Noise
We want to shed some analytical light on the system noise levels generated when high-end cards are installed. To this end, we're using a PCE-318 noise meter placed near front of a Corsair Obsidian chassis that has the side panel on and card(s) screwed in. Only the test system is running in a quiet room with a sound floor of under 30dB. Decibel readings are noted for idle, load (COD: Black Ops) and super-load (FurMark) after 10 minutes have elapsed.
It's clearly a challenge to make a better-than-reference cooler for the GTX 560 Ti. We've now tested three variants from MSI, KFA2 and Gigabyte, and while MSI's Twin Frozr II is the pick up the bunch, it's still not as quiet as NVIDIA's reference design.
