gtx 670 reference fan noise

[dom99]

Having read some great reviews about the gtx 670 I thought I would pack up my hd 6950 and switch to the green side for the first time since being a graphics geek. So I bought an MSI GTX 670 OC version with refernce cooler.

Card arrived on Friday, installed it today and my first thought....

How quickly can I return this card to where I bought it for a refund!!!


I have a pretty quiet system, but the idle noise coming from one of these 670s is incredible. Having had an hd 4850, 5850, 6870 and 6950 all with reference coolers I find it disapointing how there seems to be a buzzing/grinding noise coming from the card at all times, loud enough to be heard from the next room.

If you google "gtx 670 fan noise" there is evidence of others having the same noise.

I just wanted to see if others have had the same experience here, feeling pretty gutted about it.

Lesson learnt however, dont buy a refernce cooler from Nvidia unless you like a lawnmower soundtrack when turning the pc on. I will try to find a good price for gigabytes custom coolers because the ASUS ones are looking stupidly expensive at the moment

 

[newtekie1]

The idle fan noise of the reference cooler is a bit high, but it also idles at a really low temp. Just use a custom fan profile to lower the fan speed.

 

[dom99]

The idle fan noise of the reference cooler is a bit high, but it also idles at a really low temp. Just use a custom fan profile to lower the fan speed.

I dont think it is a problem with fan speed, the cooler makes this noise constantly whether fan speed is set to 30 or 100. Infact the lower the fan speed the more obvious it becomes because the fan actually drowns out this noise


EDIT:
I have found exactly what its like.

Here in this video clip at the beginning, it is the motor noise, not the fan noise. Then as the fan is turned up it drowns out the motor noise

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UysDJc_820Y

 

[DarkOCean]

Rma and buy a non ref card instead the reference gtx 670 coolers are really cheap built.

 

[TissueBox]

I assume that the noise is actually coming from the fan, and not from the noise of the air it's moving.

I would either RMA it or return/exchange it from where you bought it since it is a valid reason. You shouldn't be able to hear anything from the card over your case fans on idle.

 

[dom99]

RMAd the card this morning, do annoying because it benched early 9000 in 3dmark 11 basic graphics score, more than double my 6950

 

[newtekie1]

Yeah, that sound isn't normal, so RMAing was a good move. It sounds like they used cheap fans with noisy bearings.

 

[the54thvoid]

Most of the vanilla 670 reviews say the card is great but the build quality looks and feels 'tacky'.

 

[Lionheart]

Having read some great reviews about the gtx 670 I thought I would pack up my hd 6950 and switch to the green side for the first time since being a graphics geek. So I bought an MSI GTX 670 OC version with refernce cooler.

Card arrived on Friday, installed it today and my first thought....

How quickly can I return this card to where I bought it for a refund!!!


I have a pretty quiet system, but the idle noise coming from one of these 670s is incredible. Having had an hd 4850, 5850, 6870 and 6950 all with reference coolers I find it disapointing how there seems to be a buzzing/grinding noise coming from the card at all times, loud enough to be heard from the next room.

If you google "gtx 670 fan noise" there is evidence of others having the same noise.

I just wanted to see if others have had the same experience here, feeling pretty gutted about it.

Lesson learnt however, dont buy a refernce cooler from Nvidia unless you like a lawnmower soundtrack when turning the pc on. I will try to find a good price for gigabytes custom coolers because the ASUS ones are looking stupidly expensive at the moment

Just so you know, I have bought the Gigabyte HD7970 with the custom windforce cooler and it came with coil whine and also annoying fan noise so I sent it back and got a GTX 670 with the exact same cooler. While no coil whine, I still get the fan noise but no and near as much, just pops up now and again randomly and all I do is just ramp up the fan speed in MSi afterburner then lower it down again then its gone A bit annoying but meh, I'm used to it now

Just thought you should know before going with the Gigabyte custom coolers

 

[dom99]

I would second that the card has a very mid-range feel to in in hand, but performs amazingly. I will keep an eye out for this card with a decent cooler, from what peoPle are saying its luck of the draw on bearing and fan quality. I just don't think there should be any compromise on quality of componants when paying £320, and the noise coming from the card might just be a one off, but not good enough for me I'm afraid.

But again I will say that performance with this thing is emmense, plus it overclocks like a king way past gtx 680 clocks. sad to see it go

 

[Slizzo]

The mid range feel is probably due to the cards housing a mid range GPU. GTX670 and 680 are GK104. Generally the high end GPU would be GK100 or the just announced (for Tesla only) GK110.

 

[h107474]

Fan noise RMA rejected by SCAN (NVidia GTX 670 reference card)

So I returned a reference GTX 670 to SCAN as the fan noise was awful as many have said. There was a grinding clicking noise from the fan as they are clearly using the cheapest ones available for the reference boards.

Anyway I opened the RMA 10 days after receipt as I was not happy and decided to get a version with an aftermarket cooler instead such as the Gigabyte Windforce from SCAN no less so they would have made more money out of the exchange.

SCAN rejected the RMA as not agreeing the noise is there. This is obviously subjective but I am clearly not alone in noticing this issue with the product. Surely as the product is not of satisfactory quality I have some right to a refund. It seems from forums many other people are RMAing their GTX 670s for fan noise. Anyway I am in the process or contesting it but this is a word of warning as it is not an easy fault to categorically prove to a retailer.