Computer Hope

Hardware => Hardware => Topic started by: thehandyman on October 08, 2011, 02:30:24 PM

Title: Should I try lowering my graphics card fan manually or leave it alone?
Post by: thehandyman on October 08, 2011, 02:30:24 PM

I have an asus geforce gtx 560 dcii oc, and when i play mafia II it slowly but eventually starts to get really loud. So I was wondering if I could manually lower the fan speed so I don't have to hear it as much. Is it normal for a graphics card to get that loud? I have to put on earphones everytime I play otherwise I have to hear that fan going.

The only thing that worries me is that allowing the graphics card to heat up too much can cause performance drops.

Title: Re: Should I try lowering my graphics card fan manually or leave it alone?
Post by: patio on October 08, 2011, 02:51:01 PM

Those fans...especially on graphics cards should never be throttled back...it's normally the hottest component in a PC...
Remove the card and take it to the store and fit a replacement fan for it...i suggest a ball-bearing one for longevity.

Title: Re: Should I try lowering my graphics card fan manually or leave it alone?
Post by: TheShadow on October 09, 2011, 08:12:17 AM

Hi again Patio, and group.

I think any PC tech would agree that the fans on video cards are the pits (cheap crap) and will be the first ones to GO in any PC.

When the one on my own vid card started growling, I took it out, cleaned it, re-oiled it and put it back in.  A few months later I had to do it all over again.  Then it finally bit the dirt and totally froze up.
I took it out and replaced it with a CPU fan from an old K6 chip.  I secured it to the top of the heatsink with HOT Glue.
The larger fan is very quiet and provides much better cooling than the stock fan.
Here's that video card with CPU fan.
(http://i54.photobucket.com/albums/g90/DrWho1943/Computer%20Stuff/GPU_Cooler.jpg)

So, take out the fan, clean it and the heatsink, really good and that may help.
When those little fans and their heatsinks get dirty, cooling suffers and the fans will have to run harder to cool the GPU.

Good Luck Mate!
 8)

Title: Re: Should I try lowering my graphics card fan manually or leave it alone?
Post by: patio on October 09, 2011, 08:23:38 AM

Howdy Shadow...good to seeya.

Title: Re: Should I try lowering my graphics card fan manually or leave it alone?
Post by: thehandyman on October 09, 2011, 02:13:57 PM

TY everyone, I will take your advice as a future reference. :)