Info Intel ARC owners thread. 68 games tested, retested, and counting. Includes productivity experiences. Feel free to add your results.

DAPUNISHER said:

Sparkle can fill a niche but I have read the fan is terrible on it, and can't be controlled.

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I don't even hear it when it's processing conversions at full tilt. Now, when it wasn't seated correctly and the fan hit 100% with the case open it was quite apparent. I think a combo of the case/fans/firmware/codec make a difference. I've got it dialed in on my AMD setup to the point where the GPU engaged less than 2 CPU cores using QSV. Default though it would use 6-8 cores depending on the source file/codec.

I can't speak to the gaming aspect though which might spin things up moreso than converting video files.

DAPUNISHER said:

Thanks for the hands on feedback, that's good info for anyone with a similar use case. Most of the fan noise complaints were user reviews on Newegg. A few on r/IntelArc.

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I don't get what people are doing that makes their system so loud. Decent case and keeping the system cool with multiple fans that are able to run at lower RPMs. It's not rocket science it's just moving air properly instead of relying on what ships with the case / cooler. Of course the driver version you're suing makes a difference as well. The difference though between the A3xx/5xx/7xx shouldn't be that much different from a design stand point to make them sound like you're in the path of an airport though. If they're loud then there's something to be looked at like pulling the heat sink and checking the paste and/or replacing it w/ a graphite pad instead. Sometimes though there's a lemon in production and the fan just needs to be replaced.

There's been a couple of mentions recently of open air systems running even dual RTX 4's and staying at ambient temps so.... I would think it's a design issue of how they're building their systems and not giving it enough room to breathe properly. The only time I really had any noise issues with any system was when I was mining and had to do some fan control to find a balance between temps / productivity. IIRC setting the fans on the GPUs to ~70% was the best option.

Then again I can envision people putting their ear on the case and listening for something to B about. "Normal" use though should drown out the sounds unless something else is wrong and ramping up the fans.

ID-10-T but yeah.... I suppose the other issue is being a teenager and having supersonic hearing. Not to mention not having anything else to do but focus on their precious.

I've been in this game back to the days of RAM being sold by the MB and consoles only being things like Atari. Back when the internet was text based and very very very slow.

There's a reason my "ignore" button gets used so much on forums. When you filter the noise it gets pretty quiet and manageable to actually pick up on threads that are worthwhile. I don't bother reporting the spam / bots anymore as it's pointless and there's always another one waiting to post.

I guess the point here is to manage expectations and respond accordingly. If you want silence then put a passive cooler on the damned thing or stick it in a eGPU box to kill the acoustics. Off the shelf and into your system isn't usually going to be the most efficient HW can be and meet your expectations.