Nvidia RTX 3080 Founders Edition Review

We take our noise measurements with the sound meter positioned 1 foot from the graphics card. I measured the noise floor to be 32 dBA, thus anything above this level can be attributed to the graphics cards. The power supply is passive for the entire power output range we tested all graphics cards in, while all CPU and system fans were disabled. A reading under load comes from running the 3DMark Time Spy stress test for 30 minutes.

Following on from our thermal testing, in terms of overall noise from the card we measured 39dB at a distance of 30cm, with both fans spinning at 1880rpm. This is, once more, pretty much in line with the 20-series Founders Editions. However, as with the thermal performance, Nvidia has created a card that requires significantly more power than the previous generation, yet is no louder – and is still quieter than the RTX 2080 Ti.

For me, this just goes to show how good a design the new RTX 3080 is. The card is cooler and quieter than the RTX 2080 Ti, all while out-performing it and demanding 28% more power. It will be fascinating to see how Nvidia's partners fare with their custom cards.

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