Powercolor Red Dragon RX580 - NOISE!!

[Solus]

I recently did 2 builds for customers just before christmas and this card was on offer (switched this card in instead of 1050 ti's).

10 mins or so in to a game taking full load from the card (fortnite) it kicks up a fan noise I have never heard before from a brand new system. BOTH brand new cards are like this.

I have read about the undervolt and fan curve change in Wattman, but this can't be normal? One of my customers is now also saying when it is on for a period of time the screen will just black out and he is forced to reboot the machine. Never before witness something like this, would never believe something this bad would be allowed to be sold.

Tempted to reapply paste but there's a pesky warranty sticker over the screws holding the backplate and heatsink on.

 

[Gray2233]

I've got an RX580 Red Dragon V1 myself and it is exceedingly loud at stock values, seriously it sounds like a hairdryer or something.

Undervolted and with a fan curve I never hear mine, and I've yet to see it break 55-60c when gaming.

The problem is, if you're building for a customer who isn't overly tech savvy, wattman is a PITA to use. You'll potentially lose your undervolt settings if you have a game or driver crash, and updating the drivers will also remove the settings. You can of course save a profile, but a random person wouldn't think to reapply it if the settings revert and things get noisy/hot.

 

[Solus]

I've got an RX580 Red Dragon V1 myself and it is exceedingly loud at stock values, seriously it sounds like a hairdryer or something.

Undervolted and with a fan curve I never hear mine, and I've yet to see it break 55-60c when gaming.

The problem is, if you're building for a customer who isn't overly tech savvy, wattman is a PITA to use. You'll potentially lose your undervolt settings if you have a game or driver crash, and updating the drivers will also remove the settings. You can of course save a profile, but a random person wouldn't think to reapply it if the settings revert and things get noisy/hot.

Oh I understand that for enthusiasts like us it isn't a big deal, but I'm potentially going to have to replace these cards unless there's some option to flash the bios with the new settings. Do you know of any way?

Alternatively, if I use afterburner would that help? This would alleviate the driver crash problem but can it undervolt?

 

[Poneros]

I always tell people to avoid Red Dragon Polaris cards but everyone just recommends them because they see them cheap even though they've never tested them.

Surprised you didn't test them tho. Then you could've just returned them. Now you're kinda stuck.

 

[Aretak]

I've had several cards using this cooler (an RX 470 Red Devil and RX 580 and RX 590 Red Dragons), and all of them were extremely loud at stock. Undervolting and setting a manual fan curve really is the way to go. I never tinkered much with the 470 or 590, but I owned the 580 for a long time and it was a very quiet card once tweaked. Mine would do its stock 1350MHz at just 1V. Combined with a custom fan curve (because WattMan is AWFUL at handling it automatically), it ran in the high 60s to low 70s and barely made a peep. Your mileage may vary on the voltage and clocks, but 1V is a good starting point, maybe underclock a bit and then see how far you can push it back up.

 

[Gray2233]

Oh I understand that for enthusiasts like us it isn't a big deal, but I'm potentially going to have to replace these cards unless there's some option to flash the bios with the new settings. Do you know of any way?

Alternatively, if I use afterburner would that help? This would alleviate the driver crash problem but can it undervolt?

Polaris Bios Editor can do it:

https://github.com/caa82437/PolarisBiosEditor

Undervolt with Wattman first to see what values the cards are happy with.

 

[Solus]

I always tell people to avoid Red Dragon Polaris cards but everyone just recommends them because they see them cheap even though they've never tested them.

Surprised you didn't test them tho. Then you could've just returned them. Now you're kinda stuck.

I did test the 2, the noise was of concern but both pc's were built in a batch of 4. I saw that both behaved in the same way and I gave no guarantee about noise.

I obviously did not expect the no signal problem, even though it was like nothing I had heard before.

I think I will go the software route first, I have also contacted powercolor support in the hope they will allow warranty in future if I replace thermal compound.