RX 590 Sounds like a Jet Engine - anyone else experienced the same thing?

[robytoberts]

I recently took the plunge and upgraded my 750 ti which was beginning to chug horribly to the sapphire RX 590 Special Edition that I found an excellent deal on eBay for manufacturer refurbished.

In terms of performance, it's fantastic, I'm getting great fps on ultra settings on 1080p on a lot of the games I play (Witcher 3, Doom etc.). However, when playing games, it is incredibly loud, to the point that there's no way I could play anything without noise cancelling headphones on; it sounds like there's an industrial AC unit on my desk. I've checked the fan curve, and the fans are at about the lowest they can be whilst still giving a sensible temperature under load. I've not overclocked it at all, it's just running at stock speeds.

It's currently in a fairly small form factor case which puts it right above a hot PSU (EVGA Hadron Air), so I'm wondering whether getting a bigger case and giving it more room to breathe will bring temps and noise down or if it's just a really noisy card.

 

Was just wondering if anyone has this card or a similar sapphire card in their set up as has found the same issues. Was considering upgrading my case anyway so if its worth it I'll do it, but if it's just a hot, noisy card no matter how much air it gets, it's gonna be going back on eBay real soon.

Any help/comments would be greatly appreciated.
Cheers!

[Fasauceome]

The 590 is pretty loud. It's just an overclocked 580 at the end of the day, but the cooler designs are the same as the 580 so the increased heat output is not dealt with properly.

 

That said, the sapphire model shouldn't be obnoxiously loud, you might want to take a look at airflow in your case.

[DrMacintosh]

2 minutes ago, Fasauceome said:

That said, the sapphire model shouldn't be obnoxiously loud, you might want to take a look at airflow in your case.

Can confirm, with proper Airflow the Sapphire card is not loud, but once the fans have to spin above ~70% the card starts to become as loud as a reference blower card. Increasing airflow is the only way to get the noise level down. 

[Theguywhobea]

4 minutes ago, robytoberts said:

I recently took the plunge and upgraded my 750 ti which was beginning to chug horribly to the sapphire RX 590 Special Edition that I found an excellent deal on eBay for manufacturer refurbished.

In terms of performance, it's fantastic, I'm getting great fps on ultra settings on 1080p on a lot of the games I play (Witcher 3, Doom etc.). However, when playing games, it is incredibly loud, to the point that there's no way I could play anything without noise cancelling headphones on; it sounds like there's an industrial AC unit on my desk. I've checked the fan curve, and the fans are at about the lowest they can be whilst still giving a sensible temperature under load. I've not overclocked it at all, it's just running at stock speeds.

It's currently in a fairly small form factor case which puts it right above a hot PSU (EVGA Hadron Air), so I'm wondering whether getting a bigger case and giving it more room to breathe will bring temps and noise down or if it's just a really noisy card.

 

Was just wondering if anyone has this card or a similar sapphire card in their set up as has found the same issues. Was considering upgrading my case anyway so if its worth it I'll do it, but if it's just a hot, noisy card no matter how much air it gets, it's gonna be going back on eBay real soon.

Any help/comments would be greatly appreciated.
Cheers!

I used to have that case and I always had heat issues. I have had that same GPU as well (as long as you're talking about the dual fan nitro+ model)

 

I suspect that if you have that card it's probably not the GPU that is making that noise but it's your power supply, especially if you have the OEM power supply, what's probably happening is that now that you're drawing so much more power the little 40mm fan is having to spin up to max RPM and the OEM fan is CRAZY loud.

 

Here's a test for you. Get into a game where you would hear the noise, then reach around and press your index finger on the middle part of the fan on the back of the power supply. The fan is covered so you wont be touching the fan itself, but you'll be putting pressure on the casing of it, this should result in a noticeable sound difference. If that is the case then your problem is the PSU, not your GPU.

[NineEyeRon]

I have a 140mm intake blowing straight into the GPU space on my ITX case. It really helps keep the temps down.

[robytoberts]

1 minute ago, Theguywhobea said:

 

I suspect that if you have that card it's probably not the GPU that is making that noise but it's your power supply, especially if you have the OEM power supply, what's probably happening is that now that you're drawing so much more power the little 40mm fan is having to spin up to max RPM and the OEM fan is CRAZY loud.

 

glad you've some experience with the case! And yeah it's the dual fan nitro+ model.

 

I've done some tests artificially ramping the GPU fan up when not running any games and it does seem to be contributing a lot of the noise - however based on what you've said looks like it's only running on such high fan speeds because the case is not giving it enough air. 

 

Looks like it might be that I need to look at a different case (as I'm kind of stuck with the PSU it came with without some heavy modding) - as you've said the PSU is straining so the fan is going crazy, also the GPU is running at higher temps than necessary because the heat from the PSU is coming right beneath it.

 

 

[robytoberts]

12 minutes ago, DrMacintosh said:

Can confirm, with proper Airflow the Sapphire card is not loud, but once the fans have to spin above ~70% the card starts to become as loud as a reference blower card. Increasing airflow is the only way to get the noise level down. 

Thanks, that's good to hear. I assume you've got a sapphire card at the moment, do you know what sort of fan speed it's running at under load?

[robytoberts]

5 minutes ago, NineEyeRon said:

I have a 140mm intake blowing straight into the GPU space on my ITX case. It really helps keep the temps down.

Sadly without bending the laws of time and space I'm not sure I'm gonna get a 140mm anywhere near the GPU with the way my case is set up!

[DrMacintosh]

4 minutes ago, robytoberts said:

do you know what sort of fan speed it's running at under load?

Assuming its a Nitro+, the default fan curve is going to be very aggressive. I'm not familiar with the RPM numbers of the card though. You can fire up Wattman or HW monitor and have a look at the fan curve and see for yourself though. 

[robytoberts]

7 minutes ago, DrMacintosh said:

Assuming its a Nitro+, the default fan curve is going to be very aggressive. I'm not familiar with the RPM numbers of the card though. You can fire up Wattman or HW monitor and have a look at the fan curve and see for yourself though. 

Sorry man I should have been clearer - I was just wondering what sort of fan speeds it would be running at in a better optimised case. I could then force mine to run at those fan speeds using Wattman and see if the noise is acceptable. If that makes sense?

[Hugh54321]

I just looked up your case. Invest in a high airflow case with a mesh front. I have a mesh front case with 4X140mm fans. No heat or noise problems on my desk. Fans dont have to be high speed. If I were to do it again I would go 2X140 on top and 3X120 in front because I believe that would give me more airflow at the same rpm. Also bigger case = less heat and noise. This is the reason I have not gone as small as ITX yet.

[Theguywhobea]

43 minutes ago, robytoberts said:

glad you've some experience with the case! And yeah it's the dual fan nitro+ model.

 

I've done some tests artificially ramping the GPU fan up when not running any games and it does seem to be contributing a lot of the noise - however based on what you've said looks like it's only running on such high fan speeds because the case is not giving it enough air. 

 

Looks like it might be that I need to look at a different case (as I'm kind of stuck with the PSU it came with without some heavy modding) - as you've said the PSU is straining so the fan is going crazy, also the GPU is running at higher temps than necessary because the heat from the PSU is coming right beneath it.

 

 

Yeah not the greatest case for airflow. However, if you don't need the hard drive cage you can peel off the plastic front, then drill out the rivets holdings the cage in. Now you can fit a 120MM fan in the front as well.

 

As for the PSU you have two options, replace it with a different model, I can't remember what the replacement was but I remember replacing mine. Second option is to replace the fan inside the current PSU, just be careful you don't replace it with a fan that can't move as much air, since then you're PSU will just overheat.

[NineEyeRon]

1 hour ago, Hugh54321 said:

This is the reason I have not gone as small as ITX yet.

This is why the Nano S exists, perfect compromise.

 

Its tiny but lots of room.

[robytoberts]

Cheers for all the help!

 

In the end I contacted the seller and they agreed to do a full refund. I think for now I'll stick to my ailing 750ti and look to upgrade when I can do it properly with a new case/psu/both