Noctua enters the GPU market with an Ultra-Quiet RTX 3070

  
When compared to ASUS’ standard RTX 3070 models, the company’s Noctua Edition cards feature lower operating temperatures and lower noise levels when at equivalent sections of their respective fan profiles. At medium fan speeds, Noctua’s custom RTX 3070 is almost as quiet as ASUS’ default model under its low noise mode. 

While ASUS’ Noctua Edition card is thicker than most RTX 3070 models, being 4.3 slots wide, it is also cooler running and quieter than most RTX 3070 graphics cards on the market. If nothing else, this shows that Noctua’s large fans have their benefits when combined with GPU heatsinks. 

ASUS’ RTX 3070 Noctua Edition is designed for silence-freaks. Those who demand quiet operation from their graphics cards under all workloads. Many GPUs use high fans speeds under high loads, but the RTX 3070 Noctua Edition promises noise levels that are far below their peers. 

With two HDMI 2.1 ports and three DisplayPort 1.4 ports, ASUS’ Noctua Edition RTX 3070 graphics card is ready for almost any modern display setup. This makes this RTX 3070 well suited to professional and gaming workloads alike. This graphics card can support up to four displays concurrently, suiting the needs of most professional or gaming setups. 

What follows is Noctua’s Press Release.

  
  

ASUS and Noctua announce ASUS GeForce RTX 3070 Noctua Edition graphics card

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 15dB(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 15dB(A) at medium fan speeds and 9dB(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 5.7dB(A) as compared to the standard version. Registering at only 12.6dB(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 0dB 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.

You can join the discussion on ASUS’ RTX 3070 Noctua Edition graphics card on the OC3D Forums.