On most mid-range Asus graphics cards, the shroud is easy to remove. We already tried classic 120 mm fans on this card, but they do not suit its narrow, long PCB: they make the card much wider and still fail to cover the heatsink along its full length. A trio of 92 mm Noctua fans fits better on the 30 cm card, and the range includes the low-profile NF-A9x14 for noticeably quieter cooling at lower speeds overall.
I already covered the Prime GeForce RTX 5070’s power consumption, temperatures and noise levels in a review a few months ago. The unit I tested had one fan louder than the others. Because of this, the card wasn’t completely silent even at minimum speeds. It ended up being noisier than you’d expect at minimum fan speed. However, that probably wouldn’t be accepted as grounds for a warranty claim by anyone. But with most Asus cards, you can easily replace the fans because they allow the shroud to be removed without taking off the heatsink.
However, due to its dimensions, the card isn’t very suitable for standard-sized system fans. It’s quite narrow and 30 cm long. Therefore, the heatsink is too long for two 120mm fans, but for three 120mm fans, it’s too short.
The heatsink under the shroud is divided into two fin stacks. Thanks to this, two 120mm fans can be mounted on it, blowing over most of the fin area.
We already tried this in one of the previous articles. However, two 120mm fans are wider than the trio of original fans on the Prime RTX 5070, so they overhang to the side, and some air passes by the heatsink.
Today, we’ll opt for a more compact solution and replace the three stock Asus Axial-Tech fans with three low-profile 92mm Noctua NF-A9x14 PWM fans. The card won’t grow in width because of them, and they’ll also cover the fin stacks better.
These are fairly atypical fans on the market. Among 92mm models, the selection is already smaller than with classic system fans. These additionally have their profile reduced from the standard 25 mm to 14 mm. They are primarily intended for low-profile CPU coolers but are also suitable for a graphics card. On the Prime RTX 5070, they have the advantage of not protruding into the fourth slot.
You also get a pile of accessories with the fan; the package includes a NA-EC1 four-pin extension cable, a NA-RC7 adapter for reducing voltage and thus fan speeds, a NA-YC1 four-pin splitter, four NA-AV1 anti-vibration mounts, and four classic screws for plastic.
- NA-RC7 Low-Noise Adaptor (L.N.A.)
- NA-YC1 4-pin PWM splitter cable
- NA-EC1 30cm extension cable
- 4x NA-AV1 anti-vibration mounts
- Fan screws
Fan specs:
| Size (Form factor) | 92 × 92 × 14 mm |
| Speed range | 0 – 2200 rpm |
| Airflow (max.) | 50.5 m³/h (29.72 CFM) |
| Acoustical noise (max.) | 19.9 dB(A) |
| Static pressure (max.) | 1.64 mm H₂O |
| Rated voltage | 12 V |
| Input power (typical) | 1.32 W |
| Connector | 4-pin |
| Colour | Brown |
| Warranty | 6 years |
It is also manufactured in a black variant, the NF-A9x14 HS-PWM chromax.black.swap, with replaceable anti-vibration pads. And I’d probably recommend opting for that one because it has a higher operating speed range. It works in the range of 0-2500 rpm, while the variant in the company colours has an operating speed range of 0–2200 rpm.
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Love this content.
Glad to this performed comparable to the A12X25. Interested to see how the A9X25 would improve the performance.
Some tests with the NF-A9x25 fans should be published this Friday, if nothing goes wrong. 🙂