levels are greatly improved over the reference design and result in very enjoyable acoustics similar to those produced by the GTX 780 or Titan. While this is certainly a good result, I was hoping for a bit better given the hype that surrounds this card. Temperatures under load only reach 73°C, so there would have been plenty of headroom to quieten down the card some more. Remember, the AMD reference design runs 95°C with the same PCB, and AMD says such temperatures to be perfectly safe.

Sapphire does not offer a quiet / performance BIOS like on the reference design or on the ASUS R9 290X DC II, so you can't opt for higher temperatures with less noise.