Gpu cooling and noise

[Radu Steven]

I'm rebuilding my computer soon because I'm gonna replace my motherboard, the problem i run into is that my gpu is way to loud (it's an rx5500 xt but because of the junction temperature the fans kick in early), if i want to keep it cool i have to ramp the case fans up to 1300rpm(3 120mm fans from id cooling in the front) i was wondering if i should get a case with sound proofing or get a case with better airflow and better fans(nf-f12's) because the sound is bothering me

 

[joemama]

You can try running it with the case open to simulate and test if better case airflow would help.
Also how hot is the card running? I would lower the fan curve if the temperature is tolerable.

 

[claes]

I would do what @joemama said and, if you need to remove the side panel to make the card tolerable, go with a case with more airflow.

 

[Radu Steven]

You can try running it with the case open to simulate and test if better case airflow would help.
Also how hot is the card running? I would lower the fan curve if the temperature is tolerable.

It's hitting 84° on the junction and 63° on the rest of the gpu, but because the junction Is hot the fans ramp up way sooner.
I've tried open case to see if it would make a difference but nothing,
I've only seen a difference when i had the case fans running at 1300rpm but that's way too loud

I would do what @joemama said and, if you need to remove the side panel to make the card tolerable, go with a case with more airflow.

I have a deepcool matrexx 55 mesh, the front panel is all mesh so i dont think the case Is thr problem

 

[GerKNG]

keep the card at stock and undervolt it as much as possible.

you can get 20°C less on the hotspot, 25-30% less power consumption and a faster average core clock

 

[joemama]

I've tried open case to see if it would make a difference but nothing,

Then a better case airflow isn't gonna help

 

[Deleted member 205776]

I have a be quiet! Pure Base 500DX (which has a mesh front) and three Silent Wings 3 140mm PWM High-Speed fans, also from be quiet. Two front intakes, one rear exhaust. Top of the case is closed with a noise insulated top. The fans are installed with rubber mounts and pushpins to minimize vibrations.

Due to the optimized airflow of my case, and it being overall more cramped than your average midtower, I'm able to keep my intakes at 800rpm max and my exhaust at 900rpm during gaming. The fan on my CPU cooler, the NH-D15S Chromax Black, is also about 600-900rpm. All of this keeps both my GPU and CPU under 65C even in a demanding game.

The fans, due to how they're made and the mounting mechanism used, are incredibly quiet. My case fans are now as loud in gaming as my previous case fans were at idle. Meaning very quiet.

Before getting these case fans, my old Pure Wings 2 (which are low end fans not suited for a build like mine) had to spin up to 1000-1100 RPM to keep my components cool, and even at 900rpm the noise bothered me. No rubber mounts, no rubber frame, and it being installed with screws also sent a ton of vibrations through my case, amplifying noise. It was unbearable, even making me put off gaming sometimes and just go to YouTube. Not anymore with these new fans though.

===

Takeaway here is if noise bothers you, the main offender is the case fans. If you get some quality case fans built for silence (like the Silent Wings 3), and configure a more relaxed fan curve, you can find a balance of GPU cooling performance and noise. My gaming experience has been considerably improved when my PC no longer sounds like a jet engine (who would've thought?)

140mm > 120mm when it comes to both noise and cooling performance. Larger fans don't need to spin faster to move the same amount of air as a 120mm fan, thus being quieter.

Of course, if you took off your side panel and the GPU temps didn't improve at all, then the heatsink/fans on the GPU are just not enough to cool the GPU. This was the case with my Zotac 2070 Mini. No matter the airflow configuration, that card always went to over 80C in demanding titles. The massive heatsink and six direct-touch heatpipes on my 3070 Gaming X Trio even allows the GPU to be passively cooled without the fans needing to spin in some modern games maxed out at 1440p.

One more thing, I feel that your ears are more important than your GPU temperatures. If you have to lower case fan RPM to reduce noise, but make GPU temp be a bit higher, do so. Those components can take the heat for years, but you will drive yourself crazy listening to the noise for years. I've also found that RPMs above 1000 do not do anything to the cooling of my components, except introduce unneeded noise. So there are diminishing results here, find the perfect fan RPM for your configuration.

 

[HQi88]

Have you dusted or repasted your GPU? You could try that to bring temps down

 

[ADB1979]

I'm rebuilding my computer soon because I'm gonna replace my motherboard, the problem i run into is that my gpu is way to loud (it's an rx5500 xt but because of the junction temperature the fans kick in early), if i want to keep it cool i have to ramp the case fans up to 1300rpm(3 120mm fans from id cooling in the front) i was wondering if i should get a case with sound proofing or get a case with better airflow and better fans(nf-f12's) because the sound is bothering me

There are several things that make a difference, but the primary one is the model of card itself.

I spent some time reading reviews when I got my 5700XT, and for me the clear winner was the PowerColor Red Devil, the reason being is that the fans do not spin up until the GPU hits 55C.

The GPU fans do not spin up unless I am playing games or running Handbrake (using the GPU) etc, even then, when the fans do spin up, it is a pretty quiet card compared to almost everything out there, but for me was the extra 5C before the fans spin up compared to the best of the other 5700XT cards (Sapphire card spins up at 50C and as such would be on a lot more when not gaming for my ultra quiet setup).

The rest of it comes down to the case, the case location, filters/no filters, fans, fan idle speed and so on.

Mine for example is on the floor in a Fractal Design Define 7 Compact using the dust filters, 2x custom 140mm fans at the front (Arctic Cooling P12, idle @640, top out at 1,000), 1x 120mm rear exhaust (120mm Arctic Cooling F12, idle 650, tops out 1,100), passive PSU that releases its hot air into the case, top cover sealed, all rear IO coversremoved.

The system is positive pressure and a fair amount of hot air from the PSU and GPU comes out of the back of the case below and to the side of the GPU as intended, whilst the hot air from the CPU comes out via the rear exhaust as well as likely some of the hot air from the GPU, but overall more air in than out only has one place to go, the gaping holes at the back below and to the side of the GPU.

Room is currently toasty (thermometer settled on 26.5C / just shy of 80F), GPU temp @ 49C with a flat line (HWINFO64), PC is virtually silent as it is under a solid wooden desk 3ft from my ear, and has no spinning rust.

Goal complete. Silent unless gaming, headphones even on low mean that the fans are drowned out, and many people would be happy with my system with all fans maxed out.!

Yes I could drop temps and possibly perceived noise by using a different case, but the goal is noise primarily (idling) and I chose extra low noise over cooler temps, but as nothing ever overheats, this is moot.

I hope my experiences and example help you.

 

[DeathtoGnomes]

i was wondering if i should get a case with sound proofing or get a case with better airflow and better fans(nf-f12's) because the sound is bothering me

if thats the same case as in your specs, you might have your airflow configured poorly. that case can handle 6 case fans, from the images I could find, it can use 2 front intake, 3 top exhaust, and 1 read exhaust. Tools like MSI Afterburner can help change the fan curve on your GPU. Case fans plugged into the motherboard are controlled by the BIOS, unless you have a decent 3rd party program to use.

Without images and more information all I can say is check your airflow and fan curve settings. Lower temps will slow down the fans.

 

[Radu Steven]

if thats the same case as in your specs, you might have your airflow configured poorly. that case can handle 6 case fans, from the images I could find, it can use 2 front intake, 3 top exhaust, and 1 read exhaust. Tools like MSI Afterburner can help change the fan curve on your GPU. Case fans plugged into the motherboard are controlled by the BIOS, unless you have a decent 3rd party program to use.

Without images and more information all I can say is check your airflow and fan curve settings. Lower temps will slow down the fans.

I set up my case with 3 intake fans on the front and 2 on the top, but for exhaust i have a 120 at the back, but I'll see if i lower the case fan speeds, will do bad or good

 

[qubit]

Don't waste time attempting to sound proof your PC as it could be expensive and will never be enough. There will always be just enough noise coming through to bother the hell out of you. Get a quiet graphics card instead - and that's way easier than you think!

The MSI Gaming X range of cards in either NVIDIA or AMD flavour (I prefer NVIDIA) have near silent coolers whose fans don't even spin until you start a game and then so quietly, that you'll never notice. I've got the card reviewed below and even hammering it with Furmark in a quiet room it didn't make any appreciable noise, perhaps the barest whisper, plus it didn't get especially hot, either. And I'm running it in a PC with the side panel permanently off, so there's no sound proofing from the case at all.

Yes, you can have your cake and eat it.

The only thing is the dire graphics card availability and pricing situation right now, but that affects all models, not just quiet ones, so isn't an argument against it.

MSI GeForce RTX 2080 Super Gaming X Trio Review

MSI's GeForce RTX 2080 Super Gaming X Trio is the quietest RTX 2080 Super card we tested today. It not only runs quieter, but also significantly cooler than the competition. MSI still includes an overclock out of the box, and manual overclocking works very well, too.

www.techpowerup.com

 

[jboydgolfer]

proper airflow is key. a lot of people mount 6 fans, with no thought, & think 'im set'. if consideration isnt part of a Pc's fan layout, youre going to get poor results, unless you happen to get lucky.

1- buy good fans. Noctua , scythe, Phanteks, etc all make very good fans, ive got a set of ridiculously expensive Noctua's, that can run at 2500rpm & make almost no sound.
2- intake, intake ,intake. without sufficient intake, its all for nothing. usually the front bezel works good for most traditional cases. (mounting larger/better fans for intake is good)
3-exhaust, it sounds obvious, but ive seen many PC's, with 'exhaust' fans, that are facing inward.

after fan setup, assuming all components are properly cooled (TIM, thermal pads, etc), you should be at optimal conditions.

 

[qubit]

I'll second the Noctua suggestion from @jboydgolfer Absolutely superb fans.

The two big fans on my Noctua NH-D14 CPU cooler have been running at the fixed low speed setting for a full decade now and, incredibly, run just as well now as when they were new, silently and efficiently, with superb cooling ability. It just proves the lie that fans wearing out and making a stupid, irritating noise are a fact of life. Not quality ones like these. All I've done is to clean off the dust build up from time to time and that's it.

 

[ADB1979]

Don't waste time attempting to sound proof your PC as it could be expensive and will never be enough. There will always be just enough noise coming through to bother the hell out of you. Get a quiet graphics card instead - and that's way easier than you think!

The MSI Gaming X range of cards in either NVIDIA or AMD flavour (I prefer NVIDIA) have near silent coolers whose fans don't even spin until you start a game and then so quietly, that you'll never notice. I've got the card reviewed below and even hammering it with Furmark in a quiet room it didn't make any appreciable noise, perhaps the barest whisper, plus it didn't get especially hot, either. And I'm running it in a PC with the side panel permanently off, so there's no sound proofing from the case at all.

Yes, you can have your cake and eat it.

The only thing is the dire graphics card availability and pricing situation right now, but that affects all models, not just quiet ones, so isn't an argument against it.

MSI GeForce RTX 2080 Super Gaming X Trio Review

MSI's GeForce RTX 2080 Super Gaming X Trio is the quietest RTX 2080 Super card we tested today. It not only runs quieter, but also significantly cooler than the competition. MSI still includes an overclock out of the box, and manual overclocking works very well, too.

www.techpowerup.com

The problem with noise and PC's is an individuals perception of that noise and what if anything bothers them.

To the OP:

This entire subject is very very subjective and since SPCR stopped producing content (I notice that it is now back, under different management and the output is nothing like as good as it used to be) there is no go-to source for the real questions of noise and computer components, one review website is totally incomparable to the next (because of the subjectiveness of noise), so sadly all people can now really do is read/watch reviews of products and ask questions and receive answers on forums like this.

 

[qubit]

The problem with noise and PC's is an individuals perception of that noise and what if anything bothers them.

Sorry, you can't negate my comment with that statement. This card is so quiet that it's damned near silent in an open case. There's nothing subjective about that and there's no one that will prefer a noisier card to a silent one.

 

[Deleted member 205776]

Don't waste time attempting to sound proof your PC as it could be expensive and will never be enough. There will always be just enough noise coming through to bother the hell out of you. Get a quiet graphics card instead - and that's way easier than you think!

The MSI Gaming X range of cards in either NVIDIA or AMD flavour (I prefer NVIDIA) have near silent coolers whose fans don't even spin until you start a game and then so quietly, that you'll never notice. I've got the card reviewed below and even hammering it with Furmark in a quiet room it didn't make any appreciable noise, perhaps the barest whisper, plus it didn't get especially hot, either. And I'm running it in a PC with the side panel permanently off, so there's no sound proofing from the case at all.

Yes, you can have your cake and eat it.

The only thing is the dire graphics card availability and pricing situation right now, but that affects all models, not just quiet ones, so isn't an argument against it.

MSI GeForce RTX 2080 Super Gaming X Trio Review

MSI's GeForce RTX 2080 Super Gaming X Trio is the quietest RTX 2080 Super card we tested today. It not only runs quieter, but also significantly cooler than the competition. MSI still includes an overclock out of the box, and manual overclocking works very well, too.

www.techpowerup.com

I can vouch for the Gaming X series of cards, especially those that have Tri Frozr fans. They are just so damn quiet, I was amazed. My GPU went from being the loudest part of my system to being the quietest.

It is indeed a fantastic choice if you're looking for strong GPUs that have silent operation. Heck, the fans on my GPU don't even spin in some modern games with all settings cranked up at 1440p, because it's always 45-55C while the fan turn on point is at around 60C. Bonus points for my case fans which also spin up when the GPU reaches about 60C, so the entire system is quiet. Even when the GPU fans turn on, they only go to 45% max speed because that's enough to cool the GPU. MSI outfitted these cards with some seriously strong fans and heatsink. I could feel the airflow from the GPU with the side panel off as I was sitting next to it.

 

[ADB1979]

proper airflow is key. a lot of people mount 6 fans, with no thought, & think 'im set'. if consideration isnt part of a Pc's fan layout, youre going to get poor results, unless you happen to get lucky.

1- buy good fans. Noctua , scythe, Phanteks, etc all make very good fans, ive got a set of ridiculously expensive Noctua's, that can run at 2500rpm & make almost no sound.
2- intake, intake ,intake. without sufficient intake, its all for nothing. usually the front bezel works good for most traditional cases. (mounting larger/better fans for intake is good)
3-exhaust, it sounds obvious, but ive seen many PC's, with 'exhaust' fans, that are facing inward.

after fan setup, assuming all components are properly cooled (TIM, thermal pads, etc), you should be at optimal conditions.

This explains just how subjective noise is.

I have a pair of Noctua Chromax NF-A14's, yes they are good fans, but 650~rpm for me is the max that I want these to run at when the PC is idling (web browsing, watching movies etc), so there is absolutely no way that I would ever consider 2,500 rpm fans as "quiet", I think that 1,200rpm is "loud".!!!

 

[Deleted member 205776]

This explains just how subjective noise is.

I have a pair of Noctua Chromax NF-A14's, yes they are good fans, but 650~rpm for me is the max that I want these to run at when the PC is idling (web browsing, watching movies etc), so there is absolutely no way that I would ever consider 2,500 rpm fans as "quiet", I think that 1,200rpm is "loud".!!!

NF-A14 Chromax were the worst fans I ever bought. Worse than the Arctic ones.

They legitimately made the worst fan hum I've ever heard. The Arctics weren't as bad, but holy jesus I'm never putting a Noctua fan on my case again. For CPU heatsink it's really good, only needing about 900 RPM to cool my 3900X, but for case? No thanks.

My BQ Silent Wings 3 do a much better job at keeping my PC quiet while delivering good airflow. And the pushpin mounts on them actually work, not making my fans fall off my front panel because it's a stripe mount instead of individual holes. Had to install the NF-A14's with screws, which delivered some awful vibration throughout my case. No vibration with the Silent Wings.

 

[ADB1979]

Sorry, you can't negate my comment with that statement. This card is so quiet that it's damned near silent in an open case. There's nothing subjective about that and there's no one that will prefer a noisier card to a silent one.

I am sorry that you think that I was trying to "negate" your comment, Iam not familiar at all with your graphics card, the last MSI card I owned was 10-odd years ago, and the MSI 5700XT was not reviewed let alone available when I was buying my 5700XT, so as you might imagine, I never looked at that as an option because it didnt exist.

 

[Deleted member 205776]

proper airflow is key. a lot of people mount 6 fans, with no thought, & think 'im set'. if consideration isnt part of a Pc's fan layout, youre going to get poor results, unless you happen to get lucky.

1- buy good fans. Noctua , scythe, Phanteks, etc all make very good fans, ive got a set of ridiculously expensive Noctua's, that can run at 2500rpm & make almost no sound.
2- intake, intake ,intake. without sufficient intake, its all for nothing. usually the front bezel works good for most traditional cases. (mounting larger/better fans for intake is good)
3-exhaust, it sounds obvious, but ive seen many PC's, with 'exhaust' fans, that are facing inward.

after fan setup, assuming all components are properly cooled (TIM, thermal pads, etc), you should be at optimal conditions.

This is correct - in my case, I found that more than three 140mm fans didn't make a difference, and my fans going over 1000 RPM also didn't make a difference. Top closed, front to back airflow with intakes at 800 RPM and my exhaust at 900 RPM is enough to keep my PC quiet and deliver strong airflow. Helps that I have a case with mesh in the front.

You need to tune the fans until you find that sweet spot, otherwise you're gonna be enduring loud fan noise for nothing with no additional cooling benefit. I saw the same temps with my fans at 1100 RPM as I did with them at 900 RPM. But I swear they became 50% quieter on the latter.

 

[qubit]

I am sorry that you think that I was trying to "negate" your comment, Iam not familiar at all with your graphics card, the last MSI card I owned was 10-odd years ago, and the MSI 5700XT was not reviewed let alone available when I was buying my 5700XT, so as you might imagine, I never looked at that as an option because it didnt exist.

ok no problem, just a misunderstanding then.

 

[ADB1979]

NF-A14 Chromax were the worst fans I ever bought. Worse than the Arctic ones.

They legitimately made the worst fan hum I've ever heard. The Arctics weren't as bad, but holy jesus I'm never putting a Noctua fan on my case again. For CPU heatsink it's really good, only needing about 900 RPM to cool my 3900X, but for case? No thanks.

My BQ Silent Wings 3 do a much better job at keeping my PC quiet while delivering good airflow. And the pushpin mounts on them actually work, not making my fans fall off my front panel because it's a stripe mount instead of individual holes. Had to install the NF-A14's with screws, which delivered some awful vibration throughout my case. No vibration with the Silent Wings.

Interesting, my two examples are pretty good.

Likewise my experience with Artic Cooling fans is also pretty good, they used to be quite patchy, some good, some OK, some poor, nowdays they seem to have better quality control and overall are rather nice.

My experiences of Be Quiet! fans are limited to their PSU's so can't be compared, I have one Thermalright fan which is pretty good, but started grumbling a while back and was replaced (with an Arctic P14), I have a few Corsair fans which are middle of the road, a few Fractal Design fans that are crap (I have a couple that I pulled without ever testing them), a couple of ID Cooling fans that are crap and a smattering of random others, but now we are going back into fans that dont even have fluid bearings like the old Antec fans that are crap...

That brings me back to one of the many things I miss about (the old) SPCR, they didnt review "a fan", they reviewed a few of them individually (gave an insight into QC), had the fan speeds (very accurate) DBa redings at several fan speeds/voltages and how well they actually work on a cooler (some fans are fine as a case fan but are not so good on a CPU cooler with the restrictions and increased pressure), those were the days

This is correct - in my case, I found that more than three 140mm fans didn't make a difference, and my fans going over 1000 RPM also didn't make a difference. Top closed, front to back airflow with intakes at 800 RPM and my exhaust at 900 RPM is enough to keep my PC quiet and deliver strong airflow. Helps that I have a case with mesh in the front.

You need to tune the fans until you find that sweet spot, otherwise you're gonna be enduring loud fan noise for nothing with no additional cooling benefit. I saw the same temps with my fans at 1100 RPM as I did with them at 900 RPM. But I swear they became 50% quieter on the latter.

I fully concur.

Like "overkill", there is also "over cooling", where more makes litte/no difference, this is also evidenced in CLC's where you can typically drop the pump speed down by 40%+ with zero difference in cooling, and for me, the pump was the reason why I gave up CLC's, and was recently dissapointed by the Be Quiet! CLC's

 

[Deleted member 205776]

Interesting, my two examples are pretty good.

Likewise my experience with Artic Cooling fans is also pretty good, they used to be quite patchy, some good, some OK, some poor, nowdays they seem to have better quality control and overall are rather nice.

My experiences of Be Quiet! fans are limited to their PSU's so can be compared, I have one Thermalright fan which is pretty good, but started grumbling a while back and was replaced (with an Arctic P14), I have a few Corsair fan which are middle of the road, a few Fractal Design fans that are crap (I have a couple that I pulled without ever testing them), a couple of ID Cooling fans that are crap and a smattering of random others, but now we are going back into fans that dont even have fluid bearings like the old Antec fans that are crap...

That brings me back to one of the many things I miss abiout (the old) SPCR, they didnt review "a fan", they reviewed a few of them individually (gave an insight into QC), had the fan speeds (very accurate) DBa redings at several fan speeds/voltages and how well they actually work on a cooler (some fans are fine as a case fan but are not so good on a CPU cooler with the restrictions and increased pressure), those were the days

I've only tried 2 fan models from be quiet!, the Pure Wings 2 140mm which were... hell, and the Silent Wings 3 140mm which I absolutely adore for their silence and airflow. I guess the regular NF-A14's would've fared better if they were installed with rubber mounts, but the Chromax ones are a no-go for my use case.

Arctic's fans on the other hand, I bought three P14 PWM PST models, and I tested them individually. They ALL made the same motor resonance noise at around 900-1000 RPM. It was unacceptable. I promptly returned the fans and bought the SW3, which are now permanent residents of my case. I thought the Arctic fans were too good to be true at that price, and so they were. Gave $60 on three be quiet fans, but it was very worth it.

I fully concur.

Like "overkill", there is also "over cooling", where more makes litte/no difference, this is also evidenced in CLC's where you can typically drop the pump speed down by 40%+ with zero difference in cooling, and for me, the pump was the reason why I gave up CLC's, and was recently dissapointed by the Be Quiet! CLC's

Unlike the components, which can take heat pretty easily for a long time, my ears cannot take loud noise, or any higher than average noise level. That's because my PC is right next to me on my desk, not even half a meter away, my room is dead silent, and so is the street outside.

I can't believe I survived with Pure Wings 2 at 1100 RPM for a year. I should've gotten these and found my fan sweet spot sooner. The Pure Wings 2 have no place in a high end build, as denoted by what be quiet! classifies them as, "Essential". The SW3 on the other hand are "high-end".

 

[Zach_01]

It's hitting 84° on the junction and 63° on the rest of the gpu, but because the junction Is hot the fans ramp up way sooner.
I've tried open case to see if it would make a difference but nothing,
I've only seen a difference when i had the case fans running at 1300rpm but that's way too loud


I have a deepcool matrexx 55 mesh, the front panel is all mesh so i dont think the case Is thr problem

84C on GPU junction is not very hot. It’s very normal. This could be around 100C and still be normal. These GPUs have operating limit at 105~110C for GPU junction and 90~95C for the traditional GPU temp. All I’m saying is that you can relax the fan curve and let it worm up a little more. It can take it.
In addition you can lower max GPU voltage by 1-2% (10-20mV). It will help for max temps without compromising performance.