Performance Testing

Please refer to the dedicated test setup page here as it applies to this review as well and I did not want to go over it separately again to save on review space.


Let's remind ourselves that the fan is rated for 450 (+/- 20%) to 1700 (+/- 10%) RPM. The provided sample, and this is all of one data point at each measurement thus, went from 1665 RPM at 100% PWM duty cycle all the way down to 417 RPM at 6% before turning off. Indeed, these fans will turn off at lower duty cycles, as Noctua has promised, provided you have a complying PWM controller. The fan re-started at 16% PWM duty cycle and moved consistently back up to 100% with minimal hysteresis in the RPM vs. PWM curve. Speaking of which, it is fairly linear until ~20% duty cycle, which is good in terms of being able to predict the fan's behavior by simply setting a fan curve for linear responses over the long ~20%–100% duty cycle range. The fan having the ability to stop spinning completely also means you can have a system as quiet as ambient if there is no other source of noise, and the graph above goes to 19 dBA because that is the floor's ambient in my anechoic chamber for testing.

Context is needed to talk more about the fan's performance and noise, so I have below comparison charts for some fans tested so far at set RPM values (or as near as they can get to those).


I have included fans in charts where the rated RPM is within 50 RPM of the chart cutoff point, which means that some fans are in specific charts only if their rated speed is over 50 RPM off from a threshold value (Corsair SP120 RGB, for example) or they simply do not slow down enough (NB-eLoop B12-4, for example). Similarly, the specific RPM values chosen reflect usage scenarios most popular with watercooling even though some fans (the Noctua NF-A12x25, for instance) go higher. The charts are to be considered for comparison within this result set only and are not to be compared with results from another test elsewhere owing to different testing conditions.

Forget the part where the Noctua NF-P12 redux-1700 PWM fan technically launched last year, especially since the underlying fan (NF-P12) has been around for a while now. It is all the more surprising thus how relevant this fan still is, especially for watercooling. There are definitely fans that are objectively better from a noise or airflow performance point of view, and even from a balanced perspective (where the NF-A12x25 is excellent), but the NF-P12 redux-1700 PWM does pretty decently overall, definitely so towards higher fan speeds. It is louder than I like, but part of the noise profile comes from the airflow being pushed out. When we slow the fan down, however, things get relatively worse to where it is louder than competitors that now push more air too. Keep this in mind, especially if you are looking for something more in one way or another. This fan seems to be at its best at ~1300 RPM, which is probably why Noctua sells specific versions rated at that very fan speed as well. Pricing will be key thus, and we will get into that on the next page.