Posted on Monday, July 29 2019 @ 20:51 CEST by Thomas De Maesschalck
TechPowerUp
warns AMD's Radeon Software Adrenalin 19.7.3 beta drivers changed the fan speed profile of the Radeon RX 5700 and Radeon RX 5700 XT video cards. Previously, the fan of these cards idled at around 13-14 percent of the maximum fan speed, but now this is 22-23 percent of max, which results in noticeably higher noise production.
In our reviews we praised AMD for excellent idle fan speeds that make their cards whisper quiet in idle, despite the lack of the idle-fan-stop feature. With 19.7.2, the the card's idle noise output was measured at 27 dBA. With 19.7.3 and its idle fan speed raised, our RX 5700 XT now has an idle fan-noise output of 29.4 dBA. The RX 5700 went from 27.8 dBA to 29.7 dBA.
Maximum fan speeds are unaffected, because both cards are configured with a certain maximum RPM fan speed limit, which is reached after around half a minute of gaming. It seems that during gaming, that limit takes priority over the change in fan speed observed with 19.7.3 Beta.
At the moment, it's unknown whether this is a bug or whether AMD did this intentionally to lower idle temperatures.
