Question on Fan Control on Afterburner re: MSI 6870

They make noise, too.

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minkyboodle
Posts: 32
Joined: Mon Nov 29, 2004 7:45 pm
Location: Washington, D.C.

Question on Fan Control on Afterburner re: MSI 6870

Post by minkyboodle » Thu May 10, 2012 4:26 pm

Hello all,
I finally took the leap and ordered a graphics card that can do some gaming. I have decided I can sacrifice some noise
(I'm currently passive, I know there are passive gaming cards :) ) Anyway, did a bit of lurking here and it seems the Hawk
MSI 6870 is a well thought of silenter card. My question is about using Afterburner to control the fan speed. What is a safe
idle speed (I have read 20%) and at what temp should I start ramping up the speed of the fan. I read that over 40 % was definitely
noticable but at load I can deal with some fan noise as the game will be going. Just new to this fan speed thing and wondered
if any users had some experience with this or a similar setup using the Afterburner software. Thanks a ton for any help.
Scott

flemeister
Posts: 346
Joined: Mon Dec 28, 2009 1:42 am
Location: Australia

Re: Question on Fan Control on Afterburner re: MSI 6870

Post by flemeister » Thu May 10, 2012 5:42 pm

I'm using a Gigabyte HD6870 Super Overclock. With MSI Afterburner, 28% fan speed is extremely quiet, and I have it setup to max out at 40% fan speed under load. :)

Be careful not to go too low though, otherwise one or both of the fans will stop spinning.

minkyboodle
Posts: 32
Joined: Mon Nov 29, 2004 7:45 pm
Location: Washington, D.C.

Re: Question on Fan Control on Afterburner re: MSI 6870

Post by minkyboodle » Thu May 10, 2012 7:00 pm

Wow,
thanks for the quick reply. Good to know I was afraid the idle RPM's might be too low I'm gonna try 28% to start
Thats pretty great you can run 40% under load. I'm assuming your temps are within range at that RPM's sounds
like a great cooler. Again thanks for the reply.
Scott

flemeister
Posts: 346
Joined: Mon Dec 28, 2009 1:42 am
Location: Australia

Re: Question on Fan Control on Afterburner re: MSI 6870

Post by flemeister » Thu May 10, 2012 8:00 pm

minkyboodle wrote:I'm assuming your temps are within range at that RPM's
About 80c max on the GPU, VRMs ~80c. Perfectly acceptable IMO. :)

EDIT: ooh, lower than I expected

tanassi
Posts: 93
Joined: Sat Jun 04, 2011 2:25 pm

Re: Question on Fan Control on Afterburner re: MSI 6870

Post by tanassi » Sat May 12, 2012 12:24 pm

I previously owned the Hawk. In silent mode (switch on card), you can set the minimal fanspeed to below 20%. Do that for idle.

Under load try to keep it under 38%. Anything higher will be really annoying. 80c is indeed fine, the Hawk has good durable parts.

If you have the option, try to set a graph for you casefans to kick in with higher temps in you case. Most modern mobo's have that option and it is essential for silent computing :)

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