PNY GTX 950 2GB and GTX 960 4GB XLR8 OC Gaming Review

Our acoustic measurements are less precise on this mid-range test system, the noise floor of the totally quiet testing room is 35 dBA as measured with a Benetech GM1351 Digital Sound Level Meter.

We take our measurements with the decibel meter protruding off the front-top section of the chassis, overhanging by exactly 1 inch. The underlying noise level of the system, generated by the 800 RPM Noctua case fans and H100i with fixed 700RPM fans is 39 dBA, thus anything above this level can be attributed to the graphics card since the PSU is passive for most of it's power capability.

Noise levels were measured after 10 minutes of load under three scenarios: Furmark GPU stress test, Unigine Valley looping at the Extreme HD preset and desktop idle.

PNY's cards are both inaudible under normal gaming loads, only under Furmark load were we able to observe a slight increase in noise but barely noticeable at a slight distance. For reference fan speeds were 33-35% (1150~1250) under Unigine Valley load and 42% under Furmark load (1450 RPM), at idle the fans turned off.

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