Should I build a liquid cooling system around my Vega 56 or grab a new RTX2060?

[mmcy15]

Hi guys. Here is my situation:

I purchased a Vega 56 (MSI Airboost version) from Amazon during the Black Friday Sale and has been lucky enough to got one with the Samsung HBM2 memory. I quickly flashed the bios to the Vega 64’s bios.

I have been quite busy during the end of the year. Then, when I finally came around to actually play some games last week, I (and my wife) realized that the fan is really loud.

After a little bit of research on the internet, I thought it may be a good time to start liquid cooling my rig and quickly ordered a water block from taobao. I visited my local store and found out a few things:

1. Liquid cooling components at my local store are really steep
2. My current ATX case may not have enough space to install the liquid cooling components. Especially not a 240mm radiator.

So I am wondering if it is really worth it to buy a new case and build a liquid cooling system around my Vega 56? Or should I just grab a new RTX card and try to sell my relatively new Vega 56? Is it likely that my Vega 56 can out-perform an RTX2060 (which is around the same price as the liquid cooling kits+a new case at my local store) with liquid cooling and aggressive overclocking?

EDIT: My wife is really annoyed by the noise produced by the fan, so I do need to fix the problem asap.

 

[ebosss03]

Well you can just keep this setup and save the money for later. The RTX 2060 will not be a significant improvement this will be a really expensive 300euro/dollar upgrade for a little performance upgrade.

 

[mmcy15]

Well you can just keep this setup and save the money for later. The RTX 2060 will not be a significant improvement this will be a really expensive 300euro/dollar upgrade for a little performance upgrade.

Thanks for your suggestion, but my wife is really annoyed by the noise produced by the fan so waiting is not really an option.

 

[ebosss03]

Well is the GPU actually making the noise the CPU makes to most noise of all. You can try and look at both temp aswell GPU aswell as CPU the cpu can stay below 80 and gpu below 60 so you can reduce the fan speed a bit. Case fans also make noise you can pickup some Be quite fans and run the at 900/800rpm the make it really quite.

 

[mmcy15]

Well is the GPU actually making the noise the CPU makes to most noise of all. You can try and look at both temp aswell GPU aswell as CPU the cpu can stay below 80 and gpu below 60 so you can reduce the fan speed a bit. Case fans also make noise you can pickup some Be quite fans and run the at 900/800rpm the make it really quite.

I'm pretty sure that it's the gpu fan making most of the noise

 

[InfoSponge16]

It depends on what you want.. If the noise is the problem, which is what you and your wife dislike, then there are a few options.

You have a good card, but you might have a reference version. They aren't known for being quiet.

If that is the case, a liquid solution for your existing components is a solution.

Another solution is to get a different card.

I would actually do neither if money is an issue.
Liquid cooling is not cheap, but you speak of a new card...

I, would check the temps you are running during gaming. One of the best things about AMD cards is their granularity when it comes to fine tuning.

That was the difference between Nvidia and AMD,
Buy AMD for less, use wattman to fine tuning.

If the temps are adequately safe during gaming, then it is safe to use wattman to turn the blower down. The temps may be different for Vega, but I think max is 82-83c.

Play your most graphically intensive game, check your card temp. Turn the fan down until you get near 82-83c The fan curves may be set aggressively in your card.

If the blower is running at maximum settings, I would remove and disassemble the card, install some different type of thermal paste. (High Performance)

The lase thing I would do, this is something I had intended to do. But I didn't by a reference style AMD card. I theorize the noise that comes from the AMD specific card is due to harmonics. The body, or cover of the card is large and flat, (acts as a speaker).

Play a game or do something that loads the card until the blower turns up and gets noisy. Feel the card to see if it is vibrating at a very high frequency.
If it is, those are harmonics at work.

Create a solution to eliminate the vibration, such as, disassemble the card, find some soft foam with a sticky backing. Cut it to size, install on the inner plastic casing in a way that contacts the heatsink.

This will do two things, dampen then harmonics of the body of the card, and ensure that all the air passes through the heatsink itself, rather than around, that is if you install the foam properly.

One last thing, you could also reduce clocks as needed.

Good luck!

 

[mmcy15]

It depends on what you want.. If the noise is the problem, which is what you and your wife dislike, then there are a few options.

You have a good card, but you might have a reference version. They aren't known for being quiet.

If that is the case, a liquid solution for your existing components is a solution.

Another solution is to get a different card.

I would actually do neither if money is an issue.
Liquid cooling is not cheap, but you speak of a new card...

I, would check the temps you are running during gaming. One of the best things about AMD cards is their granularity when it comes to fine tuning.

That was the difference between Nvidia and AMD,
Buy AMD for less, use wattman to fine tuning.

If the temps are adequately safe during gaming, then it is safe to use wattman to turn the blower down. The temps may be different for Vega, but I think max is 82-83c.

Play your most graphically intensive game, check your card temp. Turn the fan down until you get near 82-83c The fan curves may be set aggressively in your card.

If the blower is running at maximum settings, I would remove and disassemble the card, install some different type of thermal paste. (High Performance)

The lase thing I would do, this is something I had intended to do. But I didn't by a reference style AMD card. I theorize the noise that comes from the AMD specific card is due to harmonics. The body, or cover of the card is large and flat, (acts as a speaker).

Play a game or do something that loads the card until the blower turns up and gets noisy. Feel the card to see if it is vibrating at a very high frequency.
If it is, those are harmonics at work.

Create a solution to eliminate the vibration, such as, disassemble the card, find some soft foam with a sticky backing. Cut it to size, install on the inner plastic casing in a way that contacts the heatsink.

This will do two things, dampen then harmonics of the body of the card, and ensure that all the air passes through the heatsink itself, rather than around, that is if you install the foam properly.

One last thing, you could also reduce clocks as needed.

Good luck!

Thanks for all your suggestions! I will try them out and see how it goes.

To be honest, money is not really a problem. I just want to make sure that whatever I do won't be a waste of money and would be the most cost-effective.

 

[InfoSponge16]

Glad to help.