Gigabyte GTX 680 Super Over Clock 2GB Graphics Card Review

Noise is generally the bain of most consumers lives and in the hope of finding the quietest operation, we feel it’s necessary to show you the audio level of components. We use the same components throughout this test and use a sound level meter to record the audio level of the system with a passive graphics card installed. Once we have the level recorded with the passive card, we continue to change the graphics card for the one that we are testing. Due to us having the audio level recorded before installation, it gives us a guide to work with and shows that anything over our initial level is an audio gain.

Acoustics are probably one of the most talked about areas of this card due to the Windforce 5x cooler design that has been opted for. What we find is a two part story with the card only outputting as much noise as the other contenders in its range when idle. When we put the card under full load we do find that the noise levels are a little higher than other cards in its category by around 10dBA which is not as high as we were expecting.