GV-R938XG1 Windforce 2X Cooler Noise

[K3_Cubed]

Guys,

Looking for some feedback or help here. I recently purchased the Gigabyte GV-R938XG1 Graphics Card with Windforce 2X cooler. I generally I hear nothing noticeable from the GFX card when operating normally. However I play my games, I hear something akin to a HDD reading it's platters fast.... I realise that it's coming from the GFX card itself.

Is this normal or does it imply that the cooler is defective and has a bad bearing or something... I'm a helluva lot paranoid about the cooling failing during a gaming session and frying my card or something. I would really like feedback from anyone who has this card.

[AgentFXA]

You absolutely sure it's the 380 fan?

The fans of this card start spinning from 54 Celsius on and depending on your case temperature it can get noisy if fan speed exceeds 60%. I have your card but not the X version - the load fan speed never exceeds 55% while the GPU stays  ~64 Celsius and no noise from this card.

I would check your case temperature not going out of bounds under load hence fan speed stays low - this card is quite a hotplate and can heat up the case quite significantly all depending on proper airflow through the case.

[K3_Cubed]

Oh god, been so out of it. Anyway, Yes I am positive that it is the GFX card fan. The rattling stops if I slow the culprit fan during rattling and starts making noise as soon as I let it run.

I have heard that this is a fan bearing issue and I recall coming across some posts on different forums suggesting it's a known issue. RMA'ing isn't an option for me, so I am looking into accessing a replacement fan with the same voltage specs, CFM. thickness, radius to replace the one on the car in case it ever does fail. Or maybe a cheap aftermarket cooler.

I have seen some Evercool fans on Newegg that may be an option, but I think I need to do more digging.