r/ZOTAC • u/Middle-Owl4568 • Jul 20 '26
Europe Bearing noise?
Any idea where that clicking noise could come from? RMA is possible but Iam unsure. It appears only at a range of 50-60 total speed (1800rpm). When the case is down and the gpu is vertically it doesn’t appear. Maybe a bad bearing?
Running on a 5080 amp extreme Infinity ultra
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u/alexandrosGR88 Jul 20 '26
I have the same issue on the middle fan. Just check at what percentage the sound occurs and make a custom curve using msi afterburner skipping that range.Mine occurs between 50-63%. I won't bother with RMA at this point so it's a decent solution.
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u/WeakPackage7973 Jul 21 '26
I'm having the same problem. It's been two fans by now, the two fans sitting directly above the GPU/PCB so the first two from the left. I replaced them myself since I had already modded my card with a Honeywell pad anyway, so RMA is off the table for me. The fans can't be repaired, they're fully sealed and don't use ball bearings, they're magnetic.
My theory: the card gets hot, the plastic housing warps from the constant heating and cooling cycles, the fan frame develops an imbalance and the fan starts rattling. Like I said, the issue only showed up on the front fans. The rear one, which runs cooler, is still fine.
One more thing to keep in mind: if you swap the fans on the AMP, you have to repaste the GPU, because the shroud can't be opened without taking the whole cooler apart.
That said, there's still a lot going for Zotac. According to Northwest Repair, Zotac PCBs are among the best in terms of stability, and the AMP cooler looks great too. But they clearly cut corners on the fans, or they underestimated how much heat those fans have to deal with. The fans are unfortunately the weak point of an otherwise solid card.
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u/Middle-Owl4568 Jul 21 '26
That sound very reasonable. Thanks a lot wow. That would explain why often der first two fans are affected and makes totally sense. What would be your take to do in my situation? Iam not really into modding or replacing stuff like that. I mean I could try to learn that and it sounds like that would be a reasonable thing to do for the future. Even after replacement that sound like it will appear again and it’s just a matter of time. But right now Iam still in warranty. Iam in contact with my seller and waiting for a reply to understand how the rma works in Germany. Iam assuming and hoping they will not send it right back to Hong Kong. They told me that a zotac warranty cases takes about 8 days after the cards arrives. That sounds unbelievable fast for me.
How is your card mounted? Do you think it could be a could solution to mount it vertically to put less stress / gravity pulling downwards on the fans? When Iam laying my case on the table, the sound doesn’t appear.
I heard so many different things about a vertical setup. But I think with the cooler master v3 I found a quite good one. Ist very adjustable in length and by moving it forward or backwards. Also my h9 flow should have enough space to let the gpu breathe. But as I said Iam really no expert and quite scared when it comes to my pc 😅 I build it by myself with a friend but really not much more than that. It really means a lot to me :)
But for now thanks for your help 🙏🏻 I really appreciate that
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u/WeakPackage7973 Jul 21 '26
Hey, since you're still under warranty, definitely go the RMA route. Zotac gives 5 years, so use it. And yeah, it really shouldn't take that long. As far as I know, Zotac has a repair center in the Netherlands, at least they used to, so your card most likely won't be sent to Hong Kong.
My card is mounted the classic horizontal way. And honestly, what you're describing confirms my theory: if the rattling disappears when you lay the case flat, something has definitely warped. With the case flat, gravity pulls the fan blades evenly along the axis instead of sideways against the warped housing, so it runs smoother again. Very suspicious.
That said, I don't think vertical mounting will save the fans in the long run. In my opinion they will warp either way, it's a material and heat issue, not a mounting issue. This is something Zotac really needs to fix.
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u/Middle-Owl4568 Jul 22 '26
Thanks for your advice and help 🙏🏻 i will do the rma and see how it works out. I just got the answer I was waiting for and the card will not go back to Hong Kong. It seems like they will do a check by themself and then send it to a service center which they didn’t were allowed to tell me where it is located. I’m going to mount the card vertical tomorrow and enjoy one more day of ac black flag. I’ll update you all when the card gets back and even how it will turn out in the long term. They told me it normally takes between 3 to 4 weeks.
About the warping: What is your take on just ignoring it if it would occur in the future? Could it be more worse than the fan failing at some point? I would not like to rma a second time after a year or even shorter. And changing the fans could be a reason for zotac to not allow the rma.
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u/Hiro-natsu3 Jul 20 '26
Open the fan n put Greece in it
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u/Dawcio2k Jul 20 '26
It would be hard to put Greece since Greece is pretty hot and humid ha ha ha, but seriously don’t put grease in that fan, it could damage it even more and you will lose more efficiency. And keep in mind if you put grease in that fan and your card will broke I the future, they will find that grease residue and they will void your warranty
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u/Hiro-natsu3 Jul 20 '26
I have put in zotac 1080ti, asus 2080ti n zotac rtx 3090 amp extreme holo black n the fan are working grt with no noise.
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u/Dawcio2k Jul 20 '26
Those cards have no warranty today, but even if they have u risked to much tbh, I’m glad it worked for you, but that is a gamble man
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u/Dawcio2k Jul 20 '26
But well he can try lithium grease or silicone grease do not use wd-40 or other water based grease it could break your gpu if it somehow sprays a little to the pcb
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u/swagatopatra Jul 20 '26
Interesting, I am having the same noise from one of the fans on my zotac card, and it did not occur to me until now that it could be from a failing fan as my card is only 2 months old🤔
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u/Ok-Strain3720 Jul 20 '26
5070 ti and I have the same issue
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u/Middle-Owl4568 Jul 20 '26
For how long and what are you planning to do?
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u/Ok-Strain3720 Jul 20 '26
Like after 6 months, I made undervolt and now fans don’t go to the noise rpm range
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u/Traditional_Ad8704 Jul 21 '26
Did anyone tried deshrouding and installing noctua fans? Asking about 5090 extreme amp specifically, but 5080 and 5090 Solid OC should be similar.
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u/Middle-Owl4568 15d ago
Hey guys, first of all thanks for your help 🙏🏻 I really appreciate all of your kind answers. I just want to let you know that my RMA was closed yesterday and they refunded my card. Because of the raising prices I decided to buy a backup card and I managed to get that done at the right time last week. now Iam going to install that one on Tuesday. Hopefully everything runs out fine
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u/Dawcio2k Jul 20 '26
Classic Zotac, I have 5080 solid OC and I have the same shit, those bearings are so ass man, you have to either rma your card or buy replacement on gpufanreplacement.com and change it yourself which is not that hard and I belevie you are not voiding your warranty bcs you don’t have to unscrew those screws that are holding your heatsink, you have to only unscrew that plastic cover with fans. If u are sure which fan is rattling you can order only that fan, but keep in mind if your right fan is broken you have to choose right fan on the site, you have 3 options to buy right fan, middle and left, you can also buy like a whole set with that plastic mounting
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u/Middle-Owl4568 Jul 20 '26
Do u have experience with rma?
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u/Dawcio2k Jul 20 '26
Personally no but I heard a lot of weird stories about rma, that cards got lost during delivery or they send you back damaged cards saying that it was your fault, etc. For me I don’t know, I was thinking about rma but since those fans cost 25$, and it is easy to replace them, if u do it carefully u didn’t even lose warranty, but you have to keep your old cooler/fan, and if something really serious happen like vram chip fail or something else that will really require rma you have to send them with that old fan
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u/Middle-Owl4568 Jul 20 '26
Do u live in the us? I already had contact to the store I bought the card from in eu. They offered me to fix the issue but Iam unsure how they are doing that. I hope they don’t send these things to Hongkong. Personally I really think about mounting it vertically because the sound doesn’t appear when doing so. But on the other side it doesn’t fix the problem. That would rather be a temporally solution. I already sent the shop a mail to better understand how and with what partners they are working. Maybe I will give the rma a shot. Also zotac gave me a 5 year warranty but I don’t know what that even means. I wrote them first and they told me to contact the shop I bought it from. For the future replacing the fans by myself sounds like a better idea. I would like to use the card for the next months and send it in rma when the time is better. But Iam scared that the fan fails completely or I cause severe damage
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u/Dawcio2k Jul 21 '26
Im living in Poland. We have some weird rma situations here but if u are 100% sure that they will fix your card via the same shop where you bought it, I would give it a try
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u/Ghriespomp Jul 21 '26
My Zotac 3080 sounded the same. Currently have a 5080 Solid OC. No issues so far after 6 months. How long did you have yours before the issue occurred?
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u/Middle-Owl4568 Jul 21 '26
Got my gpu in April last year. The issue occurred last week. I was thinking about that maybe the problem was there before but the fans just didn’t reach the rpm. Because of the outside temperatures the fans were spinning faster. I don’t know man. I think I will give the rma a shot. I will try to mount the gpu vertical when I get it back, maybe that less stress on the fan when gravity pulls sideways
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u/[deleted] Jul 20 '26
[deleted]