TOKYO: Radeon Fury X didn’t go quite as smoothly as the company (or any company, for that matter) would have liked. As we discovered in our review, the card is largely comparable to NVIDIA’s GeForce GTX 980 Ti, and happens to include a built-in liquid cooler — either a pro or con depending on your taste (and the amount of effort you might want to put in).
Well, it’s that liquid cooler that’s become a bit of a thorn in AMD’s side, as some of the launch units have some serious pump whine — a whine that might not be high in volume, but is still frustrating to listen to. A benchmarker friend of mine purchased a Fury X last week, and it happens to be one of the whinier ones. As he wants to hold off on an RMA until his benchmarking is done, he had to go out of his way to buy some ear protection — it’s that bad.
Nonetheless, AMD is well aware of this issue, although it stresses the fact that there are an overwhelming number of customers that don’t have affected units. In a statement released to the press, AMD says that a fix has already been implemented:
We have received feedback that during open bench testing a small number of Fury X cards emits a sound from the high speed liquid cooling pump that, while not loud, is bothersome to some users. While the vast majority of initial Fury X owners report remarkably quiet operation, we take this feedback seriously, as AMD’s mission is to always deliver the best possible experience to our Radeon customers.
AMD Radeon R9 Fury X customers demand and deserve the best, so adjustments in the sound baffling adhesive compound were applied in the assembly of the high speed cooling pump to address the specific sound a few end users experienced as problematic. This improved the acoustic profile of the pump, and repeat testing shows the specific pitch/sound in question was largely reduced through adjustments to the sound-baffling adhesive compound in the pump.
AMD will work with its graphic card partners to ensure the satisfaction of the small number of initial customers who observed this specific sound and experienced it as bothersome. AMD is confident that on-going production of Radeon R9 Fury X product reduces the specific sound in question, but this is also a highly subjective matter with wide differences in PC case builds and room acoustics.
The AMD Radeon™ R9 Fury X radiator fan is near silent and this makes any sound from the high-speed pump more noticeable to some end users, especially during open bench testing. Thus although the overall sound levels are remarkably low for an enthusiast product, AMD has worked to reduce the specific sound that some customers report as bothersome.
We have received feedback that during open bench testing a small number of Fury X cards emit a sound from the high speed liquid cooling pump that, while not loud, is bothersome to some users. While the vast majority of initial Fury X owners report remarkably quiet operation, we take this feedback seriously, as AMD’s mission is to always deliver the best possible experience to our Radeon customers.
