Question Are all PowerColor cards this utterly terrible?

[POTTU98]

I bought my PowerColor RX 580 a little over a year ago, it has been extremely loud since day 1. I bought this brand new but the temperatures are still at toasty 70c while gaming, all the while being a bit undervolted and underclocked.

To add in salt to the injury, not only do the fans ramp up, they are also so utterly awful that they are incredibly loud at lower RPMs. Oh and the sad part? My Founders Edition GTX 1070 that i bought to replace in my main system with it's old paste and everything is significantly quieter than the 580, even at full blast (the 580 is louder at 40% fan speed).

Oh and the best part of all, the 580 is in the HAF 912+, a case with 200mm Intake, 200mm exhaust and a 120 exhaust, all of whom are at max rpm.

If the other PowerColor cards are anything like this, avoid them like the plague. especially if you are looking for a 400-500 series card.

Edit: The fans have started rattling... why must this cooler be this utterly awful?

 

[Bassman999]

I bought my PowerColor RX 580 a little over a year ago, it has been extremely loud since day 1. I bought this brand new but the temperatures are still at toasty 70c while gaming, all the while being a bit undervolted and underclocked.

To add in salt to the injury, not only do the fans ramp up, they are also so utterly awful that they are incredibly loud at lower RPMs. Oh and the best part? My Founders Edition GTX 1070 that i bought to replace in my main system with it's old paste and everything is significantly quieter than the 580, even at full blast (the 580 is louder at 40% fan speed).

Oh and the best part of all, the 580 is in the HAF 912+, a case with 200mm Intake, 200mm exhaust and a 120 exhaust, all of whom are at max rpm.

If the other PowerColor cards are anything like this, avoid them like the plague. especially if you are looking for a 400-500 series card.

I have a powercolor RX6800 and it runs cool and quiet. No fan till it hits 50c I believe unless you set it to use higher curve.
If I run 100% on fans then it gets loud, but 60% and under is quiet
I have it mining in my garage that is in hot california and temps are 44c core and 64c mem junction at 70% fan speed. garage is 82F right now for reference

 

[spentshells]

the highend cards are highend and the lesser cards suffer, that has been my experience with the brand
I think they are in general far better since the 5xxx series

 

[POTTU98]

I have a powercolor RX6800 and it runs cool and quiet. No fan till it hits 50c I believe unless you set it to use higher curve.
If I run 100% on fans then it gets loud, but 60% and under is quiet
I have it mining in my garage that is in hot california and temps are 44c core and 64c mem junction at 70% fan speed. garage is 82F right now for reference

What variant do you have? I looked around found that Pow... ercolor makes a 3 slot variant, which surely should stay cool.

 

[David0ne86]

No the 5000 and new 6000 series are exceptional cards. Especially the red devils.

 

[KC_UK_PCbuild]

My PowerColor 6700XT Red Devil has excellent cooling and is silent. I believe the lower spec Hellhound model is also well-built. I was a big fan of Sapphire and their Nitro+ cards but I think the Red Devils are on par with them.

 

[-Fran-]

70°c for a GPU is completely acceptable at under 80% fans, just saying.

Keep in mind AMD GPUs are made to go all the way up to 100°C (junction to 110°C) and keep chugging along just fine. This doesn't mean you want the card near it, obviously, but saying 70°C is outrageous, specially for a basic model, is really exagerated.

That being said, I don't have experience with newer PowerColors, but my first video card was a PowerColor (Radeon 8500 64MB DDR1) and I have good memories of its quality. This is more than 15 years ago now, but hey. In any case, as mentioned above, latest models have had very positive reviews. Maybe not the best price/performance or even better balanced cards for AMD out there (Sapphire still takes the crown there by a mile IMO), but they're not what you can say "bad".

Just keep reasonable expectations on GPUs on the cheaper side of the spectrum, even when in these times they go for outrageous prices. A bottom of the barrel card is still a bottom of the barrel when everything is priced over the moon still. I hope this makes sense?

Also, I'm looking to purchase the PowerColor 6700XT Fighter, because it's the only darn card that is small enough to fit my HTPC. So, kudos to PowerColor for making a card that makes sense for the power requirements.

Cheers!

 

[POTTU98]

70°c for a GPU is completely acceptable at under 80% fans, just saying.

Keep in mind AMD GPUs are made to go all the way up to 100°C (junction to 110°C) and keep chugging along just fine. This doesn't mean you want the card near it, obviously, but saying 70°C is outrageous, specially for a basic model, is really exagerated.

That being said, I don't have experience with newer PowerColors, but my first video card was a PowerColor (Radeon 8500 64MB DDR1) and I have good memories of its quality. This is more than 15 years ago now, but hey. In any case, as mentioned above, latest models have had very positive reviews. Maybe not the best price/performance or even better balanced cards for AMD out there (Sapphire still takes the crown there by a mile IMO), but they're not what you can say "bad".

Just keep reasonable expectations on GPUs on the cheaper side of the spectrum, even when in these times they go for outrageous prices. A bottom of the barrel card is still a bottom of the barrel when everything is priced over the moon still. I hope this makes sense?

Also, I'm looking to purchase the PowerColor 6700XT Fighter, because it's the only darn card that is small enough to fit my HTPC. So, kudos to PowerColor for making a card that makes sense for the power requirements.

Cheers!

The problem is not at the end of the day the temps, its actually the quality, or more like the absolute lack of quality in the fans.
Even at 30% they are incredibly loud, louder than in any gpu i have ever owned

 

[-Fran-]

The problem is not at the end of the day the temps, its actually the quality, or more like the absolute lack of quality in the fans.
Even at 30% they are incredibly loud, louder than in any gpu i have ever owned

Well, like I said, if it's cheap...

You always need to put it under that perspective.

That being said, I'm guessing you can always swap the fans if they're terrible? Not sure how much it'd be (cost and complexity), but doable I guess? Better than changing the whole card for another one (cost).

Regards.

 

[Karadjgne]

Most of the 2nd tier OEMs like powercolor, iceQ, zotac, Galax etc primarily use reference boards directly from AMD/nvidia, change the heatsink/fans/shroud and then jack the OC through the roof for most of the mid-budget range cards.

Essentially this means there's no realistic difference in any of the cards ability, only in its results as far as noise or cooling goes and possibly its lifespan depending on the amount of factory OC applied compared to tolerances of the componentry.

But noise is all on the fans themselves, and it doesn't take much change in blade pitch or design to create a freight train.

Take a good look at the blades themselves. Look for edge quality, smoothness, aberrations, leftover mold plastic etc. Anything that could pronounce airflow turbulence etc.

If it's not the blades making the howl, it's the motors themselves, and in that there's nothing for that except replacement.

 

[Bassman999]

What variant do you have? I looked around found that Pow... ercolor makes a 3 slot variant, which surely should stay cool.

I have the Red Devil
https://www.powercolor.com/product?id=1606210567

 

[Bassman999]

Most of the 2nd tier OEMs like powercolor, iceQ, zotac, Galax etc primarily use reference boards directly from AMD/nvidia, change the heatsink/fans/shroud and then jack the OC through the roof for most of the mid-budget range cards.

Essentially this means there's no realistic difference in any of the cards ability, only in its results as far as noise or cooling goes and possibly its lifespan depending on the amount of factory OC applied compared to tolerances of the componentry.

But noise is all on the fans themselves, and it doesn't take much change in blade pitch or design to create a freight train.

Take a good look at the blades themselves. Look for edge quality, smoothness, aberrations, leftover mold plastic etc. Anything that could pronounce airflow turbulence etc.

If it's not the blades making the howl, it's the motors themselves, and in that there's nothing for that except replacement.

I have an ASUS Tuf 3080 that has very quiett fans, but my Gigabyte Gaming 3080 is Loud

 

[Karadjgne]

but my Gigabyte Gaming 3080 is Loud

That's about the only thing I dislike about the Gigabyte cards. Not so much the volume, but the pitch. I had a triple fan Giga, sent it back and swapped it for a lesser oc'd Asus with dual fans. A little tweak to the OC got me right back to same performance, but the difference in pitch was very noticeable between the Asus 2 larger fans vs the Giga's 3 smaller fans.

That's why a lot of reviews differentiate between actual db and perceived db. You can have fans actually be louder but the sound gets lost in background noise from other fans and you can have fans that might be in fact quieter but have such an off-resonance pitch that they are more audible, you can hear the difference as they ramp up or down.

 

[Bassman999]

That's about the only thing I dislike about the Gigabyte cards. Not so much the volume, but the pitch. I had a triple fan Giga, sent it back and swapped it for a lesser oc'd Asus with dual fans. A little tweak to the OC got me right back to same performance, but the difference in pitch was very noticeable between the Asus 2 larger fans vs the Giga's 3 smaller fans.

That's why a lot of reviews differentiate between actual db and perceived db. You can have fans actually be louder but the sound gets lost in background noise from other fans and you can have fans that might be in fact quieter but have such an off-resonance pitch that they are more audible, you can hear the difference as they ramp up or down.

I need to get a db meter to see the actual SPL between them. I agree the Gbyte are a higher pitched sound that annoys me while the Asus is a lower octave.
I also dont like my NZXT fans on my Z63, but I am swapping those very soon.

Is it possible to swap the fans on the Gbyte to something better?

 

[xravenxdota]

My friend has a no name rx 580 which runs pretty good.I didn't change paste yet but i doubt it will make much of a difference.Only thing i don't like is the fact they use a butt load power.His rx use my juice than my 1070 ti.Just do some maint on the card.Get proper thermal paste.One thing is the fans will still be crap and loud.

 

[madmatt30]

I have a Red Dragon 5700xt which is truly excellent and virtually silent while rarely touching 70c.

Also had a 280x turbo duo back in the day which was a far better card than the asus DCU 2 model I also had.

I think it depends on model rather than manufacturer.

Gigabyte, MSI and Asus have all released models of cards that are at best mediocre cooling wise and at worst pretty much abysmal.

 

[Karadjgne]

I had a 660ti asus DC20. That thing was super quiet, even at 124% OC. So was the Asus 970 strix. Had an msi 980 gaming that was whisper quiet, the frozr fans are excellent. Long time ago I had an xfx alpha dog 8800 GT 512 that was so loud my wife forced me to get a different card 😱

It happens. Some are just louder or higher pitched than others. Most ppl are so concerned about the almighty fps and clock speeds etc that they rarely pay attention to other factors.

It's hard to build a performance pc that's quiet, or conversely a silent pc that really performs. Most of the time it's a balancing act with compromises.

 

[Bassman999]

I had a 660ti asus DC20. That thing was super quiet, even at 124% OC. So was the Asus 970 strix. Had an msi 980 gaming that was whisper quiet, the frozr fans are excellent. Long time ago I had an xfx alpha dog 8800 GT 512 that was so loud my wife forced me to get a different card 😱

It happens. Some are just louder or higher pitched than others. Most ppl are so concerned about the almighty fps and clock speeds etc that they rarely pay attention to other factors.

It's hard to build a performance pc that's quiet, or conversely a silent pc that really performs. Most of the time it's a balancing act with compromises.

I have an old card still sitting on a shelf that was LOUD! XFX GTS 250 1GB with a blower style fan a and it sounded like an old hair dryer.

 

[POTTU98]

I have an old card still sitting on a shelf that was LOUD! XFX GTS 250 1GB with a blower style fan a and it sounded like an old hair dryer.

To be fair for the blower, the GTS 250 uses half of the world's electric supply, combine that with a over a decade old thermal paste

 

[Bassman999]

To be fair for the blower, the GTS 250 uses half of the world's electric supply, combine that with a over a decade old thermal paste

I dont use that card anymore but I just remember the sound compared to newer large HS GPUs with 3 fans at a lower speed.
I still loved that card 10-11 yrs ago

 

[POTTU98]

I dont use that card anymore but I just remember the sound compared to newer large HS GPUs with 3 fans at a lower speed.
I still loved that card 10-11 yrs ago

Yeah no wonder, i believe that thing was kinda like a 1060 was when pascal was a new thing

 

[Bassman999]

Yeah no wonder, i believe that thing was kinda like a 1060 was when pascal was a new thing

That card was in the 1st PC I built myself. None of the parts were close to top of the line, but it was a good learning experience.

 

[TommyTwoTone66]

I've only used Powercolor twice, back in the early 2000s. Both cards failed.

I've never heard anyone say anything good about that brand.

 

[POTTU98]

That card was in the 1st PC I built myself. None of the parts were close to top of the line, but it was a good learning experience.

Oh i thought that the GTS 250 was a mid range-ish card like the 1060

 

[drea.drechsler]

I bought my PowerColor RX 580 a little over a year ago, it has been extremely loud since day 1.
....

I got an RX 5700 Red Dragon not too long after launch and I'm very pleased with it. It came with dual BIOS so shortly after I burned one of them to an RX 5700XT Red Dragon BIOS to let me overclock it better. Even without the huge three-fan Red Devil fan and heatsink (love to find a burned up one to salvage the HSF) it's proven quiet enough.. but then I'm under headset when gaming so I can let it spin up pretty fast. It has performed virtually flawless otherwise so long as I don't undervolt it too much (I suppose there's a reason the chip was down-binned in the first place)... and of course, AMD driver issues aside.

That's been the worst problem: AMD drivers. Or perhaps more specifically Radeon Settings. Especially at first, but AMD has never gotten their fan control scheme even half-way right. The fan speeds jump around even on flat settings and sometimes turn completely off when they shouldn't. The best way to use the card if you want solid fan speed control is to install drivers-only and use MSI Afterburner to set custom fan speeds along with overclocks/undervolts.