Hands-On With The Chonky ASUS GeForce RTX 4080 Noctua Edition Graphics Card, It’s Massive, Cool & Silent!
ASUS is showing off its beefy GeForce RTX 4080 Noctua Edition graphics card that everyone is talking about at CES, so here we are with it hands-on.
The ASUS GeForce RTX 4080 Noctua Edition graphics card is the strongest card in the RTX 40 series with the aim of being cooler and quieter at the same time!
In the press release that ASUS sent us a few days ago, the company stated that the GeForce RTX 4080 Noctua Edition graphics card aims to be the coolest and quietest design of all. Official test results show that the card peaks at just 61C while maintaining ultra-low noise temperatures, and this is when the card is running at its maximum TDP of 320W. That’s pretty impressive, but we also have to give credit to the main component that makes this feat possible, the NF-A12-x25 fans from Noctua.
As expected, the ASUS GeForce RTX 4080 Noctua graphics card is a juggernaut with over 4.3 heatsink mounting slots attached to it. From the top shroud to the backplate, the card is very well put together and wrapped in the traditional Noctua colors that fans have come to love over the years. Now I’d absolutely love it if we had one of those Chromax Black fans or the ability to switch fans from the shroud, but if there’s a demand for it, ASUS could certainly consider that option for future variations. Let us know in the poll at the end of this article if you want to see such models from ASUS.
With that said, the card has two standard Noctua NF-A12X25 fans underneath the die-cast aluminum shroud that resembles an owl. This is a throwback to ASUS’ older ROG STRIX models and also matches the owl theme in Noctua’s logo, which is a really cool aspect. In addition to the massive heat sink that runs through the card with several heat pipes, VRMs have additional heatsinks covering them and providing additional cooling. An additional aspect that keeps this card so cool is its new vapor chamber design that surrounds the GPU and VRAM.
The PCB is a full custom design, using high-end components, and while ASUS hasn’t confirmed any clocks yet, we should definitely expect ASUS to offer an OC edition of this card to make full use of that thermal headroom. that this card boasts so much.
Having a PWM fan design also ensures that users can switch between custom profiles or they can also use the dual BIOS switch featured on the card for smooth operation or the standard performance profile that would still maintain that low output of noise, but with a slightly cold operation. It also uses a full-length alloy backplate and again the choice of material is impeccable. We were also able to spot at least 8 heat pipes, although there could be more. Display outputs include 2 HDMI ports and triple DP.
Now there’s no word yet on availability or pricing, but we could see a launch within this quarter. Buyers should expect to pay a premium price point of around US$1,200 MSRP of the GeForce RTX 4080 for ASUS’ Noctua Edition graphics card.
What do you want to see in future ASUS x Noctua graphics card models? Share this story
I tweet
