Graphics card fan poiting at bottom of case, extremely loud?

[OmikronGT]

I have a XFX Radeon HD7850 2GB Core Edition, and it sits right at the bottom of the case, with the fan facing into the bottom. This can't be good for cooling, right? Why would they put the fan there? I ran a resource intensive game (if you call a driving simulator a game) and it got extremely loud. It could have been the CPU as well, but the GPU is more likely since it was only while playing. When I quit, the noise went down very gradually back to normal. Could the fan placement be causing this? It's a good card that I didn't expect to be very noisy, however the noise can be heard all around the house at times. Or am I going mad and actually it's the CPU fan? (GPU fan placement is still a concern though).

 

[clutchc]

The card can't be that close to the bottom, can it? Is there more than one PCIe X16 slot? Do you know the model of motherboard you have, and the make/model of case?

 

[Jaxem]

that's odd slot placement on the board, must have a top mounted PSU, but if you have another slot, move it up. Those core editions with the single fan have inadequate cooling, so i'm not super surprised. being next to a metal panel probably just amplifies the sound. the coolest air is at the bottom of the case though, so as long as you're more than a half inch from the bottom, it's not suffocating. The only other thing is to point a fan at it if possible or put an aftermarket cooler on it maybe.

 

[OmikronGT]

The card can't be that close to the bottom, can it? Is there more than one PCIe X16 slot? Do you know the model of motherboard you have, and the make/model of case?

The motherboard has 2, but the graphics card is so big it takes up the space of 2. Motherboard is an Asrock something, micro-atx, and the case is a Fractal Design Core 1000, also micro-atx.
Here's a picture of it:

 

[Jaxem]

That's not so close to the bottom that it would cause that problem. It's probably echo and the fact that a single fan is cooling that monster GPU.

 

[clutchc]

Yeah, that is a poorly designed board. They should have put the card slot at the top instead of the x1 slot. Being you have a top mount PSU, that adds to the problem of having the card close to the bottom. It probably is generating more noise because of its close proximity to the metal floor of the case. But it is still up far enough for air flow.

The extra loud fan noise when gaming, could just as easily be the stock AMD cooler you have. They are notoriously loud when they rev up to higher speeds. And that would happen when gaming.