Weird FAN behaviour on Sparkle ORC OC A750

[vyrgozunqk]

Hello,

Two-three days ago I bought the Sparkle Arc A750 ORC OC(From Amazon) and I am very satisfied with its performance except that i've noticed two temperature(cooling) related issues:

1. The fans kick in every 15-20 seconds to 1000 rpm and then stop. (This happens during idling and looks like bad firmware fan settings). 
I think it's related to the fact that it's trying to keep 49-50 degrees C. The moment it goes on 50-51 the fans kick with short burst(3-5 seconds) until it goes down to 49 and then the fans stop again. However, the noise is very annoying and I have to use the Fan curve instead of "Auto".

GPU clock stays at 600Mhz when that happens, GPU activity 1-2%. 

Screenshot of the FAN graph from the Arc Center is attached.

If the fan are on very low RPM or have higher tolerance level it would be much better. Sadly the fan curve in the ark center is not very precise and I can't set it as I would want it.

2. The card also tends to overheat. It even shut-down on me once. The memory goes above 90C when I play heavy games like battlefield 2048, or run benchmark such as TimeSpy from 3D Mark. In Battlefield 2048 I often see the memory at 92-96 degrees. In TimeSpy it went to 98. TDP setting in the Arc Control was set at 180W. I've boosted it to 200W initially thinking it should be able to handle it by design the Vram jumped to 100C.

I have 4K monitor, so most games run on 1440/ 4k(the older ones)

One other game i've noticed such behaviour was Alien vs. Predator, it's DX11 game and I ran it on 4K.

My room temperature is 25C. 
The PC Case is standard non-gaming one: https://www.inter-tech.de/productdetails-158/B-42_EN.html

I have put as back exhaust 120mm Arctic P series fan and another 140mm Arctic P14 Slim PWM on the side panel. I've tried first using the side one as intake, but the results were worse, so i've rotated its direction as another exhaust and is grabbing the hot air from the GPU blowers, so there was slight improvement.

I also tried open side door, it's  still very hot and keeps 90-92 C.

Is there a "known issue" with those Sparkle cards due to bad design of the cooling or something else?

Edit: I want to add that both fans of the GPU work correctly and they blow full speed.

Thank you!

[RamyerM_Intel]

Hello vyrgozunqk, 

In response to your inquiry about the known issue with Sparkle, we have indeed encountered similar reports concerning the fan. For further insights, you might find this discussion thread useful:  https://community.intel.com/t5/Intel-ARC-Graphics/With-fan-curve-and-1st-two-positions-set-to-30-GPU-fans/m-p/1571424#M12291

Within that thread, there are indications that Sparkle is implementing modifications to the fan design. Have you tried reaching out to them as well? 

To further investigate the specific issue you're experiencing, we would appreciate it if you could share your SSU logs with us. This will enable us to conduct a more detailed analysis and assist you effectively.

I will be waiting for your reply. 

Ramyer M. 

Intel Customer Support Technician

[vyrgozunqk]

Hello Ramyer,

Thank you for the feedback regarding Sparkle.

SSU is attached.

I have not tried contacting them since I saw multiple threads here regarding similar complaints and because the firmware delivery comes from intel. So I thought it would be best If i contact Intel directly.

However, based on your suggestion, I will. Especially for the overheating problems. I even bought new gaming case (Cougar MX330-G Pro) that has three front inlet fan's and mesh design (140 mm Arctic F140's), one exhaust on the back (120 mm) and one on the top 140 mm Arctic P series.

If I push all system fans above 70% i no-longer see overheating during gaming, but it still overheats in benchmarks like Furmark(Vram goes above 92-94 degrees C) and the noise from the PC is similar to my vaccuum cleaner. I know furmark is synthetic bench and pushes everything to the max, but still the cooling of the GPU should be able to handle it, my old Radeon 580 (similar 185W TDP, Dual Fan) had no issues with that. I also saw posts from other guys with A750's made by Intel or Asus that don't have such issues, so my thought is that Sparkle did something bad with the dual fan ORC OC edition's cooling... Inspecting visually the card, it looks like the thermal paste above the memory chips is very thick - 2~3mm so it could be related, I don't know.

[vyrgozunqk]

Hello,

Sparkle have not replied at two tickets I have opened.

I also think I've found what is causing the issue. The GPU itself does not go into low power (ASPM L1) state.

I use MSI B450 Gaming Plus motherboard and since this option is not visible in the BIOS, i've contacted MSI's support.

Their reply was that the option is enabled by default on the latest bios versions of this motherboard, but they are aware that some Intel ARC manufacturers have trouble utilizing it due to their firmware(?!), although it should work just fine with the reference ARC GPU's. 

They have not explicitly said Sparkle or other manufactures, just hinted that this is probably what is causing it. So i've tried contacting Sparkle again... no reply for two weeks now.

This keeps the GPU in constant consumption of 40-45W, which probably raises the temperature on idle and leads to the fan spinups.

[liza_999]

The Sparkle Orc has a higher listed clock speed, but  it has higher temps, fan speeds, and noise.