Seems a little revealing that they tout the clearance and not the difference in efficiency.

Does it? Not everything is a sign of deception.

Even if it is the case, and not simple an omission to focus the narrative, does it matter? Case fans pull what 4 watts? 5 watts? Who cares if it pulls 200 milliwatts more than a competitor when it's cooling a GPU and CPU that consume more than a hundred times what it can consume

>Case fans pull what 4 watts? 5 watts?

That's really high. Like usually they are 100-150mA (so sub 2W) Lots of controllers would be 1A max.

The tolerances are for noise mostly. I'd consider the noise (and longevity) the single most important part of fans (else most fans can spin close to 3k rpm and cool)

The question is not about saving milliwatts-hours on your electricity bill, it is about where these milliwatts are going.

One is heat, heat is not great, it puts more stress on components, mechanical and electrical, reducing longevity.

Another, maybe more important is noise. The power that goes into making noise is power that is wasted, noise is inefficiency, and reducing noise is an efficiency problem.

Case fans pull what 4 watts? 5 watts? Who cares if it pulls 200 milliwatts more than a competitor when it's cooling a GPU and CPU that consume more than a hundred times what it can consume

Yes, exactly. The high precision is marketing, not something needed in the product.

My understanding is that the precision is supposed to help with noise. Less turbulence, etc.

FWIW, in my setup (10th gen i5, RTX 5070 Ti in an old Define R3 case), the 12 cm Noctua G2 fans run quieter and have a much less obnoxious noise than the old P/F series, which wipe the floor with the Arctic fan I bought for a computer that lives in the basement and sounds like it's about to take off.

A 5 pack of arctic pwm fans was 25€. I was considering noctua but the G2 fans were always delayed. But I doubt I would have paid 150-200€ for 5 fans.

They do have the most insane pricing. I could see myself buying some in the 15€ range but not 35€.

You lead me to believe that they are targeting a niche "audiophile" market and probably not a commercial market. The concern in the commercial market would be energy savings vs. capital expenditure. Some commercial spaces actually introduce white noise into spaces to increase occupant density.

They target people that want quiet/silent cases, obviously not commerical, unless you're going after the long life/warranty service. Or you go for their industrial line.

They are targeting people who want nearly-silent fans for computing devices and will pay considerably higher than average prices for them. I have several of them, and they are vastly quieter than the competition. Wouldn't be worth it in a commercial space, but I want my house to be quiet.

Audiophile products are a known scam.

This is an enthusiast product, as evidenced by the premise that you care about color-coordinating the inside of your computer.

Tighter tolerance isn't universally a good thing. It might make the fan more susceptible to damage due to mishandling or dust. They might be selling a fan that has a shorter useful life for no real benefit.

I take it you've never dealt with Noctua for warranty issues (or any issues).

They go above and beyond.