Reduce GPU fan speed?

SoopahMan · Post by **SoopahMan** » Fri Aug 19, 2005 6:48 pm

I'm looking to reduce the noise from my graphics card without removing the fan - that seems like a dangerous operation. Is there any way to just tell the fan to slow down?

I've got an eVga e-GeForce 6800. Not the Ultra or GT or anything, just a nice low-clock, no-extra-molex 6800. The fan is very noisy compared to an otherwise silent Antec P180 system.

Post by **NeilBlanchard** » Sat Aug 20, 2005 1:11 am

Hello,

Which specific card are you talking about?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductLi ... 02&bop=and

It is not all that hard to add an aftermarket HSF to a card. The thing is, you'll need a better heatsink to be able to run a slower fan.

Otherwise, I say buy a passively cooled 6800?

Gekkani · Post by **Gekkani** » Sat Aug 20, 2005 4:58 am

Perhaps you can try to connect VGA fan to a Zalman Fanmate for example, so you'll can control speed and noise according to your tastes.

SoopahMan · Post by **SoopahMan** » Sat Aug 20, 2005 10:37 am

eVGA GeForce 6800
I'm using this exact video card

eVGA GeForce 6800 256mb PCIex x16

The heatsink is very small - this is a very low heat card for the performance.

I'd actually be fine with the noise during 3D games too since they're pretty loud, it's when it's just idling that I'd like it to spin down.

Zalman Fanmate
People on this forum will laugh at me - either via my Antec P180, or my DFI nF4 LanParty board included it - I actually have a Zalman Fanmate 2, I just had no idea what the little widget was and left it in the box. I don't know how to go about hooking it up though... it's clearly made to sit between the fan and the power, and then has a switch running out - out where? The Antec P180 doesn't seem to have a good place to send this out through.

I guess I could consider running it out a PCI slot...

Smart fan?
Is there some way to get a "Fanmate" that's controlled by the motherboard, somehow? Maybe through software "3D mode/2D mode" profiles? I guess I stupidly assumed all graphics cards clocked way down and spun way down in 2D mode... I thought that was standard now. Is there something I can put in to achieve that?

Big fan?
What if I just mounted a pretty big fan (92mm?) in my VGA duct pointing at the graphics card, disabling the normal fan or turning it way way down? It currently runs at less than 60C at all times and I know graphics cards can handle up to 125C, 85C without trouble. Ironically it might be better for my system overall to let the graphics card keep a little more heat to itself anyway - all that heat it's shedding is shedding into the system afterall.

Robisoda · Post by **Robisoda** » Sat Aug 20, 2005 6:27 pm

Try the ExperTool from Gainward. It'll work on any NVidia card and let you manually or dynamically adjust the fan speed.

Dennis

SoopahMan · Post by **SoopahMan** » Sun Aug 21, 2005 8:51 am

ExperTool
Thanks Dennis/Robisoda! Unfortunately the ExperTool also seems to want to set my GPU and DRAM settings, and it maxes out at 150Mhz for my DRAM. Is that Mhz before DDR calculations or something? In nTune the default is 600 and the max is 1000... . Basically I'm afraid of setting the DRAM to some way underclocked value for 3D, which clicking Apply on the fan tab is likely to do.

Fanmate 2
I had a look, and the little (maybe 40mm?) fan on my graphics card is a 2-pin plug, not 3. The Fanmate is 3 on both ends. I can see that the 2-pin is black/red (in/out), while the Fanmate adds a yellow wire. So I considered hooking the black/red of the Fanmate to the graphics card fan, but then the other end of the Fanmate would need to plug into a 3-pin - I considered Fan 2 or Fan 4 on my motherboard, but immediately realized I was off in electrical lala land - I don't know if that would work, would blow something up, etc. I imagined booting my PC to hear a GPU fan spin up wildly and break off, spinning around like a destructor frisbee crushing all in its path! OK not realistic but thought I'd share.

If it is possible to control that fan directly in software with tools like ExperTool I think I'll forego the Fanmate and focus on finding software that will handle my card correctly. Are the other tools like ExperTool? Am I doing something dumb with ExperTool?

One thing I just realized is, I've already underclocked my graphics card with nTune before I started ExperTool, and I underclocked my DRAM to... 150Mhz. Maybe ExperTool assumes whatever the current Mhz is, is the maximum? Is there some way to tell it "overclocking is OK" (since it really wouldn't be anyway)?

blunden · Post by **blunden** » Sun Aug 21, 2005 2:22 pm

SoopahMan wrote:ExperTool
Thanks Dennis/Robisoda! Unfortunately the ExperTool also seems to want to set my GPU and DRAM settings, and it maxes out at 150Mhz for my DRAM. Is that Mhz before DDR calculations or something? In nTune the default is 600 and the max is 1000... . Basically I'm afraid of setting the DRAM to some way underclocked value for 3D, which clicking Apply on the fan tab is likely to do.

Then just select to clock the 2D-clocks wich should be standard before you click apply. For me it is set att the same as I have set in coolbits.

SoopahMan · Post by **SoopahMan** » Sun Aug 21, 2005 5:58 pm

Wow something has ExperTool really confused. When I set my 3D again with nVidia's Clock feature in the Display Properties, to gpu 392Mhz, ram 735Mhz, and loaded ExperTool, the slider bar for the RAM now runs from just 700Mhz to 900Mhz. What? Before it ran only from 80 to 150. That thing is really confused by my card I guess.

That slider bar I'm talking about has the same limits, 2D or 3D, by the way.

SoopahMan · Post by **SoopahMan** » Wed Aug 24, 2005 6:55 pm

Thanks so much for that ExperTool!

Although the slider bars for Clock are totally messed up, it looks like going to Fan Speed and changing those settings doesn't tinker with Clock at all! So I mess with Clock via the nVidia drivers and fan speed with ExperTool.

Thanks so much for the pointer!

I found that the fan is dramatically quieter at 96%. At 80% it's inaudible, but it's still moving enough air to keep my 2D underclock cool. I set 3D to 96% and I'll see how the heat does after a few hours of gaming.

Thanks you so much again I've truly got a silent PC now!

ultraboy · Post by **ultraboy** » Wed Aug 24, 2005 8:03 pm

SoopahMan wrote:..Thanks you so much again I've truly got a silent PC now!

You mean until you start hearing some other noise from your PC.

SoopahMan · Post by **SoopahMan** » Wed Aug 24, 2005 10:51 pm

Ha! I'm watching it carefully - it's getting a little hotter - 64C max instead of 60C - and that's an easily acceptable temp. Very cool to have so much fine-tuning capability finding this balance. Thanks again.

iatacs19 · Post by **iatacs19** » Fri Aug 26, 2005 7:33 am

Would this work on my 7800GT, the thing is too loud for my taste.

SoopahMan · Post by **SoopahMan** » Sat Aug 27, 2005 7:58 pm

Start by monitoring the temps to see what you get without messing with the fan. If you have an nForce board you can do so with nVMonitor - it's a part of nTune, which you can download for free from nVidia/drivers.

justblair · Post by **justblair** » Mon Aug 29, 2005 3:30 am

Go for the Schooner... Passive and it seems to work well, If it fits your card.

See thread

http://forums.silentpcreview.com/viewto ... 349#207349

I know you dont want to go passive, but it gets no quieter than passive.

Iron_Dreamer · Post by **Iron_Dreamer** » Sun Feb 05, 2006 2:11 pm

I know this is an old thread, but I found it useful, and wanted to add something. The expertool method doesn't work on 7800 cards, after I found this out I called the eVGA to complain about the loud fan, and a rep there told me that all 7800 cards are required by nvidia to run the fan at 100% at all times, implemented in the card's BIOS. So I ended up just running the VGA fan on an extension cable to one of my motherboard's controllable fan headers, works great.

iatacs19 · Post by **iatacs19** » Mon Feb 06, 2006 10:35 am

I found rivatuner to work quite well for controlling the fan speed on my 7800GT. I am happy now and it's much quieter too.

sonuvbob · Post by **sonuvbob** » Mon Feb 06, 2006 12:38 pm

I've been using RivaTuner for my "quiet" LeadTek A6600GT TDH. Unfortunately it tends to switch to the "Performance 3d" setting in 2d. This page describes how to base the fan speed on GPU temp using RivaTuner (I haven't tried it yet though).

Iron_Dreamer · Post by **Iron_Dreamer** » Tue Feb 07, 2006 4:07 pm

iatacs19 wrote:I found rivatuner to work quite well for controlling the fan speed on my 7800GT. I am happy now and it's much quieter too.

Cool, what brand of 7800 do you have? I guess that eVGA guy wasn't speaking for all brands, or perhaps some just choose not to follow nVidia's guidance.

SoopahMan · Post by **SoopahMan** » Thu Jan 18, 2007 1:53 pm

I ultimately used RivaTuner to solve this once I figured out the impressively confusing Profiles feature. I'm yet to figure out what appears to be the other Profiles feature that will launch settings automatically in response to temps - right now I just manually switch on the Launcher.

If I had the time I'd just write something far, far simpler... but I have to admit I can't imagine it's fun tracking down all those hidden codes and settings to get software like this working in the first place. It's too bad there isn't a good open source one or something.

Oh and the 2D/3D distinction is an annoying one all of these software sets seem to make. It turns out Windows XP uses 3D accelleration for a lot of simple operations you wouldn't think of (playing Flash in a browser, skinning of some apps, moving windows without using that silly outline), so basically you're never really in 2D mode - any modes besides "Performance 3D" are just teases. You need to base this sort of thing on running apps or (more safely) temperature to get results. As I mentioned, I switch it manually.

a_punker · Post by **a_punker** » Sun Jan 21, 2007 12:53 pm

Know of any software other than 'ATI tool' that can control my X850 fan speed?

ATI tool is normally good, but since i hooked up a 120mm silverstone to my AC5 i have experienced a loud whine that reminds me of an old TV being on.

Reduce GPU fan speed?

Reduce GPU fan speed?

Which one?

what about ATI cards?