Fury Nano with acceptable levels of coil whine is possible!

[Madpacket]

After more than a month of multiple exchanges of Fury Nano cards at NewEgg I finally received a Fury Nano that doesn't sound like crowded concert of cicada's on a hot summer day.

Sure the coils still vibrate a little under load and even cause all three of the power supplies tested to also independently sing the coil whine song (which I found somewhat surprising) but stuffed in a Thermaltake ITX case a few feet away from where I sit the coil whine is no longer LOUDER than the fan noise the Nano makes under full loads. I can live with this as the noise is on par or perhaps a tad louder than my EVGA Geforce 960 SSC card but much quieter than the Asus 970 Strixx I got rid of a while ago.

AMD really messed up the QC of VRM of these cards. I know the reviews pointed this out and I'm not sure how popular this card is overall due to the niche market they target but I'm glad I stuck it out and got a good one.

Other than the price the card is a fantastic performer paired up with my 4790K and a MG279Q Freesync monitor. The challenge will now be to fit this build into my Osmi ITX case but if successful it should be pretty awesome

I should mention with Freesync enabled and running max or almost max details in GTA-V, Witcher 3 and BF4 the coil whine, while still noticeable, was finally acceptable even with huge swings in framerate. The loudest I could get the card to scream in a normal gaming situation was in Borderlands 2 which was annoying but still acceptable. Also with Freesync disabled and if set to 144hz monitor refresh rate with lowered details the noise was a tad louder but still very acceptable.

The two Sapphire Nano's were just RIDICULOUSLY loud performing the same tests, to the point my wife from another room asked me during the flyby test in 3DMark "What is that awful noise?"

For others who may be interested in getting a good one. The first two cards were from Sapphire and screamed equally as loud and the last one came from XFX. I understand these are all "reference" cards and are probably produced by Sapphire but there is a clear difference between my last card - the XFX unit - and Sapphire cards NewEgg is selling.

Like most other high end cards it's luck of the draw but I believe *all* Nano's suffer from some amount of coil whine due to the very tight design of the VRM's. The point is you can get one that's acceptable but just make sure you either buy one locally with a good exchange policy or it may take a long time to get a good one (unless you're lucky!).

<RANT>

How video card manufactures think it's acceptable to sell cards with features such as "zero fan" technology yet the coil whine of some of these same cards is so loud it makes the zero fan technology pointless is beyond me. This trend really needs to stop.

</RANT>

 

[XFXSupport]

We're sorry you had trouble finding a quiet Nano. The only major coil whine issue we had was with the Fury X's at launch which was quickly resolved on the 2nd run. All of those issues should be cleared by now.

The Nano coil whine is something i haven't heard anything about yet. It could be a rash of bad luck since the 3rd card is working.

Anyway, we hear you, its not something we take lightly either. Quality Control is paramount to brand protection, consumer loyalty, and all the other brand/sales stuff companies need to stay competitive in this market.

I personally spend a lot of time roaming the internet checking comments about our brand and helping people anyway I can. We stand behind our products and don't look at customers as a burn-and-turn sale.

As always, if there's anything you need, let me know.

Mark at XFX

 

[KingFatty]

Good points, and it's a shame that it's still down to luck of the draw.

I hate the feeling of helplessness when it comes to coil whine.

But is there any in-depth analysis done by any of the tech sites on how to approach the situation? Like maybe anything you can do to address coil whine at all, other than returning the card over and over again?

 

[3DVagabond]

Not just because Mark is in this thread, but I always recommend XFX where possible. Also their PSU's.

 

[Madpacket]

Thanks for the reply Mark. I'm normally not particular to any brand, especially with reference designs when all cards are manufactured from the same facility so if you can differentiate your brand through customer service I will stick to your products.

FYI when reviews samples of the Nano's went out a lot of sites complained about coil whine. PCPer did a recording of their review sample. My XFX unit sounds very similar to this one which I can live with as this is much quieter than the Sapphire units I had.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pxeHcTcg5nE

Hardware Canucks also did a review of the Nano with a louder coil whine issue, the sound of their unit mirrors my experience with the Sapphire cards:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NsjwQ1TwgIY

Skip to 4:30 to hear it.

Here's another good Nano sound test. This card has less coil whine than my XFX Nano.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PCKYnQZb6gw

As you can see, this isn't something that went unnoticed but it's variable on how bad it gets.

When spending $950 CAD on a video-card you would hope things like coil whine would be a priority to get right. Cost doesn't seem to matter though. Perhaps I was just unlucky with my first two cards, perhaps people can't hear above a specific frequency and are oblivious to it but the Sapphire units were terribly loud.

 

[tential]

I'm 100% with you op. Coil whine is part of the reason I'm boycotting these gpus amd released. Fury x and nano are unacceptable the way they launched with issues like that on a premium luxury brand amd released. Sorry, if amd had simply plugged a card in or two, they would have been like "something is wrong and we're not as quiet as we want to be let's fix this!".

It makes me angry beyond belief op about how little it seems these companies think of proper cooling. My standards are high, but it's been years and years at this point you should have a decent cooler.

This is why I prefer sapphire custom coolers. They've been great so far for me. I have slight coil whine at load screens but everything else is amazing and I usually game with vsync on sine I can't go over 60 hz

 

[boozzer]

Thanks for the reply Mark. I'm normally not particular to any brand, especially with reference designs when all cards are manufactured from the same facility so if you can differentiate your brand through customer service I will stick to your products.

FYI when reviews samples of the Nano's went out a lot of sites complained about coil whine. PCPer did a recording of their review sample. My XFX unit sounds very similar to this one which I can live with as this is much quieter than the Sapphire units I had.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pxeHcTcg5nE

Hardware Canucks also did a review of the Nano with a louder coil whine issue, the sound of their unit mirrors my experience with the Sapphire cards:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NsjwQ1TwgIY

Skip to 4:30 to hear it.

Here's another good Nano sound test. This card has less coil whine than my XFX Nano.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PCKYnQZb6gw

As you can see, this isn't something that went unnoticed but it's variable on how bad it gets.

When spending $950 CAD on a video-card you would hope things like coil whine would be a priority to get right. Cost doesn't seem to matter though. Perhaps I was just unlucky with my first two cards, perhaps people can't hear above a specific frequency and are oblivious to it but the Sapphire units were terribly loud.

wow the 2nd link, now that is a coil whine. there was a thread with fury x and bs about coil whine when it was just the fans.

what is up with the clacking sound in the 3rd video?

 

[KingFatty]

I'm 100% with you op. Coil whine is part of the reason I'm boycotting these gpus amd released. Fury x and nano are unacceptable the way they launched with issues like that on a premium luxury brand amd released. Sorry, if amd had simply plugged a card in or two, they would have been like "something is wrong and we're not as quiet as we want to be let's fix this!".

It makes me angry beyond belief op about how little it seems these companies think of proper cooling. My standards are high, but it's been years and years at this point you should have a decent cooler.

This is why I prefer sapphire custom coolers. They've been great so far for me. I have slight coil whine at load screens but everything else is amazing and I usually game with vsync on sine I can't go over 60 hz

Are you sure it's an AMD thing, or is it the various vendors using components that whine?

 

[tential]

It seems odd that the reference designs from amd in the r9 fury x and nano both have large amounts of units with coil whine. Is the same true for fury? To my knowledge it's not.

 

[Madpacket]

wow the 2nd link, now that is a coil whine. there was a thread with fury x and bs about coil whine when it was just the fans.

what is up with the clacking sound in the 3rd video?

My card clacks a little and I correlated the noise with large power differences when monitoring my Killawatt. The clacking noise isn't really noticeable when the card is in a case.

 

[Madpacket]

Are you sure it's an AMD thing, or is it the various vendors using components that whine?

I think in this case the design of the VRM's the Nano' use (no idea if the regular Fury has the problem), some level of noise will be prevalent in all cards. I would like to hear from other Nano owners to see if their cards suffer though.

Nvidia isn't exempt from this. They had huge issues with their 970's but at least with the 970's you can buy different designs. When talking to a NewEgg rep on the phone for my first RMA'd Sapphire Nano, he immediately knew what I was talking about WRT coil whine. He told me last year when the 970's came out they were getting huge amounts of them returned for this same reason.

It would be awesome if XFX or any manufacturer for that matter released a card that guaranteed "no or very limited amounts of coil whine" card.

I'm not an electronics engineer but I don't believe people when they say they can't design a card without some amount of coil whine. I've had cards that draw 2x the power of the Nano that generate no noticeable coil whine.

 

[Madpacket]

It seems odd that the reference designs from amd in the r9 fury x and nano both have large amounts of units with coil whine. Is the same true for fury? To my knowledge it's not.

We know the Fury had a pump noise issue but I haven't heard anything about them also suffering from coil whine. The Nano and regular Fury have different VRM designs.

 

[KingFatty]

Plus with coil whine, it's super-annoying sound. So even if it's a low intensity/decibel sound, it totally gets on your nerves.

So a louder fan noise is still preferable to a softer coil whine, within certain ranges depending. Reviews should start focusing on coil whine performance, as distinct from fan noise.

 

[tential]

Sorry pump noise. It seems to me though that if I'm spending 650 on a gpu that's supposed to be quiet like you did. That it should be quiet and that coil whine shouldn't be a worry. I would love to spend 650-1000 on a gpu. I'm not convinced I'll actually get a product I'm happy with though when I see what is going on. I'll wait for the x2 design and subsequent arctic Islands design (one I'll actually buy or want to buy) but it annoys me that this is a massive thought in my head at the high end when you'd think that this level of expenditure would net you somr quality control and some desire shown to ensure we get products that are amazing in performance, cooling, and acoustics, and not just a pick 1-2 scenario

 

[boozzer]

Plus with coil whine, it's super-annoying sound. So even if it's a low intensity/decibel sound, it totally gets on your nerves.

So a louder fan noise is still preferable to a softer coil whine, within certain ranges depending. Reviews should start focusing on coil whine performance, as distinct from fan noise.

if any gpu exhibits coil whine like the one from the 2nd video I would 1000% want a refund.

 

[Madpacket]

Ack..

So I turn on the PC today to play some Diablo 3 locked at 90Hz (max FreeSync refresh rate of my monitor) and the noise is much louder than I recall being when testing the other day. The XFX unit sounds more like the second video card than the first one now. High pitched whine instead of steady thudding, ugh...

I think I'm throwing in the towel on this card, going to send it back as well. Sorry AMD, three strikes your out! No Fury Nano for me.

Anyone know when Arctic Islands is expected to come out?

 

[Madpacket]

Sorry pump noise. It seems to me though that if I'm spending 650 on a gpu that's supposed to be quiet like you did. That it should be quiet and that coil whine shouldn't be a worry. I would love to spend 650-1000 on a gpu. I'm not convinced I'll actually get a product I'm happy with though when I see what is going on. I'll wait for the x2 design and subsequent arctic Islands design (one I'll actually buy or want to buy) but it annoys me that this is a massive thought in my head at the high end when you'd think that this level of expenditure would net you somr quality control and some desire shown to ensure we get products that are amazing in performance, cooling, and acoustics, and not just a pick 1-2 scenario

Yup exactly. How hard would it be for AMD to design a card not prone to coil whine? I mean we have 8 core CPU's that consume up to 220W under load and the motherboards they go into make no perceivable coil whine.

Why is this acceptable for video cards?

 

[tential]

It's upsetting Madpacket. I can't do the 3 return thing like you did. I simply won't buy day 1 like I plan to with AMD with how they treated FuryX/Nano.

I need more info on Arctic Islands myself. This first round of HBM cards was disappointing enough with the FuryX/Nano that I boycotted them personally. To me, launching 2 flagship level cards of $650 with the cooling issues FuryX/Nano had was unacceptable. I was willing to be the first person in line to get a Fury X at $650, even with the poor perf/$ ratio, but not with the pump issues, coil whine, and "overclockers dream" things going on.
I'm waiting on more information on Arctic Islands myself. Right now, I'm hoping they continue the x2 WC designs and that there aren't pump issues, and that it comes out at a REASONABLE time frame after the flagship card comes out. Like right now, the X2 card from AMD is too late.

 

[Madpacket]

It's upsetting Madpacket. I can't do the 3 return thing like you did. I simply won't buy day 1 like I plan to with AMD with how they treated FuryX/Nano.

I need more info on Arctic Islands myself. This first round of HBM cards was disappointing enough with the FuryX/Nano that I boycotted them personally. To me, launching 2 flagship level cards of $650 with the cooling issues FuryX/Nano had was unacceptable. I was willing to be the first person in line to get a Fury X at $650, even with the poor perf/$ ratio, but not with the pump issues, coil whine, and "overclockers dream" things going on.
I'm waiting on more information on Arctic Islands myself. Right now, I'm hoping they continue the x2 WC designs and that there aren't pump issues, and that it comes out at a REASONABLE time frame after the flagship card comes out. Like right now, the X2 card from AMD is too late.

Yeah lesson learned (always the hard way). I have a 280X to tide me over until the next-gen GPU's arrive but I'm a little angry I can't use Freesync until then. Perhaps I'll just sell the 280X and pickup a 390 for now.

I'll use my Osmi case for another project.

 

[Techhog]

It's upsetting Madpacket. I can't do the 3 return thing like you did. I simply won't buy day 1 like I plan to with AMD with how they treated FuryX/Nano.

I need more info on Arctic Islands myself. This first round of HBM cards was disappointing enough with the FuryX/Nano that I boycotted them personally. To me, launching 2 flagship level cards of $650 with the cooling issues FuryX/Nano had was unacceptable. I was willing to be the first person in line to get a Fury X at $650, even with the poor perf/$ ratio, but not with the pump issues, coil whine, and "overclockers dream" things going on.
I'm waiting on more information on Arctic Islands myself. Right now, I'm hoping they continue the x2 WC designs and that there aren't pump issues, and that it comes out at a REASONABLE time frame after the flagship card comes out. Like right now, the X2 card from AMD is too late.

Cooling issues? Uh... What?

 

[tential]

Yeah lesson learned (always the hard way). I have a 280X to tide me over until the next-gen GPU's arrive but I'm a little angry I can't use Freesync until then. Perhaps I'll just sell the 280X and pickup a 390 for now.

I'll use my Osmi case for another project.

Id pick up the 390. My 290 is my stopgap freesync card.
Then I'd wait for the Arctic islands variant. I think the next time around amd will pay more attention to coil whine and pump noise.

 

[Madpacket]

Id pick up the 390. My 290 is my stopgap freesync card.
Then I'd wait for the Arctic islands variant. I think the next time around amd will pay more attention to coil whine and pump noise.

The irony is I sold my unlocked 290 water-cooled reference card as I was banking on the Fury Nano to be my new card. I understand the 390's are on par or maybe a little better than the 290X's (at least the reference ones with Elpedia RAM which I had).

I sold the 290 for $250 plus a perfectly working Sapphire 280X OC (which has zero coil whine lol!).

If I can unload the 280X for around $200 that will just about cover a new 390 so back to square one.

Once you go Freesync you can't unsee it. It makes such a huge difference

 

[tential]

Thanks man for that. That's why I want freesync. What refresh rates are you using it at?
I'm at 60hz but want freesync and 4k to smooth out the dips below 60hz and also so that I never have to worry about vsync and triple buffering etc ever again.

 

[Madpacket]

Thanks man for that. That's why I want freesync. What refresh rates are you using it at?
I'm at 60hz but want freesync and 4k to smooth out the dips below 60hz and also so that I never have to worry about vsync and triple buffering etc ever again.

I run freesync at a range of 35-90hz which allows cards like the 290 or 390 to mask the dips pretty well. Games like the Witcher 3 or GTAV and BF4 really benefit from it.

For older games that can sustain high framerates I disable freesync and run at the native 144hz.

4K is still too limited IMHO, 60Hz is looks great until you run a game at higher sustained framerate and then the same problem happens. You can't unsee how smooth gaming is at 85+ Hz compared to 60. Sure the detail in some games at 4K is insane but I prefer smoother frame delivery.

Anyways, if you're dead set on going 4K please get a monitor with freesync. It'll even help 60hz monitors with the dips that normally cause judder and tearing.

 

[SPBHM]

I remember having VGAs with horrible coil whine back in 2004, it's amazing that they still don't care enough to eliminate the problem.

it's one of the first things I test when I get a new card, fan noise is not to annoying, but coil whine is enough for me to stop using a card.