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Fan Speeds and Noise
A dual-fan cooler gives Nvidia the freedom to deploy a fairly conservative ramp. After a brief period of constant cooling during the warm-up phase, rotational speeds increase significantly as the GPU crests 68°C. We also see that the card really is sensitive to installation in a closed case, even though our clock rate numbers showed it maintaining aggressive frequencies, regardless of environment. Maintaining those rates simply means spinning the fans faster than the same card on an open test bench, particularly when TU102 hits its target temperature.
Even with the help of a big, heavy vapor chamber, there is no headroom to make the fans spin slower. They're already tuned well, straight from Nvidia. On the other hand, though, you can crank their rotational speed up for higher GPU Boost frequencies. But do you really want that?
| Row 0 - Cell 0 | GeForce RTX 2080 FE | GeForce RTX 2080 Ti FE |
| Fan Speed (Maximum)Open Test Bench | 1907 RPM (Gaming) | 2136 RPM (Gaming) |
| Fan Speed (Average)Open Test Bench | 1887 RPM (Warmed up) | 2122 RPM (Warmed up) |
| Fan Speed (Maximum)Closed Case | 1959 RPM (Gaming) | 2281 RPM (Gaming) |
| Fan Speed (Average)Closed Case | 1942 RPM (Warmed up) | 2274 RPM (Warmed up) |
| Noise (Average) | 39.6 dB(A)Closed case | 41.9 dB(A)Closed case |
| Noise (Idle) | 31.3 dB(A) | 31.8 dB(A) |
GeForce RTX 2080 Ti has to dissipate 55W more than the vanilla 2080, which you can (unfortunately) perceive more clearly. Its almost 42 dB(A) results isn't intrusive by any stretch. But the dual-fan cooler isn't the quietest we've tested, either. Nvidia can't defy physics; with two expansion slots to work with, it gets no better than this. With that said, GeForce RTX 2080 Ti certainly fares better than GeForce GTX 1080 Ti at a similar thermal design power.
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