Nvidia RTX 3080 Ti Review ft. Gigabyte, Inno3D, Palit

Following on from our stock thermal and acoustic testing, here we re-test the operating temperature of the GPU, but with noise levels normalised to 40dBa. This allows us to measure the efficiency of the overall cooling solution as varying noise levels as a result of more aggressive fan curves are no longer a factor.

Noise-normalised testing is where we get the most apples-to-apples comparison, but do bear in mind different power limits can still affect things. That's proven by the Gaming OC's OC BIOS running 1C hotter than the card's Silent BIOS, despite both using the same fan speed – the OC BIOS has a 370W power limit, compared to 350W for the Silent BIOS. The same also goes for the GameRock OC, with its OC BIOS targeting 400W compared to 370W for the Silent BIOS. At the very top, the iChill X4 is suffering slightly, again with a large delta between the GPU and hot spot temperatures.

Noise-normalised memory temperatures meanwhile are mostly fine. Gigabyte is once again leading the pack, with both its BIOS keeping the memory at 76C when noise-normalised, while Palit saw a 6C delta between its two BIOS. The iChill X4's memory hit 90C, though that was still cooler than the Founders Edition.

Update 20/07/21: Inno3D have been in touch and sent us a second iChill X4 to test – the noise-normalised GPU thermal results of which are below. Noise-normalised memory temperatures remained the same.

Once more, the hot spot temperature is significantly reduced with our new sample. The iChill X4 still sits atop the chart, so it ran hottest when noise-normalised, but the delta between the GPU and hot spot temperatures is significantly reduced now.

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