Asus cards such as the Prime GeForce RTX 5070 allow easy removal of the shroud with the fans, without removing the heatsink itself. This opens room for experimentation with cooling.We will find out how much you can gain by replacing stock fans with a pair of 120mm Arctic P12 Pro A-RGB fans. We will measure operating characteristics from 20 to 100% fan speed and see how much the card’s noise level drops at identical temperatures.
I discussed the operating characteristics of the Prime GeForce RTX 5070 in a review a few months ago. The sample I tested had one fan noisier than the others. Because of that, the card was not completely quiet even at minimum speeds. The card was more audible than it could have been. However, this would probably not be accepted as a reason for an RMA. With most Asus cards, though, you can easily replace the fans, because they allow the shroud to be removed without taking off the heatsink.
The Prime RTX 5070 is 30 cm long, but relatively narrow. That means that for active cooling of the heatsink, a trio of fans with an impeller diameter of 9–10 cm is best suited. But you can also use a pair of larger fans.
The heatsink under the shroud is divided into two fin stacks. Thanks to this, two 120mm fans can be mounted so that they blow over most of the fin area.
In recent tests, we tried sets of three smaller 92mm fans. First, we replaced the trio of Asus Axial-Fan units with three low-profile 92mm Noctua NF-A9x14 fans and Noctua NF-A9 fans with the standard 25mm thickness, and then tested the card with a trio of Arctic P9 PWM PST fans using fluid dynamic bearings.
Today we return to testing the card with a pair of 120mm fans. In one of the previous articles, we already tried a pair of Noctua NF-A12x25 and NF-A12x25 G2 fans. Two 120mm fans are, however, wider than the original trio of fans on the Prime RTX 5070, so they protrude to the sides and part of the airflow bypasses the heatsink.
Today we will mount two more affordable 120mm Arctic P12 Pro A-RGB fans onto the cooler. The black version already went through the standard fan testing methodology on HWCooling in July. In addition to it, Arctic also offers a white version, on which we will test how it handles cooling the Asus Prime RTX 5070.
Arctic offers the P12 Pro A-RGB fans both individually and in an economical three-pack. We bought them directly from Arctic’s store, where the three-pack paradoxically costs less than two individual units.
The fans come in a simple box. Inside, besides the fans themselves, there are only three small bags containing four screws each for mounting.
Some Arctic models carry the PWM PST suffix. This stands for PWM Sharing Technology. If a fan has PST in its designation, it means it includes an additional splitter on the fan connector. Thanks to this, multiple fans can be daisy-chained together to share the same PWM control signal. The cabling is also more flexible and easier to hide under a shroud compared to the Noctua fans connected via the supplied splitters
Another way to control multiple fans at once is a different type of splitter, which Arctic also offers. Their 4-pin PWM Fan Splitter allows up to four fans to be connected at once. The result is more compact and, compared to chained splitters, also less prone to failure due to poor contact or a connector coming loose somewhere in the chain.
Fan specifications:
| Size (Form factor) | 120 × 20 × 25 mm |
| Speed range | 0–3000 rpm |
| Airflow (max.) | 131 m³/h (77 CFM) |
| Static pressure (max.) | 6.9 mm H₂O |
| Rated voltage | 12 V |
| Current | 0,33 A |
| Connector | 4-Pin fan plug + 4-pin fan socket 3-pin ARGB plug + 3-pin ARGB socket |
| Colour | White |
| Warranty | 6 years |
Included accessories:
- 12× fan screws
The fans were mounted using the NA-SAV4 universal silicone spikes from Noctua, which already have mounts for fans with heights of 10, 14, 15, 20, and 25 mm.
First, we will look at how the card performed across the full range of operating speeds with the stock fans, and then go through the operating characteristics of the card with the Arctic P12 Pro A-RGB fans.
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Thats a realy interesting build! Great job! I would like to use this for my newest build. Are the files available? Oh, and would you please provide the final dimensions of the card after installation of the kit? width, hight, length. Or better, by how much inceses the cards width and hight? I can fit 151mm width cards to my case.
Thanks for the compliment. Yes, Adam designed a really nice fan mount. But if I’m not mistaken, the issue was that it couldn’t be exported directly from the software he used? I vaguely remember something like that being mentioned somewhere. At the same time, he did promise that he could provide the files. Personally, I don’t have any further details on this and can’t promise anything, but it’s possible that Adam will see this comment and share the 3D model files himself. It’s a bit up in the air—we’ll see. Adam no longer works for HWCooling, so it mainly depends on when (and if) he finds the time for it. 🙂
A few years ago I managed to get a cheap Acer-branded OEM RTX 3080 and did a similar deshroud mod. I had fond memories of that card, was quite a fun mod to do (I did also make a custom copper backplace for it and managed to re-use the decorative Geforce logo). I didn’t do much controlled testing, but subjectively, with a slight undervolt and overclock, the card under full load was no louder than the rest of the components in the case.
Picture for reference:
https://i.imgur.com/IHUrmV4.jpeg
Thank you for the info and for sharing the photos. The result looks great. The cooler shroud looks very presentable, and I can easily imagine that a lot of effort went into its production. 🙂
This cannot be real ! I bought a Asus Prime 5070 and was looking for a benchmark about 3x92mm Arctic vs 3x92mm Noctua vs 2x120mm Arctic pro vs 2x120mm Noctua vs stock in terms of noise-normalized performance. Lo and behold exactly this has been extensively tested by hwcooling ! I so thankful ! I’ll go for 2x120mm Arctic pro.
BTW for those looking for 3d print files there are very similar prints at makerworld.com
like this one https://makerworld.com/fr/models/1792416-asus-prime-5080-deshroud-5070-5070ti-kit?from=search
or this one (should be compatible, not specifically mentioned to be 5070 compatible) https://makerworld.com/fr/models/1161117-asus-prime-rtx-5070-ti-5080-deshroud-bracket?from=search#profileId-1167385
but if anyone finds the exact files for this review please answer me.
Thanks for the comment. You definitely won’t make a mistake with the Arctic P12 Pro fans. If the shroud or fan mount is well sealed against the heatsink fins, the results should be very attractive. 🙂