graphics card which one ?

No it doesnt, 35db is 35db. It doesnt matter where its measured from. A yateloon at 500rpm will be virtually silent. the stock ATI fan at 40% ~4500rpm will be loud. Theres no point in arguing that.

yep, but usually they have open cases or just no case at all.

they who? certainly not any sane user. Certainly not any test using good scientific testing methods.

the reviewers... however i said "usually". that's why different tests = completely different results by wide margins. a closed case makes a big difference. measuring the noise always in the right (same) places makes a big difference.... etc... thats why i choose this review: closed case, noise measured frontally at 1mt of distance from the case. as you can see the 4850 is not the most noisy card at all. it's one of the most silent ones on idle and even under load it produces lower noise than slower cards like the nvidia 8500gt or the 9800gtx

Yes, the card is quiet when its idle. Although the temperatures are very very high, negating the quietness of its fans idle speed. by their own test, techpowerup noted a 74c idle temp, and 96c load temp. thats just plain unacceptable. But once again, stock coolers cannot even begin to compare to a good 3rd party HSF.

even revving up the fan when idle at same speeds of when the card is under load, it wont be the loudest card tested. it will be slightly louder (2db) than the gtx 280 or the 9600gt turbo and quieter than the 7600, the 3850. thr 8500gy... etc. with much lower temps.

Im not comparing it to other stock coolers, I dont care how loud any other stock cooler is (they are all too loud). I am comparing it to how it stacks up against a 3rd party HSF.. in which the stock HSF on the 4850 fails miserably. Anyway you look at it 96c @ load the stock cooler, with supposedly "fixed" drivers, is just unacceptable! a $30 3rd party HSF with a 500rpm fan can achieve temperatures 40c lower than the stock cooler at 4500rpm. The ending note on most review sites for the 4850 is that the stock HSF is just barely adequate to cool it.

i dont think so coz the temp go down a lot (by 20, 30, 40 C) as soon as the fan is set to manual. so i think it's more a software problem (thresholds?). also the CHIP was made to work at high temps... however 3rd party HSFs are ALWAYS recommended for ALL video cards, even the dual slot ones, and CPUs coz the stock HSFs really suck.