MSI 560Ti too loud

They make noise, too.

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Urban Reflex
Posts: 18
Joined: Mon Jan 28, 2008 5:09 pm
Location: England

MSI 560Ti too loud

Post by Urban Reflex » Wed Feb 06, 2013 8:57 am

This is the GPU I have: http://uk.msi.com/product/vga/N560GTX-T ... D5-OC.html
I got it because all the reviews said it was both powerful and quiet. However, whilst I found the first bit to be true, the second not so much!

The first card I had I had to RMA, but it was super quiet even under load. Minimum fan speed on this card is 40%, and that's what it idled at (about 40°C) and it was about 60-70% speed under load. Beautiful.

However, after the RMA the second card was a lot louder. Idle noise levels were fine, but when you started playing any game it would ramp up to maybe 80-90% fan speed (I haven't got actual numbers to hand) and was considerably more off putting.

I put up with it for a while, thinking it may just be because the card was new and it'd settle down. However, this didn't happen. The noise was really too loud, it was harming my gaming experience, even with headphones. So I decided to do something about it.

I tried replacing the factory default thermal paste with Arctic Cooling MX-4. Cleaned it all up nice with white spirit, made sure there was no air in the application, cleared dust out of the heatsink but whoops, I made it worse. It's now 100°C and 100% fan speed. Unbearable.

I've tried redoing it with more and with less paste, but still the same results. Anyone have any ideas what I should try next?

edh
Posts: 1621
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Re: MSI 560Ti too loud

Post by edh » Wed Feb 06, 2013 10:21 am

Urban Reflex wrote:This is the GPU I have: http://uk.msi.com/product/vga/N560GTX-T ... D5-OC.html
It might sound nitpicky but I'm not picking on you in particular here, it's a general terminology issue :wink: . The GPU you have is an NVIDIA GTX 560, the video card you have is an MSI N560GTX Ti Twin Frozr II. GPU != video card, a GPU is the main component of an NVIDIA video card and was an NVIDIA invented term. There was a time when ATI called the Radeon chip a VPU (video processing unit) to distinguish it but now GPU tends to refer to both. Anyway, moving on to your issue.
Urban Reflex wrote:I made it worse. It's now 100°C and 100% fan speed.
You no longer have good thermal conduction between the GPU and the heatsink, that's all this says but there could be a few causes. When you removed the heatsink for the second time was the thermal paste showing signs of sticking to both the heatspreader and the heatsink? If so, it doesn't matter how many times you thermal paste it or what paste you use because the heatspreader on the GPU may have come slightly loose when you removed the stock heatsink. The GTX 560 has a built in heatspreader so this is one guess. It's a nightmare to diagnose this problem if you have it and needs a good level of manual skill to remove the heatspreader but it is possible.

That's the most serious thing that could be wrong and the one I'd check first. Here is a guide to IHS removal:
http://www.overclock.net/t/1156145/offi ... reader-ihs

Urban Reflex
Posts: 18
Joined: Mon Jan 28, 2008 5:09 pm
Location: England

Re: MSI 560Ti too loud

Post by Urban Reflex » Wed Feb 06, 2013 3:43 pm

edh wrote:It might sound nitpicky but I'm not picking on you in particular here, it's a general terminology issue :wink: . The GPU you have is an NVIDIA GTX 560, the video card you have is an MSI N560GTX Ti Twin Frozr II. GPU != video card, a GPU is the main component of an NVIDIA video card and was an NVIDIA invented term. There was a time when ATI called the Radeon chip a VPU (video processing unit) to distinguish it but now GPU tends to refer to both. Anyway, moving on to your issue.
Apologies, I was just being lazy and not really thinking what I was typing!
edh wrote:You no longer have good thermal conduction between the GPU and the heatsink, that's all this says but there could be a few causes. When you removed the heatsink for the second time was the thermal paste showing signs of sticking to both the heatspreader and the heatsink? If so, it doesn't matter how many times you thermal paste it or what paste you use because the heatspreader on the GPU may have come slightly loose when you removed the stock heatsink. The GTX 560 has a built in heatspreader so this is one guess. It's a nightmare to diagnose this problem if you have it and needs a good level of manual skill to remove the heatspreader but it is possible.

That's the most serious thing that could be wrong and the one I'd check first. Here is a guide to IHS removal:
http://www.overclock.net/t/1156145/offi ... reader-ihs
Sounds ominous. When I tried to separate the heatsink / spreader the FIRST time, there was a lot of thermal paste on both. I wouldn't say it was stuck, though, as most of it came off with tissue and white spirit really easily. Apart from a small, really tough, burned-on dry bit of paste on the spreader, which took me some while to remove. This bit of paste has actually left a faint oily-looking mark on the spreader.

The second time I split them, it was really difficult to actually pull them apart... it was almost like they were vacuum-sealed together. There was a fair bit of sliding involved before they would come loose, but after that all the paste came away easily with tissue and white spirit.

Not sure I want to go through with taking apart the processor area... but I'm already thinking about buying another card so I don't really have anything to lose....

Spoon Boy
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Re: MSI 560Ti too loud

Post by Spoon Boy » Wed Feb 06, 2013 4:52 pm

Probably not a good idea to use white spirits to clean goop as it is oil based and may leave behind a residue that will inhibit the newly applied goop.
Best to use a proper cleaner designed for goop cleaning or just buy some isopropyl alcohol.

edh
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Location: UK

Re: MSI 560Ti too loud

Post by edh » Thu Feb 07, 2013 2:24 am

Urban Reflex wrote:Not sure I want to go through with taking apart the processor area... but I'm already thinking about buying another card so I don't really have anything to lose....
Well if you're at the point of having to buy another card potentially then this would make sense. It's a rare occurence thankfully but what you have reported of very high temps even after several attempts at resticking the heatsink, the thermal conduction problem seems to be underneath.

Another thing that would help in this diagnosis is whether or not the heatsink itself gets hot. 100C will burn you so be careful what you touch but if the heatsink is not boiling hot it tells you that the heat isn't getting through to it which would confirm a heatspreader problem.

flemeister
Posts: 346
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Location: Australia

Re: MSI 560Ti too loud

Post by flemeister » Thu Feb 07, 2013 2:46 am

Can you see any light peeking through between the heatsink and GPU? Like this:

Image

Urban Reflex
Posts: 18
Joined: Mon Jan 28, 2008 5:09 pm
Location: England

Re: MSI 560Ti too loud

Post by Urban Reflex » Fri Feb 08, 2013 2:49 am

The whole heatsink itself gets pretty hot. I haven't checked the heatspreader itself (I can do) but I would've thought that the heat transfer to the heatsink would be enough to let me know the heat is getting through the heatspreader?

There's no gap between the heatsink and the heatspreader, it's sealed tight.

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