Sapphire Vega 56 pulse noise

[marc69]

Hi guys,

I finally got around to purchasing one of these but I've been struck by disappointment after running a few games and benchmarks on it.

The performance isn't an issue, it's the strange noise that is coming from it. I've never witnessed coil whine before so I was wondering if you guys could have a listen and advise me if this is what is happening and if Sapphire are likely going to accept an RMA for this fault.

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RIG:
I5 6600K @4.5GHz
16GB Hyper X - 2133 (?)
XFX 750W Modular PSU
128GB Cruclal SSD
1TB Mechanical drive
Asus Z170 Pro-gaming motherboard

Kind regards,
Marc

 

[Panos]

Hi guys,

I finally got around to purchasing one of these but I've been struck by disappointment after running a few games and benchmarks on it.

The performance isn't an issue, it's the strange noise that is coming from it. I've never witnessed coil whine before so I was wondering if you guys could have a listen and advise me if this is what is happening and if Sapphire are likely going to accept an RMA for this fault.

CLICK FOR VIDEOS

RIG:
I5 6600K @4.5GHz
16GB Hyper X - 2133 (?)
XFX 750W Modular PSU
128GB Cruclal SSD
1TB Mechanical drive
Asus Z170 Pro-gaming motherboard

Kind regards,
Marc

Coil Whine is a combination of factors, including motherboard and PSU (mainly) in relation to the quality of the power delivered to the card.
On the significant majority of the cards is getting cured by the time, but there are some quick steps.
a) lower the power consumption of the card.
Thats the easiest to do with the Vega GPUs gaining performance in the mean time by lowering the voltage.
Go to wattman, set the card to manual and set the P7 to 1080mv, and P6 to 1050mv. Raise the PL to 25%. Set the power setting under the HBM ram to 1030mv.

b) get a screw driver and losen all the screws, except those holding the GPU, and tighten them again but just as you hold an egg. no more.

Otherwise set the card to Balanced and Power save modes. The latter you will see a 8% drop in perf and around 25% drop in power consumption and elimination of the noise.

 

[marc69]

Set it to powersave in wattman and it screams as loud as it did before. I've also tried separate power feeds from the modular psu instead of the one lead with the two connectors on and it's the same noise (arguably louder).

I don't really fancy taking a screwdriver to it to be honest, I don't think you should have to do it with a new card but appreciate the suggestion

Edit, also tried the custom settings you said and still the same issue no better, No worse.

 

[Heinz57]

My sapphire vega Pulse has appalling coil whine too. The worst I've ever heard and it does it in both my system and my friend's when I tested it.

I think it's just the card. If I'd been around to return it after I'd bought it, I would certainly have done so. It would be up to the mercy of a RMA now and I cannot be bothered with the hassle since technically it's not a fault.

The fan curve is pretty bad too (overly aggressive), but at least that can be tuned. I've found nothing which has even slightly reduced the coil whine, you can hear it on the other side of the room at times.

 

[marc69]

My sapphire vega Pulse has appalling coil whine too. The worst I've ever heard and it does it in both my system and my friend's when I tested it.

I think it's just the card. If I'd been around to return it after I'd bought it, I would certainly have done so. It would be up to the mercy of a RMA now and I cannot be bothered with the hassle since technically it's not a fault.

The fan curve is pretty bad too (overly aggressive), but at least that can be tuned. I've found nothing which has even slightly reduced the coil whine, you can hear it on the other side of the room at times.

Yup, this one is just as loud. I can hear it when I'm walking up the stairs. Think it will be am RMA job or return to my ebay seller...

 

[Panos]

Yup, this one is just as loud. I can hear it when I'm walking up the stairs. Think it will be am RMA job or return to my ebay seller...

Hold on a sec mate. Is this second hand?
Why you don't say this first. I bet the BIOS is modified because it was used for mining.

Turn off your PC. And turn the card BIOS switch. Let us know how it goes. Show us also your Wattman settings.

 

[marc69]

Hold on a sec mate. Is this second hand?
Why you don't say this first. I bet the BIOS is modified because it was used for mining.

Turn off your PC. And turn the card BIOS switch. Let us know how it goes. Show us also your Wattman settings.

I did think that. I flipped the switch both seem to produce the whine. I'll have another look because I'm sure there is another switch on top I seen earlier

Flipped it again and it's just on balanced

 

[marc69]

A fuether update... Just tried bf1 maxed out at 60fps cap, no noise. If I put the cap on 120 or 144 fps then it screams like a baby again.

 

[Panos]

A fuether update... Just tried bf1 maxed out at 60fps cap, no noise. If I put the cap on 120 or 144 fps then it screams like a baby again.

As I wrote above. You need to downvolt the card. Select Custom on Wattman and type the values wrote above.

set the card to manual and set the P7 to 1080mv, and P6 to 1050mv. Raise the PL to 25%. Set the power setting under the HBM ram to 1030mv.

It should look something like this, but not the clocks (yet )

 

[marc69]

Cheers for replying.

I did give that a try and ran resident evil benchmark but it gave the same result. I've spoke to the chap who sold it to me and he actually has another vega 56 that he said I can swap so might give that a try. I've asked him if he had any coil whine but no reply yet...

 

[Nasher]

My Vega64 whined when it was new, but it seemed to go away after a few days.

Try setting an FPS cap and undervolting it, that also helped loads.

 

[marc69]

My Vega64 whined when it was new, but it seemed to go away after a few days.

Try setting an FPS cap and undervolting it, that also helped loads.

FPS cap definitely helps it. In CSGO at 144FPS capped very little noise. On BF1 60FPS cap it's fine, 120 and 144 are noisy again.

As I wrote above. You need to downvolt the card. Select Custom on Wattman and type the values wrote above.


It should look something like this, but not the clocks (yet )

I've given it another go

 

[Panos]

FPS cap definitely helps it. In CSGO at 144FPS capped very little noise. On BF1 60FPS cap it's fine, 120 and 144 are noisy again.



I've given it another go

So how is it now?

 

[marc69]

So how is it now?

Still really bad mate. Screaming it's head off .

I've spoke to the seller and he's going to switch it with another one he has so I'll give that a go I guess and report back.

Cheers,
Marc

 

[marc69]

Just thought I'd update this. He swapped the card with another card (same make and model) but it still made the noise. I switched the PSU out for a corsair rm1000x and the noise is a lot better but the card still buzzes. I've tried the loosing and tightening the screws but it didn't seem to change anything.

I'll put up with it for a while but ultimately I think it's an RMA job.

 

[Panos]

Just thought I'd update this. He swapped the card with another card (same make and model) but it still made the noise. I switched the PSU out for a corsair rm1000x and the noise is a lot better but the card still buzzes. I've tried the loosing and tightening the screws but it didn't seem to change anything.

I'll put up with it for a while but ultimately I think it's an RMA job.

It gets cured over time. Also set the card on Balanced mode. Then go Custom, set HBM to 1000 and leave everything else intact

 

[marc69]

It gets cured over time. Also set the card on Balanced mode. Then go Custom, set HBM to 1000 and leave everything else intact

I did try balanced and it didn't seem to do much. Also tried with a 64 bios which ran stable but just as noisy. BFV is out soon on so maybe a good month on that will cure it. HBM is on 1000 Also.

Cheers,
Marc

 

[Panos]

I did try balanced and it didn't seem to do much. Also tried with a 64 bios which ran stable but just as noisy. BFV is out soon on so maybe a good month on that will cure it. HBM is on 1000 Also.

Cheers,
Marc

Set the power under the HBM to 950.

 

[marc69]

Set the power under the HBM to 950.

I'll give it a go bud but it did it on power saving mode as well so not sure if it'll do much

 

[Chrisc]

Can you RMA on coil whine? Mine is whining a fair bit which is irritating me like crazy