Asus GTX 770 inconsistent fan noise at higher RPMs

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Mobius One

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I've had the GPU since last thursday (5 full days) and it has made the noise ever since every time the fan speed rises above ~65%. It occurs when playing a game that taxes the GPU enough to bring the fan speed up or by manually setting it anywhere between about 65% and 100% via MSI Afterburner.

The noise caused by the fans pushing air is silent up until over 80% fan speeds and the card would be great if not for this: https://soundcloud.com/mobius2/asusgtx770dcii_odd_noise

I didn't have anything better than a smartphone to record it with, and noise from the case fans is drowning it out a lot in the recording. The best example would probably be at 0:34 seconds.

Is this noise normal for Asus DCII cooled GPUs? Should I be worried and/or consider an RMA?

Just in case, here are some of my specs: Asus Z87 Maximus VI Hero motherboard, i5-4670k at stock speeds cooled by Noctua's U14S, a Superflower 550W Platinum PSU all in a NZXT H440.


Also on thursday, when I manually set up the fan speed to see how loud it gets, I found that at 87% fan speed there was a pretty loud noise that sounded somewhat like as if the fan blades were hitting something.

On closer inspection I found out that the fan closer to the outputs touched the fan power cable (that run right below the fans) if I gently press the blades downward and move them about. That sound hasn't occurred since even though I've tried to replicate it, which is 'probably' a good thing.
 
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goku1234567890

goku1234567890

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The noise is another thing and if it is caused by the fan blades hitting the cable then you can find some work around to keep the wire low so that the blades don't touch them. But the fan speed going up to 80% is certainly a thing to look out for. You sure it went up automatically? Can you tell me the temperature of the card when you are playing a game and when the speed of the fan rises.
 
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Mobius One

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It did go up automatically, I hadn't changed the fan profile. The temperature was hovering around 75°C, and the fan speed basically rises as it should. There's a heatwave going around where I live now, the highest temperature I saw the card go up to was 81°C but usually it stays below 78. However, I've found new problems that most likely have nothing to do with the cable and more or less all to do with the fans themselves...

Oh, and it idles at about 36°C even though the room temperature is about 27°C most of the time.
 
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goku1234567890

goku1234567890

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What are the problems you are facing now? If there is heat wave going around where you live then the 78C is fine. Could post the picture of inside the case, it is may be that the card is touching the case or touching other things and making the noise. Can you double check to be sure that the card is fully seated, does not touch anything.
 
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Mobius One

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I just took out the card, there wasn't any obvious damage to be seen. The PCB is mostly covered by the backplate and heatsink & shroud however, can't tell for sure about it's condition. The assumption that the noise I heard on the day I got the card was because the other cable bends slightly as it runs between the heatsink and the fan, maybe about 40 degrees, enough to scrape the fan blades IF I gently press the blades downward and move them around. Though I can not be sure that was the reason, especially since it hasn't happened since.

As for the problems now, today before I began using the computer I disabled the case fans (the H440 has three 120mm fans in the front as intake and one 140mm fan in the back to exhaust, I don't have any additional fans) to better hear any noise it causes. The only other fan spinning was the CPU cooler, a NH-U14S with the included NF-A15 fan that spins at 300rpm idle and is pretty much completely inaudible.

There is a buzzing noise no matter the fan speed, somewhat like an electric razor I guess. It is faint enough that I couldn't get a good recording of it with my phone, but it is audible to the ear from maybe 40cm away in a silent room. Besides that, there were some precise fan speeds where it caused a much louder, kind of a howling sound. It's hard to describe, here's a recording https://soundcloud.com/mobius2/asus-gtx-770-dcii-howling-fan-noise

And, what I have already noticed last week, the inconsistent noise... I can't really describe it. According to MSI Afterburner the fan RPM keeps going between about 60 or so RPM no matter what speed it is set at, and even more than that at higher speeds (+70%). If the fans are actually doing that, it could explain part of this: https://soundcloud.com/mobius2/asus-gtx-770-dcii-inconsistent-hollow-howl
It's actually fairly loud to the ear, and the case seems to act as an echo chamber, making it even louder than it is with the side panels off. The buzzing noise I talked about can actually be heard in this.
 
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Mobius One

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I bought this to replace my aging HD 5870 (using Sapphire's Vapor-X cooling) and I never heard it cause sounds like this in a little over 4 years of use.
I COULD put it in and mess with the fan speeds on it, too though...

Also, sorry but what did you mean by "Before sending it for RMA for like a week a 2"?
 
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Mobius One

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The motherboard is less than 4 months old and I never heard these sounds with the old GPU.

As a comparison, here's my 5870: https://soundcloud.com/mobius2/as-a-comparison-my-old-5870
You can hear the motor driving the fan, but it's nothing like "whomwhomwhomwhomwhowmhowmhom" as my 770 sounds...
According to MSI Afterburner, the fan RPM varies less than 10RPM on the 5870. Is a variance of >40RPM (and more than 100 at +70%) normal for Asus DCII coolers?

The buzzing noise I talked about might actually be coming from the PSU by the way.
 
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goku1234567890

goku1234567890

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Your power supply doesn't look like it makes a lot of noise. And got to be honest here though hd 5870 sounded much more fierce than gtx 770. At what speed were you running the card? And to be honest i could hardly hear the howling sound of gtx 770 cause of all the noise. Just have to ask one thing did you hear the "whomwhom" sound now? Try plugging the gtx 770 back and see if you hear the whoom sound again. And then try plugging in hd 5870 back again to see if the sound appears.
 
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Mobius One

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The PSU emits a soft buzz that's only audible if you literally put your ear next to it and as I understand, this is completely normal.

The 5870 has a custom cooler (Sapphire Vapor-X) and the fan is a blower-type fan that spins up to 4000RPM. Yes, it's loud even at 60% fan speeds compared to the 770.

And about the "howling" noise, I don't have anything decent to record the sound with, not to mention it'd be best heard with ears. I can assure you though, it is very much loud enough to be bothersome. I've sent a RMA form to the retailer, and will await their response.

No, I do not hear the sounds with the 5870 running that I've heard with the 770. I've tried taking the 770 out multiple times, checked for any obvious damage, spun around the fans a bit to see if they hit anything and checked the nearby area of the card inside the case. Nothing.

Also, I think I said it already but I used the HD 5870 for a bit over 4 years. In all that time I never noticed any oddities in it's noise, just that it's pretty darn loud if the fan speed ramps up.
 
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