Hello folks, I just bought a new 980 Ti ACX 2.0 and everything is perfect (temps, performance, etc..) no issues whatsoever except for the weird rattling noise coming from the rear end of the card (where the slots are). After reading about this common issue I found out it's the fins that are making this noise (only when the fans are moving at 50-60%). What made me 100% sure of this is when I press slightly on the fins near the GPU's slots the noise disappears and the fins are quite loose in this spot compared to the others. The noise increases when the fans do, increasing the fins movement and generating even more noise. Honestly, the noise isn't bothering me very much but I was wondering, is it serious?

My build:
i7-4770k + Hyper 212 EVO
AsRock Z87 Extreme4 (MOBO)
Corsair RM750 (PSU)

iamwill3292
I had this on mine too.  I had the SC+ ACX version.

Can you please tell me more? 

Here's a video I just uploaded:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m0dAAA7hMNs

Unless the fin looks like it's about to fall off, I wouldn't worry about it but if the rattling continues we can still work with you on a replacement through RMA. 

EVGATech_JoseR
Unless the fin looks like it's about to fall off, I wouldn't worry about it but if the rattling continues we can still work with you on a replacement through RMA. 

The fin isn't that loose, it just moves a bit. Also, I just ran The Witcher 3 and I'm hearing some coil whine at the start menu. So it's both coil whine and a loose fin. Is it still safe to ignore it? and If I ever considered RMA'ing it, is there a deadline?

wanted to post one last thing on this issue. It seems like the rattles get less noticeable and even stop at the same fan speeds when the card heats up past 70 degrees.

Rakurai

TrueGaming11

EVGATech_JoseR
Unless the fin looks like it's about to fall off, I wouldn't worry about it but if the rattling continues we can still work with you on a replacement through RMA. 

The fin isn't that loose, it just moves a bit. Also, I just ran The Witcher 3 and I'm hearing some coil whine at the start menu. So it's both coil whine and a loose fin. Is it still safe to ignore it? and If I ever considered RMA'ing it, is there a deadline?

Coil whine at start/loading menus is pretty normal. You're likely rendering the menu at like 2000 (two thousand) FPS or something crazy like that, which is making it whine. Turning on vsync should get rid of it, if not significantly reduce it.

This is exactly what I'm facing! I can't enjoy playing without v-sync, I just wanted to see how many fps I could get with this card.
 
One more thing, I noticed that I'm getting laggy performance when I turn vsync off in every game. It's not as smooth as it is when turning vsync on. Is it because of the constant change of fps? 

Rakurai

TrueGaming11

Rakurai

TrueGaming11

EVGATech_JoseR
Unless the fin looks like it's about to fall off, I wouldn't worry about it but if the rattling continues we can still work with you on a replacement through RMA. 

The fin isn't that loose, it just moves a bit. Also, I just ran The Witcher 3 and I'm hearing some coil whine at the start menu. So it's both coil whine and a loose fin. Is it still safe to ignore it? and If I ever considered RMA'ing it, is there a deadline?

Coil whine at start/loading menus is pretty normal. You're likely rendering the menu at like 2000 (two thousand) FPS or something crazy like that, which is making it whine. Turning on vsync should get rid of it, if not significantly reduce it.

This is exactly what I'm facing! I can't enjoy playing without v-sync, I just wanted to see how many fps I could get with this card.
 
One more thing, I noticed that I'm getting laggy performance when I turn vsync off in every game. It's not as smooth as it is when turning vsync on. Is it because of the constant change of fps? 

It sounds like you're experiencing screen tearing, which is what vsync is for. What happens with vsync off is that your GPU is pushing out more FPS than your monitor can display properly at once. When this happens, you get more than one frame displayed to the screen at the same time, and you will see a "tear" where one frame ends and the other starts. This is what makes things seem less "smooth." It's more noticeable when you move the camera around really fast.
 

I know that vsync limits your FPS to your screen's refresh rate (which is 60hz for me) and that prevents screen tearing. But, what's really weird is that I actually don't see any screen tearing.. is it always normally visible? I used to see screen tearing with my GTX 770 all the time without vsync and games still feel smooth. But with the 980 Ti it feels a bit awkward, it feels as if I'm running the game at 30fps with vsync off even though frame rates are fluctuating around 120fps.. camera movement is also a bit choppy and I still don't see any screen tearing. I only tested two games, The Witcher 3 and Assassin's Creed Unity and I noticed this in both games. I'm sorry for asking too many questions, but I just want to make sure that my card is operating normally.

Rakurai
Well your PSU seems to of higher quality, so I don't think it would be that...

The only thing I can think of is that you might have a bad connection between the GPU and MB. Try re-seating the GPU into the PCI slot, or into another one.

I think I might be hallucinating lol! there is actually some screen tearing, it's not very clear though, but it's there. I reseated the GPU aswell. I'm sorry for bothering you but I have one more question please, does turning vsync off cause the game to lag?