After testing the low-profile Noctua NF-A12x15 fans, we moved on to another appealing alternative for replacing the stock fans on the Asus TUF GeForce RTX 5070 Ti—a set of three Arctic P12 Slim fans, which you might already know from HWCooling tests. While they don’t outperform Asus’s original solution, which is tailor-made for the heatsink, they deliver slightly better results than the Noctua low-profile fans—and at a much lower price.
And now, a quick summary of the key points in two charts. Fan RPMs are similar at comparable temperatures, but unfortunately, overall noise level—including fan noise—is noticeably higher.
The original Asus fans, with their higher blade count and outer ring, still handle the heatsink best. At the same temperatures, they run at lower RPMs and are several decibels quieter.
Standard fans, which are generally designed for system airflow rather than large heatsinks with dense fin stacks, simply don’t perform as well. Unless your card’s original fans develop issues like bearing wear or strange noises, swapping them for Arctic P12s won’t really improve things. However, if the stock fans fail over time, Arctic P12s are a much more affordable replacement compared to custom fans that often fit only a single generation of cards from one manufacturer.
Compared to Noctua’s low-profile fans, the Arctics need to spin faster to match temperatures, though they’re still slightly quieter. In two of the three test scenarios, the difference is negligible. In the F1 benchmark—where the Noctua fans spun up a bit more and temperatures dropped by about a degree—the gap was more noticeable.
While the Arctics only come out ahead by a small margin, the price difference is significant—you can buy a three-pack of Arctics for the cost of a single NF-A12x15. Noctua does offer better accessories and likely superior longevity, but for most people in this scenario, paying extra for Noctua simply doesn’t make sense.
Keep in mind that we’re talking about low-profile fans, which usually make sense only if there’s a good reason – for instance, when there’s no space under the card for standard 25 mm units. In most other cases, a taller fan will handle a dense heatsink more effectively.
English translation and edit by Jozef Dudáš
I don’t understand this statement: “Standard fans, which are generally designed for system airflow rather than large heatsinks with dense fin stacks, simply don’t perform as well.”
Then, a configuration of 2x NF-A12x25 is shown to beat the default fans.
You’re right—the wording should have said “typical slim-profile case fans,” not “standard fans”. Those are built for general case airflow, not for pushing air through tight, dense fin stacks. Dense heatsinks need higher static pressure, which is why the stock Axial-tech fans—designed for this—do better than slim case fans.
A pair of NF-A12x25s is a different story. They’re full-height 25 mm fans with much higher static pressure, so on the same heatsink they can beat the stock fans at similar temperatures. There’s no contradiction: the warning was about slim case fans, while the other test used pressure-optimized 25 mm fans.
In a later test, I also compared an Arctic P12 to the smaller-diameter Axial-tech fans on the Prime RTX 5070 (one of the three had rattling bearings). At roughly the same temperatures, even the P12 was quieter than those lower-quality individual units, so in this case it would make a suitable replacement.
https://www.hwcooling.net/en/asus-prime-geforce-rtx-5070-deshroud-with-dual-arctic-p12-slim/