Asus 7950 Direct CU II v2 not nearly as silent as they claim

[Gunbuster]

After the excellent reviews I decided to plump for the Asus 7950 Direct CU II.
I was after something pretty quiet.

At certain fan speeds the Direct CU II cooler is quite quiet.

However there is a fatal flaw, the cooler makes an audible tone at certain RPMs.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4dMJ...M&feature=plcp I have uploaded some recordings here.
I might just have a duffer.

My quote from the Youtube page:

This could be a quiet card if it wasn't for that annoying tone at certain RPMs. ARGH!

Not many reviews of the new revision, so bought it on the old ones supposed silent credentials.

Stepping up from around 20%+ through to 50%+ fan rate. Recorded with a Blue Snowball Ice Directly on top of the case with the doors and side panels closed.

In fairness by complete chance I hit three bad tones in this test. The card has quiet sweet spots. 10% and 30% are pretty good, mainly just wind noise. 25-26% are is really annoying, 35% also.

[Willzzz]

Can you not just change your settings to avoid these bad tones?

[Gunbuster]

Yeah that is what I am doing

Just a warning that you have to man handle the speeds manually, unless there is a utility I can program to only use specific fan speeds?

[Willzzz]

Well you should be able to set up 'steps' on your fan curve rather than a gradient.
This will mean that it skips certain fan %s.

[Gunbuster]

Any suggested software to do that? sorry to be a pain about this.

[Willzzz]

I'm using MSI Afterburner.

[Gunbuster]

Thanks Willzzz I am trying out Afterburner with a stepped profile now.