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Fans & Noise
Fan Control & Fan Curves
Under a gaming workload, the difference between running on an open test bench and inside of a closed case is apparent in our charts, and audible as well. The start-up pulses are a bit clumsy, compelling us to wish for stronger hysteresis control.
Since the GPU stays cooler during our stress test, the fans spin a bit slower as well.
Noise
On the first page, you may have noticed a "Custom-Made Proprietary Measurement Chamber" in the test setup table. We're often asked about the minimum measurable noise level in that room. So, today we include a control reading for reference.
In our gaming loop and on an open test bench, we end up with almost 38.4 dB(A). That's acceptable for a two-slot GeForce GTX 1080 Ti armed with two fans. This goes to show, however, that slimming the board down does have consequences. Greater airflow ultimately has to compensate for reduced cooler surface area.
The measured value would go up to 40.9 dB(A) in a closed case if we set the fan speeds in our test chamber to a fixed value.
During the stress test, we measure 38.9 dB(A) on an open test bench and 40.5 dB(A) in a closed case. That's a good result; it's only slightly above the values observed during the gaming loop. The reason why the value on our open test bench is a bit higher here than it was during the gaming scenario traces back to the voltage converters, which are slightly louder under duress, even if they aren't explicitly bothersome, per se.
What you do hear across the the entire spectrum, however, are the fan motor and bearing noises. They aren't extreme, but you will notice them.
The GeForce GTX 1080 Ti EXOC has a compact cooler that conceals the physical disadvantages of a two-slot solution quite well, so long as you stick with KFA2/Galax's moderate factory settings. The result is not super quiet, but due to a fairly neutral sound characteristic, the outcome is still acceptable.
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