Insanely loud 3090

[Farkinell]

I managed to obtain a 3090 as part of a prebuilt and am shocked at how loud this thing is. Upgrading from a 2070 Super which was practically silent, the 3090 sounds like a leaf blower.

Vsync is on so it’s not working overly hard to deliver 60 FPS at 4K. Temps quickly ramp up to 75-80C and fans spin up, above around 55% (around 1900 RPM) these are LOUD. I have seen reviews of cards with fan speeds north of 70%, how people can be in the same room as these cards I have no idea.

Is the normal behaviour for these cards? I have 3 case fans inside a mesh case so airflow is decent If not amazing. Opening the side panel doesn’t seem to do much.

If this is indeed normal then they’ll be a 3090 up for grabs in London once the 3080 Ti launches!

 

[Kshipper]

My Gigabyte RTX 2080 was like this and I still own it. I couldn't get it to quiet down after gaming, until I rebooted. My new EVGA 3090 has been super quiet. I couldn't be happier. Perhaps yours will work better with a VBIOS update? I hear people use MSI Afterburner to control fans but that never worked for me on my 2080.

 

[Farkinell]

I’ve managed to calm it down a bit by applying an .850 undervolt and custom curve, but had to drop the power limit to 90%.

This really defeats the point of owning the 3090, especially since the power drop brings the performance close to the far far quieter 3080.

I’ll see how the noise and thermals are for the 3080 Ti then might see if I can make a swap.

 

[neeyik]

What type of cooler does the 3090 have? I can remember the likes of Dell using a fairly mediocre cooling system for their 2080 Ti cards:

It was like a cheaper version of the system that my old Titan Xp had - it 'worked' but only by running like a small jet engine.

 

[Farkinell]

What type of cooler does the 3090 have? I can remember the likes of Dell using a fairly mediocre cooling system for their 2080 Ti cards:

It was like a cheaper version of the system that my old Titan Xp had - it 'worked' but only by running like a small jet engine.

It’s not a blower thankfully, I know those cards are notoriously loud. It’s a standard 3 fan, the Palit Gamerpro is the exact model. Fairly bottom tier but it’s still a 3090.

After setting custom voltage and fan curves I can crank the power target all the way to a dizzying 100% without it (probably) bursting into flames at a toasty constant 82C. Handy if I have the sudden compulsion to fry an egg and don’t want to leave my desk.

 

[neeyik]

Guru3D reviewed that particular model and their acoustic testing backs your experience:

Palit GeForce RTX 3090 GamingPRO OC review

Palit is back with GamingPRO series graphics card, we review the Palit GeForce RTX 3090 GamingPRO OC armed with a muscular cooler and 24 GB of the fastest GDDR6X memory your money can get you. Well, t... Graphics Card Acoustic Levels

www.guru3d.com

 

[Farkinell]

Palit GeForce RTX 3090 GamingPRO OC review

Palit is back with GamingPRO series graphics card, we review the Palit GeForce RTX 3090 GamingPRO OC armed with a muscular cooler and 24 GB of the fastest GDDR6X memory your money can get you. Well, t... Graphics Card Acoustic Levels

www.guru3d.com

Thanks for sharing, indeed they did. I’ve bought some ropey heatsinks which I will crudely apply later to see if they cool the backplate vram down at least. Otherwise once the Ti is released I’ll see if anyone who’s less sensitive to noise wants to swap for ole’ Mr Toasty here

 

[neeyik]

It still surprises me that the aftermarket cooler...err...market is so poor. I replaced the rubbish system on my Titan X with an Arctic Cooler one, and the difference was incredible. I could run the fans at 100% all of the time and hardly notice them; set up like, the GPU never went over 58 degC. Why there aren't more options like this is beyond me.

 

[Farkinell]

Tell me about it. The cooling quality seems to vary wildly in the AIB market even though they’re all basically a heat sink and 3 fans. I guess there’s not much incentive to innovate, so hats off to nvidia for trying on the FE.

This is the first time I’ve bought a prebuilt and made the mistake of not checking what the “RTX 3090” was before I bought it.

 

[LNCPapa]

I have a 3090 FE and it's pretty much silent. It also stays really cool in my case usually maxing out around 65 C under load.

 

[Watzupken]

It still surprises me that the aftermarket cooler...err...market is so poor. I replaced the rubbish system on my Titan X with an Arctic Cooler one, and the difference was incredible. I could run the fans at 100% all of the time and hardly notice them; set up like, the GPU never went over 58 degC. Why there aren't more options like this is beyond me.

The cooler performance varies with the model. The higher end the model, the better the cooling solution typically. The Palit Gaming OC is really more like a mid entry level model, even though it is a RTX 3090 in this case.

As for your case, I believe you are talking about the Arctic Accelero Xtreme cooler right? If so, the reason why it worked so well is because its only duty is to cool the graphic chip. The VRAM and VRM are separate from the main cooler. Therefore, that can shave off 10 to 15 degs easily since the VRAM and VRM also runs very hot. Which is why you noticed that temps on Asus TUF RTX 3080 and Sapphire RX 6800/6900 Nitro, are very good. They basically dedicated the main cooler to just cooling the GPU chip, and uses a secondary heatsink to cool the VRAM and VRM.