Sapphire rx480 fan clicking

Just randomly today my Sapphire Nitro rx480 fan started clicking. Swapped back in the old EVGA 780 and contacted Newegg for a return/refund. I really don't want to forever be chasing down fan noise/rattling. And this is really saddening because I really like the Sapphire card. Even with the shortcoming of the Linux driver. Pending return status I might stick with Nvidia even though I really want to support AMD.

So you stick with Nvidia, because the manufacturer (Sapphire) messed up your AMD card and because your Nvidia card, made by another manufacturer (EVGA) works fine?

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Try to change for an XFX card.
As @Azulath said, it is not AMDs fault Sapphire had an manufacturing error on this one card.

Then support amd. Replace the card with another card... I can guess where it's coming from. Those hot swap fans are really badly designed IMHO with only 2 secure points, one of which is not even secure. It's just an electrical connection in like a plastic pocket in the shroud, so yeah... XFX have better implementation with the clips, because the fan is secured to the frame and the clips can absorb vibrations...
Sapphire's design this generation have some really bad implementations of some really nice ideas...

Well, I might use this as an excuse to wait for Vega. Not sure yet. Thank you for your thoughts all.

the hot swap fans are covered in the warrenty. you can contact sapphire and they will mail you new ones, you dont even have to mail the gpu.

I don't want to forever be chasing clicking sounds.

I'm having the same issue on my R9 285 from Sapphire. You're having that issue when the fans ramp up pretty high, right?

Nicest RX480 in my opinion still is the Asus RX480 StriX OC.
Based on cooling and pcb design.

Just out of curiosity - what exaclty does ASUS' card to set itself apart from the others?

Decent cooling, but overall the best vrm implementation on the pcb.

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No. In my case even at idle the front fan is making a very audible and very annoying clicking sound.

Yes, if I am forced in to a replacement I will be going with the Asus.

That's even worse. My card is no more under warranty so I guess I'll just sell it and buy a new card all toghether (maybe an RX480 or a 1060, who knows).

Sapphire is a company I have been watching for a couple years now. I had a very favourable impression of them but this fan issue is disappointing. Similarly, the AMD driver situation is ridiculous. I just read someone on the forum here was having issues with Blender because of the AMD driver(s). I myself could not open Unreal Engine 4 because of AMD drivers. How do I know this? I re-installed my 780 Nvid and all issues that had been plaguing me with Unreal Engine just went away.

Running a Sapphire R9 Fury.
From start to now, I had no issues at all.

Yeah, I heard they changed the design for this go around. Does your Fury have the swappable fans?

No RGB, no fan swap, just 8 LEDs to indicate the current power state (which are anyoing as hell, but that is my fault for sacing 4€...).

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That is a sexy looking card.

This generation is the first one with the swappable fans. No other generation had this.

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