SPARKLE Intel Arc unstable fan RPM

[viktr]

There are several issuses with my Intel Arc A770 fans.

1) If I set any fixed speed, the actual RPM constantly fluctuates at +/-100 rpm, for example at 35% it goes from 1300 to 1500 rpm, which is really frustrating – the moment the fans are speeding up is very, very audible.

So the driver / firmware / fan controller is not able to keep the desired fixed speed.

2) If I set a fixed speed at a minimum, which is 30%, or Auto, the fan behaviour becomes even worse. The fans are stopping every other second to 0 rpm and immediately ramping up to 1300-ish rpm. This behaviour is not only very noisy and frustrating, but also, I believe, is deadly for the fans. They obviously won't last for too long having a 1000 starts and stops PER HOUR. It makes roughly 8 millions start-stop cycles in a year, so them will be dead pretty soon.

At this point I am not even insisting on the lower speed of fan control between 0 and 1300, I would be really happy, if you had properly configured the fan cotnroller to

a) keep the set speed by properly adjusting the PID module;

b) prevent fans from stopping and ramping up again around minimum RPM by adding either lowest RPM limits with time delay before off and on, or

c) setting up a temperature hysteresis for Automatic control.

I have SPARKLE Intel Arc A770 TITAN OC Edition 16G and the latest available driver version 31.0.101.5445

Thanks.

[RamyerM_Intel]

Hello viktr, 

Thank you for creating another post in the communities! Let us check for this information internally and get back to you on this thread as soon as possible. 

Ramyer M.

Intel Customer Support Technician 

[RamyerM_Intel]

Hello viktr, 

After coordinating with our team, we would like to inform you that the team behind the SPARKLE Intel Arc A770 TITAN OC Edition is aware of the issue and is actively working on a resolution. For further assistance and detailed support, we highly recommend contacting Sparkle, your Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM). You may also check this community forum as reference: With fan curve and 1st two positions set to 30%, GPU fans intermittently briefly drop to 0%

Ramyer M. 

Intel Customer Support Technician

[MikeJendrny]

Hello @RamyerM_Intel ,

are there any news on a firmware update?

I just bought a Sparkle A770 Titan card and after it was installed I was shocked hearing the fans spinning up to 1300 RPM every 20 seconds.

Its realy noisy and as viktr already said... this is not good for the fan life time.

If a firmware is comming soon I guess I will keep the card... otherwise it goes back to the seller.

Thanks and best regards

Mike

[HidEaL]

Hello,

I'm replying on this discussion post, as it seems to be both the most recent and the most relatable to my own experience.

I have a SPARKLE Intel Arc A770 TITAN OC Edition 16Gb, same as @viktr , and experience exactly the same fan issues, both point 1) and point 2).

I have tested all the most recent drivers for the period I have owned this card so far (starting with 31.0.101.5445, and all the way to yesterday's 31.0.101.5522 version), and the fan behaviour doesn't change.

Now, here are my worries:

@RamyerM_Intel, you claim that on Sparkle's side, the team is working on a resolution. Some reports say that it would be two months for the firmware update to show up on intel's drivers. Those reports are already close to 3 months old, and the issue has been around for this specific Sparkle model, and a couple others that are not Intel's reference design. For reference, here are the reports I'm talking about.  Also, I have tried to talk to Sparkle's costumer support, to no avail. Zero response.

Adding insult to injury, , there are a number of issues (both open and closed) at Intel's GPU Community Issue Tracker regarding this subject (see here , here , here and here) with different models of graphic cards, and on the closed issues, the argument for the problem already being solved is something along the lines of "that the fan curve was built to specifications with minimum 30% PWM as defined by product architecture requirements. This setting/configuration will not be changed as this will cause issues broadly for many more users with different fan configurations." I'm sorry, but this is not a compelling nor convincing answer at all! For one, the issue already happens on different graphic cards anyway, and two, if the minimum PWM value is 30%, and that needs to be kept as is, can we at least get some basic hysterisis configuration (+/- 10-15ºC I'd say)?

This apparently simple issue is ruining the ownership experience of what is otherwise a pretty solid product at this point, usability wise.

[EugeneK1]

ASRock Phantom gaming A770  16gb the actual RPM constantly fluctuates at +/-200 rpm. 30%  it goes from 1330 to 1550 rpm.  This moment the fans are speeding up is very, very audible.

101.5522

[HidEaL]

Several months and driver revisions later, the problem remains, with the exact same symptoms and on several board partners cards.

Either it is a FW issue or driver issue, it doesn't seem like its being addressed in the slightlest. Very disappointing.

[Alesons]

you need to tell me that there is  any form of fw bc my mind gonna explode its not that bad when you game or watch a movie but for god sake its just so loud and the 32% fan speed is just unacceptable i have thinked of trying to install linux and meaby there is a fw or custom driver that fixes this issue and why there isn't a single video on yt about it like not even gamernexus sayed anything in their rewiew and I file kinda scamed bc of it and I am on point where I waited to long for returning this piece of **bleep** and no one will buy it

I can't even contact sparkle about this issue bc on their page they dont suport my region of phone number wich is poland and i hope they finaly make the fw how bad is it when linux comunnity basicly make their own drivers

[seventh]

I'm glad I found this topic. I was about to purchase it, but thanks to you guys, I definitely won't waste my money.

[HidEaL]

Just as an update (not that there's anything different):

1 - After SEVERAL drivers (and 2 fw updates, included in the driver), fan behaviour remains the same, even as of today, with driver 32.0.101.6332.

2 - Fans keep turning on and off if any point of the fan curve is set below 34% PWM, which is how I set mine. I prefer constant fan ON noise, instead of on/off cycles which distract me and most likely damages the fan motors in the long run.

3 - Now that the ambient temperature is colder, the fans exhibit the turn on and off behaviour BELOW 25ºC GPU temp (Intel Control software only "works" above 25ºC GPU temp, apparently). Not sure what to make of this, to be honest. As GPU temp hits 25ºC, fan control takes over (with constant fan ON behaviour), and it goes to 34% PWM (as per my config, described in point 2).

In my particular case, I have an A770 Titan OC 16Gb from Sparkle. There are more cases being reported for this model, and other models:

https://community.intel.com/t5/Intel-ARC-Graphics/With-fan-curve-and-1st-two-positions-set-to-30-GPU-fans/td-p/1571424/page/2

 https://community.intel.com/t5/Intel-ARC-Graphics/Intel-Arc-A310-ECO-s-fan-is-still-very-noisy/td-p/1626394/emcs_t/S2h8ZW1haWx8dG9waWNfc3Vic2NyaXB0aW9ufE0yQTBBQkY5T1ZDSE1LfDE2MzczMDB8U1VCU0NSSVBUSU9OU3xoSw/page/2

Sparkle's website and contact form are useless, and driver download does not work (we could hope to extract some kind of firmware from Sparkle's drivers, I don't know).

And there it is, just an update. I sure hope that Sparkle AND Intel get this right on Battlemage cards, given the lack of AIBs to choose from.