The Austrian company Noctua is one of the leaders in the market of air cooling systems. Many enthusiasts use processor coolers and case fans from this manufacturer. These products have a unique design and a special color range. And the appearance and uniform style of your PC is important for many users. Now they have the opportunity to purchase a special video card in the style of Noctua. ASUS together with the Austrian manufacturer released a special version of GeForce RTX 3070.

GeForce RTX 3070 Noctua Edition with powerful cooling and two large fans claims to be the quietest model in its class. The video card is available in two variants — with standard frequencies and with factory overclocking. In our review, we will get acquainted with the older modification of the ASUS GeForce RTX 3070 Noctua OC Edition 8GB GDDR6. Let’s study its technical features, check the temperature and noise characteristics in game mode and test the overclocking potential.

ASUS RTX3070-O8G-NIGHT

The video card comes in a large box with a carrying handle. Note the LHR abbreviation in the corner — this means that there is a hardware protection against mining with a reduced Ethereum hash rate.

The device is securely fixed in a foamed polyethylene form. The package is minimal — an instruction manual and a software disc.

GeForce RTX 3070 Noctua Edition impresses with its dimensions. With a length of 31 cm, the thickness of the ASUS is almost 9 cm, which means that the video card occupies four expansion slots.

There are longer video cards, but this is the record holder for thickness. Only two fans are used, but they are real giants, in which Noctua «pinwheels» are easily recognized. The casing of the video card uses a gray-brown color, following the general style of Noctua products.

A massive radiator with heat pipes is visible under the casing. Even from the outside, the cooling system commands respect.

ASUS and Noctua logos are printed on the side of the casing. Two eight-pin power connectors are provided. The BIOS switch is located near the connectors. The video card has two firmwares — Performance Mode with higher fan speeds, and Quiet Mode with reduced speeds for maximum noise reduction.

The back side of the board is covered with a metal plate that protects the textolite from bending. Considering the weight of 1.5 kg, this is an important structural element, since the board can bend under the weight of the cooling. Unfortunately, ASUS did not provide additional support. The side «window» reduces air resistance without interfering with the directional airflow created by case fans.

There are three DisplayPort and two HDMI ports on the back panel.

To evaluate the dimensions of the ASUS GeForce RTX 3070 Noctua Edition, we present a photo of the video card against the background of the reference version of the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070.

You can also appreciate the visual difference in the size of the fans.

Now it’s time to disassemble the video card and study the cooling features in more detail. The cover with fans can be removed without completely disassembling the device, which will allow cleaning from dust without damaging the warranty seal. It is only necessary to carefully disconnect the power supply of the fans from the board using tweezers.

The video card uses two large 120 mm Noctua NF-A12x25 fans, which have long proven themselves as quiet and highly efficient models. The diameter of the impeller is close to 110 mm, the blades are made of a special polymer material. SSO2 hydrodynamic bearing with long service life and low noise is used. In fact, these are some of the best fans on the market, offering the perfect combination of features — powerful airflow, low noise, and high durability. Noctua NF-A12X25 can operate in the range from 450 to 2000 rpm.

ASUS claims that the design of the heatsink was developed together with Noctua specialists to optimize the position of the heatpipes and the density of the fins.

The design includes three sections of plates and five heat pipes.

The heat from the graphics chip is dissipated through a plate with a smooth polished base. Around the base there is a plate for heat dissipation of the memory chips. In the small side section there are contact planes for cooling elements of the power circuit.

Several power lines are cooled by a separate small radiator. This approach to separate VRM cooling is implemented in ASUS DUAL-RTX3070-O8G.

The Noctua Edition video card is based on the ASUS TUF Gaming RTX 3070 design.

The processor is powered by 10 phases, the memory by two.

Processor marking GA104-302-A1. It belongs to the new chips with LHR (Low Hash Rate) protection, which limits Ethereum mining performance to 25 MH/s. Before us is exclusively a gaming product, which allows us to hope for minimal interest from miners.

Samsung K4Z80325BC-HC14 GDDR6 memory chips are unsoldered on the board.

The base frequency of the GPU is 1500 MHz with an average Boost Clock of 1815 MHz (standard value 1725 MHz). The memory does without overclocking, the data exchange frequency is equivalent to 14000 MHz. The power limit has been increased from 220 to 240 W.

By default, the video card works in Performance Mode and all the main tests were performed in this mode. In the 3DMark Time Spy stress test, the GPU warmed up to 60-64 °C with fan speeds of 1300-1500 rpm. Switching to Quiet Mode raised the temperature in this test to 68 °C with a fan speed of no more than 970 rpm. These characteristics are obtained in an open case. Depending on the design of the case and its ventilation, the results may differ, but the cooler will still cope with cooling in silent mode.

In games, GPU frequencies exceeded the declared Boost Clock. The operating frequency range was 1920–1950 MHz. Among the hottest games was the action-packed Days Gone in 4K, but even in it the chip’s operating temperatures were around 60 °C with fan speeds below 1500 rpm.

The temperature of the hot spot of the GPU crystal reached 75 °C.

Overclocking potential at the level of the oldest GeForce RTX 3070 modifications from ASUS. The final frequencies are not much different from the results of ASUS TUF-RTX3070-O8G-GAMING — the base frequency is increased by 120 MHz, the memory is accelerated to 16342 MHz.

At a base frequency of 1620 MHz with increased power limit, the actual GPU frequency was kept at 2070-2085 MHz. The speed of the fans is fixed at 1500 rpm, which made it possible to maintain the temperature within 60 °C.

Only Days Gone in 4K warmed up the video card to 63 °C (Hot Spot 74 °C).