Strapping 11 fans and a 360mm AIO to an RTX 3080 sounds crazy until you see the 30°C temp drop — modded GPU delivered less than 5 FPS uplift at turbojet noise levels

TrashBench recently decided to test whether adding more and more fans to what used to be one of the best graphics cards would improve its performance. The result wasn’t significantly faster performance, sadly, even when the thermal headroom was used for overclocking (vs. stock OC). Nevertheless, lessons were learned, and the self-described “punk-rock GPU death lab” was still proud of the temperature reductions, plus the GPU contraption’s “awesome” looks and sounds.

The experiment began with an overview of the Asus ROG GeForce RTX 3080, a nice example of the breed. But it was a choice that would perhaps end up making the 11-fan wonder look like less of an accomplishment. TrashBench stated the goal was to add more and more fans, plus duct tape and cable ties, then see whether the reduced temperatures from the boosted airflow result in more frames.

After cleaning and repasting the guinea pig GPU, a baseline was set with the stock cooler. Running 100% fan speed on the Asus ROG resulted in a stable temperature of 63°C (down from 70°C) during stress testing with the Unigine Heaven benchmark.

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Replacing the Asus ROG cooling shroud with a trio of Arctic case fans dropped the reported GPU temperatures to a stable 52 degrees Celsius. That’s a decent result. Next, the trio of case fans was swapped for thicker server fans, shaving another 2 degrees Celsius off the GPU temperature, bringing it to 50 degrees Celsius precisely. Duct tape was added to prevent air venting from the sides of the server fans. Oops, the GPU temperature actually stabilized at a warmer 54 degrees Celsius.

So, that was the end of fans-at-the-front modifications. TrashBench next looked at adding a quintet of tiny Arctic server fans that run at up to 15,000 RPM along the top of the card. This jet-engine-soundalike configuration didn’t shift the needle, though. The RTX 3080 still wouldn’t hold below 50 degrees Celsius when tested for any length of time.

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SOTTR 1440p tests
Cooling config	Performance
Stock	178 FPS
11 fans	180 FPS
Stock OC	183 FPS
11 fans OC	187 FPS

Trying backplate fans was the next idea. After another ineffective endeavor, though, TrashBench decided to upgrade the backplate fan to an AiO 360mm cooler. Wow – a new best was recorded with this setup, with the GPU reporting a top stable temperature of just 41 degrees Celsius in Heaven.

Momentarily happy with this low-temperature achievement, the tech tinkerer decided to check whether benchmark runs in Shadow of the Tomb Raider showed any benefit. There were some performance uplifts charted, but only very modest, as you can see from our results table, which even includes cases where the newfound overclocking headroom was taken advantage of.

TrashBench concluded with some positives. “It nearly cut the temperatures in half. It looks awesome. It sounds awesome,” underlined our hardware hacking hero. However, the tech tinkerer kept it real by adding “And it got me 2 FPS. So, not worth it.” In some ways, then, the good quality of the stock triple-fan Asus ROG RTX 3080 graphics card detracted from the 11 extra-fan hijinks.