Sapphire Toxic R9 280X fan grinding + slight artifacting

[giygaskeptpraying]

I have had this card for about 5-6 weeks and I've begun to notice the rightmost fan making a slight grinding noise under certain conditions. I think it may be when it is spinning within a certain RPM range. When I boot up my computer it makes the noise until the Windows login screen appears. The noise also stays if I go into the motherboard's BIOS instead. I know it isn't coil whine...because my card has that too, and the sounds are different.

As for the artifacting, it doesn't happen often enough to disrupt any gaming, I have only noticed it in Dead Space 3 and BioShock Infinite (in DS3 random things start to flicker and in BsI I sometimes see checkerboard-like black squares). Still, that, plus the fan noise, plus the coil whine are having me a little worried about this card. Should I RMA the card?

 

[Ty_Killington]

absolutely bro, send it back. the only moving part that could grind is the fan bearing, when the fan fails it will overheat quickly( potentially damaging the card) as those cards put out a ton of heat. SEND IT BACK

 

[envy14tpe]

RMA it. Issues in 2 months is wayyy to fast if it will happen. The problem won't get better. RMA it.

 

[giygaskeptpraying]

It definitely makes the grinding noise at 30-37% fan speed, 1400-1800 rpm. I just used AMD Overdrive to enable manual fan control to check.

Thanks for the feedback. Since I can't replace it through Newegg anymore I'll have to go to Sapphire. Do they have a reliable RMA process?

 

[envy14tpe]

It definitely makes the grinding noise at 30-37% fan speed, 1400-1800 rpm. I just used AMD Overdrive to enable manual fan control to check.

Thanks for the feedback. Since I can't replace it through Newegg anymore I'll have to go to Sapphire. Do they have a reliable RMA process?

Grinding is bad. What about once fan gets to 50% or 60%?

 

[giygaskeptpraying]

It definitely makes the grinding noise at 30-37% fan speed, 1400-1800 rpm. I just used AMD Overdrive to enable manual fan control to check.

Thanks for the feedback. Since I can't replace it through Newegg anymore I'll have to go to Sapphire. Do they have a reliable RMA process?

Grinding is bad. What about once fan gets to 50% or 60%?

No noise then. It seems to be fine as long as it's out of the 30-37% range.

 

[envy14tpe]

^ I was wondering about that. My Sapphire Dual-X never goes below 38%. At max it is around mid 60%.