Power, Temperature, Noise
You wouldn't expect these next-gen cards to be extremely frugal even though they're built on a 12nm process. Having huge dies and a number of cores that can work concurrently means the power profile is similar to the cream of the GTX 10-series.
The cooler is more adept, however, and manages to keep both new RTX GPUs at sensible temperatures. What's more, backing up some of Nvidia's assertions, they're pretty damn quiet, too.
A decibel rating is only one factor in how you perceive noise. Both cards' fans spin at 1,500rpm at idle, rising to 2,300rpm when under the pump. The noise is more of a quiet whoosh than anything annoying. That said, we're still adamant that a well-constructed partner card will be able to keep the GPUs cooler and quieter.
