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

[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.