Asus and Noctua deliver quietest RTX 4080 yet

When it comes to the iconic brown tones of Noctua fans, the jury’s still out. Personally, I think they’re great. What’s not up for debate, however, is that Noctua fans are some of the best out there. This isn’t lost on Asus. As was the case with the RTX-30 series, it’s collaborating with Noctua on the RTX-40 series. The result is probably the quietest air-cooled RTX 4080 yet.

Graphics card

ASUS GeForce RTX 4080 Noctua OC Edition

16 GB

11

Graphics card

ASUS GeForce RTX 4080 Noctua OC Edition

16 GB

11

My review will focus solely on an analysis of the temperature and volume of the Asus GeForce RTX 4080 Noctua OC Edition. If you fancy reading about the RTX 4080 in more detail, you can do so in the following review.

A beast of a card

The Noctua Edition is thick. Hella thick. To be precise, it’s 4.3 slots, making it 84 millimetres thick. For comparison, the Asus TUF Gaming GeForce RTX 4080 OC Edition is «only» 3.65 slots or 69 millimetres thick. Its thickness isn’t so much a result of the heatsink as it is the fans. At 31 centimetres, however, the card with Noctua fans is relatively short.

As well as its cooling system and brown fans, the card boasts a clock of 90 megaherz (MHz) – more than the TUF, which I’m comparing it to. In games, you can expect a maximum of three per cent more frames per second (FPS). This is roughly in line with the game benchmarks for Shadow of the Tomb Raider, Cyberpunk 2077 and Anno 1800, which I ran in 2160p resolution. In return, however, the Noctua card actually requires fewer watts, drawing a maximum of 310. The TUF, on the other hand, draws 315.

Let’s take a look at the most important specs:

• Interface: PCIe 4.0
• RAM: 16 GB GDDR6X
• Clock: 2625 MHz in OC mode
• Connectors: two HDMI 2.1, three DisplayPorts 1.4
• Dimensions: 310 × 144.8 × 87.5 mm

The temperatures: brown is cool

The two NF-A12x25 fans and the heatsink on the RTX 4080-Noctua do a great job. In a 20-minute stress test using 3DMark Speed Way, the card stays pleasantly cool. I run the test three times with each card:

1. With the automatic fan profile
2. Normalised to a volume of 40 decibels (dB) measured from 30 centimetres away (which equates to 77 per cent maximum fan speed on the Noctua and 43 per cent on the TUF)
3. At maximum fan speed

My tests produced the following results. In the first chart, you can see the GPUs’ temperatures when they’re under load, while the second chart shows their idle temperatures.

Compared to the TUF, the difference is enormous – especially during the normalised volume test. At 40 dB, the Noctua cools 14 per cent more efficiently.

Volume: card? What card?

The Nocuta fans produce a volume of just 40 dB at 77 per cent of their maximum speed. This gives you an idea of how quiet the card is compared to the TUF, which only spins at 43 per cent of its maximum fan speed. When the Noctua is turned up full, it produces just 44 dB of sound from 30 centimetres away. As for the TUF, it reaches a volume of 63 dB – an enormous difference. In idle mode, however, both cards are inaudible and the fans don’t move.

This quiet RTX 4080 will appeal to Noctua fans especially

The Asus GeForce RTX 4080 Noctua OC Edition is cooler and quieter than its comparable counterpart, the TUF. As a result, it’s more economical and offers up to three per cent more FPS. That said, it does cost six per cent more (as of 4 April 2023).

So is forking out the extra cash worth it? As a Noctua fan, I’m inclined to say yes. But I still think that the RTX-4080 models are generally too expensive at the moment. Sadly, I can’t do anything about market prices. What I can do is advise you to hold off from buying the cards for the time being in the hope that the prices will eventually drop.