2020/01/20 04:49:25
Peitsimies
Like some others, I had misgivings about the sudden very loud fan noise due to the high rpm in the Eco mode. However, I have a watt meter in my possession, so I decided to observe the reality behind it, at least.
 
I just built a new Ryzen 3700X PC, still using my old Radeon 390 video card. While normally the Windows desktop idle power use (of the whole PC, not including monitor or such) is around 43-51W, I noticed that when browsing web pages on Firefox, the power use can jump to 150W or more. Since 20% of 750W is 150W, that would indeed explain why the fan would periodically kick in the Eco mode. This is naturally quite distressing as the sound is very audible over the steady hum of the rest of the PC, which does have multiple fans, but with adjusted fan curves for silence. The same naturally happens with some other tasks, like watching videos, especially fullscreen.
 
My previous PC was with an i5 6600K and Supernova G2 750W. On that PC the Eco mode didn't produce noise issues like this. However, due to having no issues, I never measured the power use either. Since the cables are compatible, I could theoretically test the G2 on this PC as well, but I'd assume the Eco mode would work identically, the audible results thus differing only due to the differences in the fan.
 
My only option is, more or less, to keep the Eco mode off (unless a new video card eventually lowers the power consumption sufficiently). I have a bad feeling I'll need to eventually seek a fan replacement.
2020/01/20 14:06:43
Cool GTX
Welcome to the Forums
 
or maybe just lower those watts .. turn Off hardware acceleration in your browser .... see if that helps
2020/01/21 14:25:47
Sajin
Cool GTX
Welcome to the Forums
 
or maybe just lower those watts .. turn Off hardware acceleration in your browser .... see if that helps

+1
2020/01/22 01:13:08
Peitsimies
Thanks for the replies!
 
Unfortunately simply turning off the hardware acceleration in the settings of Firefox itself seems to make absolutely no difference in energy use. I'm not sure why this is, but I have a vague feeling there could be some universal hardware accceleration rules elsewhere in Windows 10. I have browsed through the Radeon drivers a few times, not finding anything, but I should do the same with Windows itself next.
 
It's actually more peculiar I can't figure anything out by studying HWInfo, in real time or by logging values. Looking at the component values in HWInfo, the watts spent never seem to raise anywhere near up to 150W, yet somehow they still do when looking at the physical watt meter between the surge protector and the PC. Though I'm not exactly an expert with HWInfo, or other monitoring software. I'll also need to figure out how to install Ryzen Master as apparently Ryzens have some trade secrets monitoring software makers aren't privy to.
 
I'll need to keep experimenting.
 
Edit: I'm slowly starting to think it's related to my old Radeon 390. In that case it should have happened on the old PC as well, but perhaps the general power consumption of the i5 6600k was slightly lower than the 3700X + the infamous X570 mobo, so it stayed just below the critical limit of the G2 750W Eco mode, thus not triggering the fan. If this is the case, then a new video card might solve it, one day. You can hardly find a worse watt guzzler than a Hawaii arch card!

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