Are graphics cards usually noisy?

[Anymage]

Lately my GPU has been making an odd noise whenever I play anything minimally demanding. Taking a look at things, the fans seem to be briefly turning on and then off again, with a bit of sound when they spin up. I'm wondering if this is normal behavior, or if I just have an odd card.

Also, if this is just a fluke card, I'm wondering what are good options because I'm usually lucky with my tech and haven't had anything go screwy before. I have no idea what RMAing it entails or how long I'd be without. Opening it up to mess with the fans is likewise something I'm less than keen to do for risk of accidentally messing something up. I'm wondering what the options are, and how many of them involve downgrading to my old card for a bit while I wait for things to get fixed.

[Khedrac]

It's definitely odd for them to be noisy.

I had a noisy fan once for the main CPU fan. The idiot manufacturers had put a circular sticky label with their details on the central hub of the fan and it peeled halfway off; this then messed up the spin of the fan both making it noisy and destroying the bearings...

[halfeye]

I once bought a really under-powered GPU, and that turned out to be really noisy, the fan made a noise that was just the right/wrong pitch to be really annoying.

Other than that, I don't usually notice them, but there are always fans running in the system, so I don't really know, thought the system is usually moderately quiet.

[Seppl]

Frequently spinning up or down is definitely not normal. Usually it takes some tens of seconds for the fans to switch between speed settings. It takes some time for the heat sink to become hot when load is increased, or for the heat to get dispersed after load is decreased. Maybe something is wrong with the sensors used by the fan control?

As for the exact noise they make, that obviously depends on the make of the fan. While some fans can be very loud even when working as intended, you can usually tell whether you are dealing with normal operating noise or if the fan is broken.

Either way, if RMA is an option you should probably go for that. Yes, it will probably take weeks and can be annoying to deal with customer support. But at least you get a fully working product, which is what you payed for.

If RMA is not an option, there are two things you could try: Replacing a fan can be done even by a layman with simple tools and some basic care. This can be quite expensive, though, depending on the quality of the replacement fans. Also, if the issue is with the speed control, as you suggested, replacing the fans will not help at all. Fixing a broken sensor yourself is near as impossible. What you could try is manual fan control. There are tools made by all big manufacturers, that allow you to override fan speed. Personally, I would not like this as a permanent solution but maybe you are fine with it. At least you could check if the annoying noise disappears if you set the fan to a fixed speed. If the noise persists despite manual control, the issue lies somewhere else.

[Anymage]

Update: From a little looking around this looks not uncommon in EVGA 30 series cards. I'll reach out to their support, but at least workarounds seem comparatively simple.