Predator BiFrost A770 OC - 30.0.101.5186 / Fan issue again?

[Lirion]

Hi @ All,

I'm a sad owner of a Predator BiFrost A770 OC graphics card. Last year some firmwareupdate change the default fan behavior of the card in a very noisy way (moore noise? ).

There is a arcticle wich reporting this:

https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/articles/000096309/graphics.html

I can confirm, that after your driver update to 30.0.101.5186 - my fan jump back to tis reported behavior. Fan spins up - fan spins down - fan spins up and so on.

Can anyone confirm this? Or did all owners of a Predator BiFrost A770 OC thow it into trash?

Kind regards

[GoinOvr]

Just recently started to have a fan issue on mine as well with the axial fan running at a constant 80%-100% it sounds and the blower fan pulsing 0-119rpm. I installed the Acer Predator software and tried manually setting the fan speed to as low as 20% and it doesn't work. Doesn't look like ARC Control or the Predator software actually control the fans.

[ochompskr]

it's not just bifrost, my sparkle card has this issue too.  and there's many others in this stuck without a solution.  this thread details it out more -> https://community.intel.com/t5/Intel-ARC-Graphics/With-fan-curve-and-1st-two-positions-set-to-30-GPU-fans/m-p/1572549

[RamyerM_Intel]

Hello GoinOvr,

This fan behavior will occur if the Bifrost application fan speed is set less than 30%, this is because 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.

We recommend setting the fan speed on the Predator Bifrost application no less than 30% to prevent the fans going to 0 rpm

For the issue reported on the Sparkle Titan we are investigating this behavior and will reply soon at this link: https://community.intel.com/t5/Intel-ARC-Graphics/With-fan-curve-and-1st-two-positions-set-to-30-GPU-fans/m-p/1571424#M12291

Ramyer M.

Intel Customer Support Technician

[GoinOvr]

Thanks for the reply. It doesn't matter what % I set the application to. The fan speed doesn't change. Blower pulses and the axial runs at nearly full speed. 

I have a Sparkle A770 in my work PC though and the fan can be controlled by the ARC software without issue. Will try removing the Predator software and see if the ARC software can function. Possible conflict with the two of them. 

[Simoncole]

Hi Lirion, 

I have the same card as you: Bifrost A770 16GB. 

The issue is called fan speed "hysterisis". It was more common on non-Intel graphics cards a few years ago. What it does is to cause a fluctuation in fan speed of about 100 rpm every 3 seconds or so. This is probably due to either the graphics card bios (specific to the A770 chip) or the actual hardware of the card. Intel and Acer have been looking at this problem for over a year. Since it would seem that newer drivers have had no impact on the issue (e.g. 31.0.101.5330) and given that the problem has spread to A770 Sparkle cards, I cannot offer any solution. 

The "Fan Speed Control" settings in the "Performance Tuning" section of Intel Arc Control does let you manually turn off the fan by setting it to 0%. However, I have found that the temperatures gradually climb from around 38 degrees Celsius to 65 degrees Celsius on the GPU temperature gauge, with the GPU memory sitting 2 to 4 degrees Celsius higher than this figure. That temperature was reached simply watching a YouTube video at 1440p on a 34" ultra widescreen monitor. I have 12 fans in my case and a 360 mm push-pull water cooler that keeps my 13th Gen 13500 at around 22 degrees Celsius, and my chipset (B660 on an Aorus Master) typically sits at around 40 degrees celsius. The room temperature is only 16.1 degrees Celsius right now, and my internal case temparatures rarely go above 25 degrees Celsius. So Given that I was definantely approaching 70 degrees Celsius without the A770 Bifrost fan enabled, I decided to keep it at it's 30% default speed setting; and to put up with the noise. I could imagine the GPU getting far too hot while gaming. This brings the temperature down to a more reasonable 38 degrees Celsius on the GPU thermal sensor and should prolong the life of the card. 

The noise is a bit like chainsaws in the distance, but it is very quite, and to be honest not that much of a deal breaker. What boggles me the most is that the blower fan is almost silent, and I haven't really had a noisy axial fan in years, let-alone one at this high pitch. The problem seems to be fairly ubiquitous with the model and is noted in most A770 Bifrost reviews (see KitGuru, TechTeam UK etc.). It would be nice if Acer opened up a dialogue with Intel to ensure that future generations (Battlemage) are not affacted. Try not to worry my friend... you are not alone - many people have this phenomenon. I'm going to put a chainsaw-man figurine in my case so that when I look over I just smile and remember that we are pioneers

[RamyerM_Intel]

Hello Lirion,

I want to let you know that for Acer Predator Bifrost the issue occurs when the Bifrost app is set to 20% and Intel Arc Control is set to 30%. We suggest either adjusting the values to be the same or using only the Bifrost app.

For Users with the Sparkle Titan card, please check this thread at this link: https://community.intel.com/t5/Intel-ARC-Graphics/With-fan-curve-and-1st-two-positions-set-to-30-GPU-fans/m-p/1571424#M12291  where we are investigating this case since it involves a different custom hardware.

Ramyer M.

Intel Customer Support Technician

[ochompskr]

for what it's worth, ive been in contact with sparkle and they said they are making a FW change but it will take up to 2 months to trickle down from intel.  im returning the card as im not willing to risk the wait but a FYI for those holding on

[lorvar]

I was the first to report this last year after the forced FW update. Acer blamed Intel. Intel blamed Acer. 32 day later, Intel patched it. After that, I swore I wouldn't apply another update from Intel again. I see they've done it once more.... By the way, the below 30% claim is BS. My card always ran at 20.