Strix RTX 3090 Fan vibration issues

[morph_]

Multiple people on various forums from where I frequent have reported fan vibrations on the Strix shroud more specifically the left fan on load... I have one on order and am nervous about it now since its more than one person having the exact same issue... Seems to be easily reproduced and can be mistaken for coil whine.... here is a video demonstrating it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6cUDftttNuw&ab_channel=%ED%99%A9%EC%88%9C

Some of the quotes:

"When play the game , fan start to spin with high RPM. The noise sounds like coil whine , so I thought it was coil whine and ignore the sounds. Last night the noise got worse so check the card , and the sounds came from the LED cover. When I press the LED cover noise disappear. So it seems the fan may contact the LED cover on high RPM. For me it happen when card is under load so fan start spin. Around 70% of fan speed is makes the noise. I found the left fan makes the sound for me(to find out I have stop the fan with my finger)."

"I noticed the same issue on my 3090 Strix OC last night too.

I can replicate it 100% of the time by just turning up the fan speed with the card at idle. It seems loudest for me at about 65% and the middle fan seems to cause it more.

Pushing on the lightbar doesn't make it go away completely but does decrease the sound significantly. Unlike in your video it decreases the vibration sound when I push on the lightbar on the right hand side (power plug end) of the lightbar about a third of the way along. Pushing where you did does nothing for me.
In all other respects the card works fine it's just a ****ty design/QC."

[curthard89]

My card was collected by my retailer on Friday, they have confirmed delivery of it back to them today, so will see how it goes, i'll keep informed. I think they will just send back to Asus now, will keep everyone posted.

Regarding the GPU mount for sag, for me, it just makes it resonate at a higher RPM, so issue still there, just less likely to get it, if im paying £1699 for a GPU, i should not have to "fix it" myself.

@Yopis, you need to RMA your card with your retailer, who will then send it back to ASUS to sort, don't know time scales, according to Blake, they have the parts ready (or new cards) at their centres. Depending on location and also depends if they have the 3080's not just the 3090's. I believe there is another forum regarding 3080's.

[Yopis]

curthard89 wrote:


@Yopis, you need to RMA your card with your retailer, who will then send it back to ASUS to sort, don't know time scales, according to Blake, they have the parts ready (or new cards) at their centres. Depending on location and also depends if they have the 3080's not just the 3090's. I believe there is another forum regarding 3080's.

Thanks for the info. Keep us updated and hope process goes well for you. For all of us. My first ever gpu. Always said when the time came. Wanted a Strix. Real bummer.

[curthard89]

So far, my UK retailer collected on Friday (free of charge from me via DPD), they received it Monday, with confirmation. Yesterday (20th Jan) they have said they have sent back to Asus. Thats the current update so far.

[funk3r]

I was informed by Blake that USA owners can now send their cards in for RMA. Has anyone done this yet? I trying to get an estimate of the turn around time as this is the only GPU I have at this current time.

[KMagic]

Yea my card has developed this noise now and it is very noticeable if the fans are spinning around 1600 rpm as mentioned. I looked at several videos of others who have this issue and the noise I hear is essentially the same little buzzing sound (not to be confused with the coil whine noise which is also present) My noise does not go away if I push on the light bar or anything howewver. From best I can tell the sound is coming right form the center of the fan. Really hoping it isnt the bearings making that noise but It sure seems to come from that location. Only at very specific RPM's (1500-1700 as stated) is the noise present. I have purchased a verticle GPU mount and may try to use it and see how it goes. I would prefer to leave the gpu horizontally mounted but I've seen other people say vertical mounting fixes the issue.

The worst case scenario in this is that the bearing goes out and the fan eventually fails. I also note that the offending fan is different for everyone reporting the issue. For some it is the first fan, some say the middle fan, and in my case, its the third fan at the end of the card making the noise. It is really disappointing considering the cost of the card. Unlike others, I have zero plan to RMA the card. If the fan eventually fails Ill figure out a solution, even moving to a waterblock and water cooling if I have to.

[KMagic]

Just a quick update on my noise issue - I can confirm that mounting the GPU vertically solves the weird fan noise buzzing that occurs at 1500-1700rpm. I now have no fan noise at all from 0 rpm to 3000 rpm. I really was reluctant to mount the card vertically, because I was worried about thermals, and about having that super hot back plate being directed at my ram and M.2 ssd drives on the Mobo. After testing it however, I am getting 1 degree lower temps at full load on the GPU (67c vs 68c), and have noticed a 1-2c increase in the "system" temperature, which is measured from a sensor on the motherboard, but my system temperatures have always been really good, so a slight uptick is still in a good range. Ive also seen no performance loss (another concern I had with going vertical and using a riser cable). Lastly, with the card vertical, the coil whine seems to be slightly less audible. Ive decided to leave the GPU vertical after my testing, finding that it, to my surprise, is a better fit for my system. I should add however that I run the Lian Li o11 dynamic XL case which has a lot of fans, including 2 140MM on the bottom and 3 120mm front/side as intakes, all corsair ML fans. My 360mm rad is in the top, so no CPU heat being dumped into the case. I also have another 120mm Corsair ML fan in the back of the case for another exhaust so all in all 5 intakes and 4 exhaust fans in this system. The 5 intakes on this case are what really make the vertical gpu switch work so well.

I just got so annoyed hearing that fan noise - for some reason, when playing path of exile my gpu loved to sit at around 62c ( I cap the fps at 120 so the gpu isnt at 100% load) and at 62c the fans would hover right at that point of noise, and that buzzing fan noise was driving me crazy. I still am not certain what causes the noise. I inspected the fan under 10x magnification glass and bright light and poked around and never could find anything wrong. I did notice a slight, possible wear mark on the support arm of the underside of the fan, just below the blades when looking at the face of the card. It was faint, and could be nothing, but it is all I could find. The travel distance between the fan blade and this support arm is very small, but I do find it hard to see how the fan, when in a horizontal mounting position would hit this arm, as the fan spinning should actually levitate outward not in toward the card you would think. So, I am still not sure if the fan is hitting something, if the fan is causing some little vibration of something, or if the noise is coming from the actual fan bearing. Its really hard to pin point without taking some real drastic measures, like totally pulling the fan off the board, power it up on its own and being able to monitor it, maneuver it, and inspect it outside of the card.

tldr: If you want to stop the fan noise 100%, and dont want to RMA, get a vertical gpu mount.

[rawbar]

exactly. i posted on 1/17 after mounting vertically it's been completely silent. since then, i've been mining ETH and running the card at 100% 24/7 and there hasn't been a single peep. nothing but blissful silence

[mr_illa]

This has been my issues with the card........ enjoy

https://linustechtips.com/topic/1297167-strix-3090-coil-whine-solved-due-to-thermal-pads-with-no-con...

Wake up asus please this will effect your bottom line_______________________________ time to act is now

[KMagic]

mr_illa wrote:
This has been my issues with the card........ enjoy

https://linustechtips.com/topic/1297167-strix-3090-coil-whine-solved-due-to-thermal-pads-with-no-con...

Wake up asus please this will effect your bottom line_______________________________ time to act is now

I have not noticed any gaps on the thermal pads of my card as you show in the pic. I do however have coil whine, as I think many 3090's do. Coil whine is annoying, but it does not mean anything is wrong with the card. Its completely normal for coil whine to exist on a healthy card. The noise you are hearing is vibration in one of the circuits on the board as current passes through it. As the current changes, the sound will change, so you likely notice the noise pitch will shift and change based on the rendering load. The only way to truly address coil whine is to isolate where it is coming from on the board, and try to dampen it or prevent the vibration caused by current. Some folks are able to isolate it for example and put a thermal pad over the circuit and it stops it, or drastically reduces it.

My strix 3090 does produce probably the loudest coil whine I've heard on a card before, but its not the only card I've had it happen on. Perhaps there is something they could do to lessen it, but the important thing is that the coil whine is normal. Most all electronics have coil whine, its just a matter of how audible it is. It just is unfortunate that in this card its very audible. The card isn't broken though. Coil whine in fact has no negative impact on the card at all - its just that it is annoying to listen to. Some folks also seem to think changing the power supply will affect it, but power supply will have no impact on coil whine. Whatever is vibrating due to current is always going to vibrate when current flows through it. Your only option to stop it is to find out what is vibrating and throw a pad on it.

If you are tech savy, you can disassemble the cooler from the card, and put in new thermal padding and repaste the die. If you look around online you can find where some folks have found they think the noise is coming from. Throw some thermal pads on the area if you find it, and it should help. If you are just angry and feel asus are bad though, then RMA it, but just know that even a new one is almost certainly going to have coil whine as well.

EDIT: Just want to clarify, that coil whine and the issue expressed here with the fans are two entirely seperate issues. Do not confuse or mingle the two. The noises are similar however, both being a buzzing type sound. Some folks have made the mistake of thinking the fan issue noise is coil whine, and vice versa, but the noises from these two issues are entirely seperate and have nothing to do with one another. Coil whine is easy to tell apart because it will shift and change with various renderig loads, and will persist even if you manually turn the fans off with software.

[Botrin]

Hello everyone, I have had an Asus Rog Strix 3090 OC for about a month, and I wanted to share my experience, three weeks after having it the fan closest to the video connections started making noise, the same thing happens to other users From this forum, I have contacted Asus Spain I told them my case and I am still waiting for them to tell me something; As I consider myself a knowledgeable user and given my situation, I examined the card carefully and noticed that the fan in some area was very close to the card housing, without actually touching, I disassembled the card, accessed the fans that are fixed with two screws and the fan that made noise by loosening the two screws I put it more in the center, take advantage of it and cleaned the thermal paste and reapplied it, I mounted the card and I have been more than a week without any noise. I share my experience because it solved the problem for me. A greeting.