First ever custom loop - questions/concerns

[Goose]

I completed my first loop yesterday and I have a few questions regarding my GPU. My card is a Sapphire reference Vega 64 that i bought from the MM with a Bykski water block, GPU is a 5820k and water cooling gear is a D5 pump and two 360mm Black Ice radiators - one 30mm thick and one 60mm.

With everything left to default settings in Wattman i ran Heaven 4 benchmark and then let it keep running after that. The temperatures eventually (10mins or so) seemed to "settle" on the following:

Do the VRM temps look normal? I had a lot of trouble fitting the water block because the Bykski instructions for a reference card are basically nonexistent so i struggled with where exactly the thermal pads were meant to go.

Also, the noise the graphics card makes is really not what i was expecting. On the Heaven 4 credits screen i get the expected high pitched whine that all cards seem to make but its during the benchmarks that it makes a bothersome noise.

I can only describe it as a loud electrical buzz/hum, really not like any coil whine i've ever experienced. With fans and pump on relatively low RPMs the graphics card is comfortably the loudest thing i can hear. It's certainly not the (relatively) silent gaming i was expecting coming from a lifetime of air cooling.

Is this normal i something to be concerned with? FWIW my PSU is a 5 year old EVGA G2 850W which i believe is a Superflower unit. Also, the backplate was very hot to the touch and i've no idea if thats normal or not.

Thanks

 

[Goose]

OK, so i'm slightly worried.

I just ran Superposition and the average Mem VRM Temperature was 60c but with a high of 99c(!).

 

[Davedree]

Coil buzz is normal and very common especially on the reference cards. Most peeps lie about it unfortunately.
Here's mine https://forums.overclockers.co.uk/threads/is-this-acceptable-coil-buzz.18802805/

I'd try undervolting to reduce the current draw and this will improve performance /temps of the hotspot and vrm temps. Also i'd try using frtc in relive, this will help a bit with whine and buzz, some games are worse than others.

If your temps don't improve with tweaking, maybe recheck the block is mating properly with all components etc.

 

[Goose]

Coil buzz is normal and very common especially on the reference cards. Most peeps lie about it unfortunately.
Here's mine https://forums.overclockers.co.uk/threads/is-this-acceptable-coil-buzz.18802805/

I'd try undervolting to reduce the current draw and this will improve performance /temps of the hotspot and vrm temps. Also i'd try using frtc in relive, this will help a bit with whine and buzz, some games are worse than others.

If your temps don't improve with tweaking, maybe recheck the block is mating properly with all components etc.

What sort of temperatures should i be aim for, specifically the VRMs?

 

[Davedree]

Each game will load the card differently so it's a lil bit tricky to answer aswell as what you have tweaked in overdriventool/wattman

Ideally though on a custom block + rad, core temp below 60c, hbm temp below 70c and hotspot below 80c.
Vrm 60-70c, although high 80's is still perfectly fine.

My Lc64 at default out the box settings will see core temp at 65c, hotspot 78c, hbm 63c, vrm 70c. But when undervolted it will see a good 15-20c off all the temps.

 

[Goose]

Each game will load the card differently so it's a lil bit tricky to answer aswell as what you have tweaked in overdriventool/wattman

Ideally though on a custom block + rad, core temp below 60c, hbm temp below 70c and hotspot below 80c.
Vrm 60-70c, although high 80's is still perfectly fine.

My Lc64 at default out the box settings will see core temp at 65c, hotspot 78c, hbm 63c, vrm 70c. But when undervolted it will see a good 15-20c off all the temps.

So my temps in the screenshot above look ok?

 

[Davedree]

They look pretty good for stock out the box,
The only thing that concerned me was you 99c high on one of the vrm temps. But otherwise your first screenprint everything looks pretty good considering it's at 1.15v

 

[Goose]

I put the pump at 100% and rad fans at 1000rpm, P6 at 1050mv, P7 at 1100mv and Memory at 1000mv and got the following.

Only marginal gains.

 

[eeii]

Please bare in mind the settings I'm giving you work for me. They might not work for you. You will need to do some tinkering. Firstly the monitor I use tops out at 75hz. So anything over that is a waste. I put the Radeon FPS limit to 75fps. In wattman I use 1180 HBM ram speed with 1100mv, now I think I lucked out here so I would start at 1100 for RAM speed and see how you go with little increments. for P7 I'm using 1130mv with 1652mhz. I also have the power limit at 50%. Same here for the reference card. When doing benchmarks take the FPS limit off. When gaming I leave it on. I do get a little high pitched noise but only when benching. For some reason a seasonic power supply I had was really bad for coil whine. My current EVGA gold has got rid of the problem and I only get it benching over 100fps. Let us now how you get on.

 

[kevman]

I put the pump at 100% and rad fans at 1000rpm, P6 at 1050mv, P7 at 1100mv and Memory at 1000mv and got the following.

Only marginal gains.

Hey Goose I would check your VRM pads. I just done the GPU-Z/ heaven benchmark on my WC 1080ti and the VRM temps maxed out at 48 degs after one full bench cycle. GPU temp max was 40 degs which looks similar to yours and I only have 1 360 radiator

 

[Goose]

@kevman

I'm probably going to completely rearrange my setup so i'll have a look at the pads.

Can anyone recommend me some new thermal pads to buy so i dont have to reuse the Bykski ones?

 

[kevman]

@kevman

I'm probably going to completely rearrange my setup so i'll have a look at the pads.

Can anyone recommend me some new thermal pads to buy so i dont have to reuse the Bykski ones?

There are plenty on OCUK - EKWB or thermal grizzly would do. Thing is you need to know the thickness and areas of pads for your water block. On mine the thickness for VRM and mem are different I think so that they mate properly with the water block surface