Bought a Ref 5700xt: Underclock if too loud?

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King_Potato

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My card hasn't arrived yet (waiting is hard lol). I know blowers are loud, but @ $350 I thought if it's really that loud I could underclock it and tame the fanspeeds a bit. Any thoughts about underclocking/undervolting? Or can most of the noise and thermal issues be handled without messing with voltage and just setting a fan profile? (at the expense of not boosting as high or whatever. Any input is greatly appreciated.

On a side note I have a 600 watt psu Evga with 49 amps on the 12 volt rail.

Cheers
 
Undervolting should help a ton if your card is stable with it. If you set a manual speed on the fan after that, the noise may be manageable.
 
Seems everyone's threshold for noise is different, for me the reference design 5700XT noise is non-consequential or just plain insignificant. I have plenty of other stuff making much more sound to be frank. Since living in Florida and the central A/C unit does fine for the room with no heat source but once you start having multiple computers etc. - 18,000 BTU unit in window was my choice :woot: for working out,gaming, work, VR etc. and keeping it a refrigerator if I want. Anyways that noise dwarfs the eminence from my 5700XT. Yes, my hearing is actually above normal as well, go figure. Some people are just so overcome by the minuteness of any sound and while others have zero issues with tons of noise and yet able to discern each sound separately as needed. So in other words I don't think anyone can say how you will react or not to a video card.

Now how to deaden the noise from a video card can be done a number of ways:
  • Under voltage works well especially with the 5700XT, mine will undervolt automatically from 1200mv to 1151mv -> manually to 1100mv without issue
  • Fan curves, a little warmer or slower fan speed which may not affect performance that much
  • Blower cards also direct a lot of noise out the back of the computer, using sound isolation material (ribbed foam rubber) on anything that can bounce that noise out will help
  • Enclosing the computer in a sound isolation box while allowing ventilation was techniques we used in the Navy on subs
  • Case sound insulation you can buy from Newegg and others or sound isolating case
    • A lot of reviewers (practically all) review case for airflow but utterly forget that those open ended cases can not only allow sound to come out but amplify that sound too boot
  • Wear headphones so you never hear the sound anyways
    • When I am in the VR session, the noises from the outer world (real that is) disappear in the made up new kingdom
  • Position of your computer or where you place it
    • Putting it in it's separate room or space which you can control the air flow and cooling can also remove any unwanted noise
    • Building special noise cabinet so to speak or workbench or desk
    • Use your imagination instead of folks complaining, there are tons of options to allow noisey very high performing items to become trivial for adding sound to your environment
As for me, noise I've gone very use to and appreciate from a number of reasons, walking through a complex plant the noise itself becomes it's own 3d environment where tell tell signs of change can be quickly discern before it becomes a problem. One can become super aware so to speak in that type of scenario and do things or idently stuff no one else even realizes that you could be so on top of the equipment.
 
Undervolt is different than underclock. You can undervolt and still hit advertised boost clocks. You should absolutely attempt to undervolt when you get your card.
 
King_Potato said:
My card hasn't arrived yet (waiting is hard lol). I know blowers are loud, but @ $350 I thought if it's really that loud I could underclock it and tame the fanspeeds a bit. Any thoughts about underclocking/undervolting? Or can most of the noise and thermal issues be handled without messing with voltage and just setting a fan profile? (at the expense of not boosting as high or whatever. Any input is greatly appreciated.

On a side note I have a 600 watt psu Evga with 49 amps on the 12 volt rail.

Cheers
Click to expand...

imo it's really not loud. Repaste and do washer mod.
 
kirbyrj said:
Undervolt is different than underclock. You can undervolt and still hit advertised boost clocks. You should absolutely attempt to undervolt when you get your card.
Click to expand...
Yes, undervolt! It will actually allow higher boost rates, less noise with less power needed, win win win. Yes if you can undervolt, it will be OCing your card at the same time (higher clock speeds since most of the limitation is power draw for clock speeds).

Now as a note: My Vega 64 LC would not undervolt virtually at all! Then again it was pretty maxed out on the clock speeds for that GPU. So your mileage can vary on this. Use Auto undervolt in the drivers to see where the Radeon software places the undervolt, I've found that to be conservative on my 5700XT at 1151mv from 1200mv. Use it like that for awhile to see if really stable, if so then go down from there.
 
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Update: Card arrived and the noise is not bad at all! I may still lower the voltage to put less stress on the card (less fan wear, electromigration, and wearing out of caps or some such thing.)
 
If you're okay with losing some FPS go for it. You will also have some improvements in temps which is good.
 
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Depending on where you are if you put it in my PC here in FL you probably couldn't hear it anymore :D
 
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