XFX rx 480 GTR fans are the led fans quieter?

[KittyOfDoom]

I picked myself up a XFX rx 480 gtr black edition on black friday and since I got it I have been very happy with the product on a hot day I can keep the card at 70c with fans at 2400rpm and on an average day I can keep the card at 60-70c with 1500rpm.

My issue comes in when I play overwatch on max setting with no limit on fps. The gpu is permanently at 100% and therefore to keep the card in a 70-80c range the fans go from 2500-3000rpm. This can be rather loud and yet it can get much louder as the fans go to 4000rpm.

I was wondering if the hardswop coloured fans are more rubberized or improved in any way to try lower the sound? I mean at 1338 oc from factory I see no reason to over clock anymore for now but if I do I will have to take the fans to 4000rpm.

 

[JackNaylorPE]

Is this your card ?

http://www.xfxforce.com/en-us/products/amd-radeon-rx-400-series/rx480be-rx-480m8bba6

If so, sorry to say it's the nature of the beast.

From what I can see ... XFX added a special backplate w/ their name on it and "tweaked it". That leaves you with the reference cooler.

https://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/AMD/RX_480/29.html

Among the noted cons:

Noisy
Card runs into temperature and power limit, resulting in reduced clocks
Limited GPU overclocking potential
Power draw exceeds PCI-Express specification
Fans don't stop in idle
High temperatures
Multi-monitor and Blu-ray power draw still terrible
DVI output removed

The weakest point of AMD's reference design is certainly the thermal solution. It doesn't use any heatpipes or other high-tech means to keep the card cool. Rather, there is a big slab of metal with a copper core that has the blower fan sending air across its fins. As a result we are seeing temperatures of up to 84°C, which has the card clock down further to keep cool. On average, our card ran 1239 MHz, which is in the upper range of AMD's rated 1120-1266 MHz clock window. What's even worse than the heat is the terrible fan noise. While idle noise is fine with 29 dBA (an idle-fan-off feature would have still been nice), in gaming, the fan ramps up a lot, emitting 41 dBA during gaming (not Furmark). This makes the RX 480 the loudest card launched in recent history, much noisier than, for example, the GTX 1080 (which is almost twice as fast). AMD has mentioned to us that the reference design is deliberately weak to leave room for partners to improve on their custom designs. To me, this sounds a bit like "let the partners deal with the problem".

With Polaris, AMD is introducing a new overclocking control panel called "WattMan," which has tons of options, including voltage control and several ways to adjust the thermal profile. However, overclocking potential on our sample was very slim All we managed without causing stability issues was an increase of the GPU clock from 1266 MHz to 1335 MHz, which is a lousy 5%; again, the worst I've seen for years on a reference board. This is further complicated by the fact that the card will often clock down during OC because it a) exceeds the board power limit or b) runs too hot. If you increase the power limit using WattMan, you'll run into the thermal limit quicker.. It does seem as though there is a huge spread between GPUs on review samples. I've heard of reviewers who see stock temperatures well below 80°C, while others reach up to 89°C. Assuming AMD selected the best cards for press review, retail cards might even be worse, which means higher temps, more noise, and lower performance.

There is a huge difference between the AIB cards and the reference design cards. This also true but to a much lesser extent, with the 1070 and 1080. Best thing to do is avoid reference designs.

But that isn't helping you now. What case, what case fans and how are they placed ... and adjustment here might help.. On SLI builds, we like to put a fan on the back of the HD cage to bow fresh air between the cards, If your case is so equipped, You might try this to make sure that area is getting a fresh supply of cool intake air. Otherwise, Id look at a look at a dull cover water block. A hybrid which only cools the GPU but not the VRM and memory would be much less effective.

 

[KittyOfDoom]

http://www.xfxforce.com/en-us/products/amd-radeon-rx-400-series/rx-480-gtr-black-8gb-dd-led-rx-480p8dba6

Thats my card ^^, not the remake reference.

 

[JackNaylorPE]

So weird that they gave two cards the same name.

I could find a trusted review on this version and looking at the web page, I see a lot that I like such as thermal pads on VRM. On the other hand, there are some silly comments there to.

"Graphics cards also emit some heat from the back as well which rises up and affects other components but our cool aluminum backplate can absorb that heat and keep the overall case cooler."

The purpose of the plate is to take the heat off the back of the card from the VRMs (thru the thermal pad) and radiate that out into the case thru the 40 sq.in. of surface area.

But without seeing a god tear down review with the card fully dissembled and seeing how it tested out, it's reall hard to look for ways to solve your problem.