GPU fans make noise simply because of the need to keep GPU cooled.

[ItsKris]

Hello,

 

I am having a problem with my PC being too loud simply because of the GPU fans, which have to move fast in order to keep the GPU at normal temp. My GPU while gaming reaches usually at max 83 celcius. It might be normal for my GPU but it wont take the noise away which the GPU fans make. I have tried adding intake fans to get more colder air inside but it hasnt made any change.

Right below I have added information about my fans and case and some pictures about my PC, afterburner setup and speccy.

 

GPU:

• INNO3D Geforce RTX 2060 Super Twin x2 OC RGB 6GB GDDR6

 

Cooling:

• Case: C3 Plus Micro-ATX

Fans:

• 2x BE QUIET Pure Wings 2 PWM 120mm(25) - Intake
• 1x Jonsbo CR-201 CPU Cooler, 120mm - Outtake
• 1x Case fan 120mm - Outtake

 

My question is - Is there anything to do? I have literally contacted the store where I bought it and they simply have said that, this is how it is and there is really no other option to deal with it. Seems that I am sensitive to that kind of noise. Cant say its coil whine either, I am not hearing any high-pitched noise, some times I hear bearings make weird noise but thats too probably because the fans are just spinning too fast. 

[emosun]

Honestly the cooler on that card looks like its just a chunk of aluminum so its cooling performance probably isnt great which would lead to needing a lot of air over it. Id suggest moving the tower to a different room or using headphones

[Grabhanem]

There's two causes -

 

Your case has very little front access to air, so those intake fans are doing almost nothing.

 

Your graphics card just also uses a pretty poor cooling solution, being an aluminum slab rather than the proper fins on most cards.

 

If you wanted to invest some money and time, you could replace your stock GPU cooler with a third-party cooler and probably solve most of its noise problems, although a case upgrade would help a little bit as well.

[ItsKris]

9 minutes ago, emosun said:

Honestly the cooler on that card looks like its just a chunk of aluminum so its cooling performance probably isnt great which would lead to needing a lot of air over it. Id suggest moving the tower to a different room or using headphones

Thank you. Yes, something seemed so off and Ive thought about it simply being the GPU's cooling system. Thats sad. Did not know that. Yes these could be a solutions to the problem. 

[ItsKris]

8 minutes ago, Grabhanem said:

There's two causes -

 

Your case has very little front access to air, so those intake fans are doing almost nothing.

 

Your graphics card just also uses a pretty poor cooling solution, being an aluminum slab rather than the proper fins on most cards.

 

If you wanted to invest some money and time, you could replace your stock GPU cooler with a third-party cooler and probably solve most of its noise problems, although a case upgrade would help a little bit as well.

Yes I have thought about these two intakes having a really small cause because the front end of the case is simply all closed. So which I should prioritize? Having a new, more open case so I could even get a use out of these two intake fans? Or look into 3rd party GPU coolers?

[emosun]

1 minute ago, ItsKris said:

Thank you. Yes, something seemed so off and Ive thought about it simply being the GPU's cooling system. Thats sad. Did not know that. Yes these could be a solutions to the problem. 

my main pc is also loud but it's on the other side of a wall so it's not a big deal.

[emosun]

1 minute ago, ItsKris said:

So which I should prioritize? Having a new, more open case so I could even get a use out of these two intake fans? Or look into 3rd party GPU coolers?

well if the machine is still loud just leaving the side panel 100% off and open then it'll mostly just be the cooler on the gpu.

[ItsKris]

1 minute ago, emosun said:

well if the machine is still loud just leaving the side panel 100% off and open then it'll mostly just be the cooler on the gpu.

Yes having both side panels off there was about 3-4 Celsius difference.. Seems its just the GPU fans that are really bad and also make noise.

[narrdarr]

well a couple things have already been mentioned, but im going to recap and add some things.

1. limited case intake

2. cpu cooler fan is on backwards. dumping hot air against the flow of air in the rest of the case.

3. since the intake is so limited. moving or adding a fan to rear exhaust should be helpful.

4. the gpu itself. that model uses a cheaper heatsink design. yea the fans aren't great, but the heatsink itself is probably a limiting factor. there isn't going to be a way to change the heatsink without changing the fans. you'll have 3 options.

• 1. deshroud the heatsink and fans then ziptie 2x 92mm or 2x 120mm fan to the heatsink. your also need a crj dual cable to connect the fans to the gpu fan header. this option is the cheapest and see a noticeable difference. 
• 2. buy an artic accelero. there are a few models i think a duo will fit but you'll have to double check. the option will cost a little more, but also preform better.
• 3. buy a rajintek Morpheus. this would be complete overkill and cost the most. this only a heatsink and you'll need to buy 2x 120mm fan to mount to it and a cable too. on the plus side it might be so overkill you might be able to run it passively. but you would have to test it. 

* both option 2 and 3 come with small heatsinks for vrm and memory but the tape for them kinda sucks and i wouldn't even use them.

[ItsKris]

11 hours ago, narrdarr said:

well a couple things have already been mentioned, but im going to recap and add some things.

1. limited case intake

2. cpu cooler fan is on backwards. dumping hot air against the flow of air in the rest of the case.

3. since the intake is so limited. moving or adding a fan to rear exhaust should be helpful.

4. the gpu itself. that model uses a cheaper heatsink design. yea the fans aren't great, but the heatsink itself is probably a limiting factor. there isn't going to be a way to change the heatsink without changing the fans. you'll have 3 options.

• 1. deshroud the heatsink and fans then ziptie 2x 92mm or 2x 120mm fan to the heatsink. your also need a crj dual cable to connect the fans to the gpu fan header. this option is the cheapest and see a noticeable difference. 
• 2. buy an artic accelero. there are a few models i think a duo will fit but you'll have to double check. the option will cost a little more, but also preform better.
• 3. buy a rajintek Morpheus. this would be complete overkill and cost the most. this only a heatsink and you'll need to buy 2x 120mm fan to mount to it and a cable too. on the plus side it might be so overkill you might be able to run it passively. but you would have to test it. 

* both option 2 and 3 come with small heatsinks for vrm and memory but the tape for them kinda sucks and i wouldn't even use them.

I am going to switch the CPU cooler in the right position. So maybe I could use these two BeSilet fans I have for the intake instead on the GPU? Then I could get a use for them and just get the CRJ dual cable.

[OCNewbee]

4 minutes ago, ItsKris said:

I am going to switch the CPU cooler in the right position. So maybe I could use these two BeSilet fans I have for the intake instead on the GPU? Then I could get a use for them and just get the CRJ dual cable.

Undervolt using afterburner.

[ItsKris]

1 minute ago, OCNewbee said:

Undervolt using afterburner.

Doesnt it mean i get less performane out of my GPU?

[OCNewbee]

2 hours ago, ItsKris said:

Doesnt it mean i get less performane out of my GPU?

nope. usually stock voltages are too high. You can get away with much lower voltage and still get the same speed. I undervolted mine and it runs around 10 C cooler.

 

Here are some tips that was also mentioned by other people.

1) deshroud

Considering deshrouding your GPU. I deshrouded my 1080 and replaced them with 2x 120mm corsair LL fans (I didn't want to spend more money on Noctua ones). Attach that cooler to corsair commander pro so you can set a nice fan curve.

*Do not buy generic fan hubs. Only corsair commander pro or bust. 

*Do not buy a PWM adapter and link it to your GPU because the fans will annoyingly stop and run at random times due to GPU boost 3.0 or something. This sound is really annoying.  

 

2) replace TIM

If you are going to deshroud, might as well replace the thermal compound and the thermal pads. This arguably lowers it around 2 degrees or so. 

 

3) better air flow <advise against>

From looking at your setup, adding more fans near the GPU will not change your temps much. 

[ItsKris]

1 hour ago, OCNewbee said:

nope. usually stock voltages are too high. You can get away with much lower voltage and still get the same speed. I undervolted mine and it runs around 10 C cooler.

 

Here are some tips that was also mentioned by other people.

1) deshroud

Considering deshrouding your GPU. I deshrouded my 1080 and replaced them with 2x 120mm corsair LL fans (I didn't want to spend more money on Noctua ones). Attach that cooler to corsair commander pro so you can set a nice fan curve.

*Do not buy generic fan hubs. Only corsair commander pro or bust. 

*Do not buy a PWM adapter and link it to your GPU because the fans will annoyingly stop and run at random times due to GPU boost 3.0 or something. This sound is really annoying.  

 

2) replace TIM

If you are going to deshroud, might as well replace the thermal compound and the thermal pads. This arguably lowers it around 2 degrees or so. 

 

3) better air flow <advise against>

From looking at your setup, adding more fans near the GPU will not change your temps much. 

Thank you, appreciate the help

[narrdarr]

4 hours ago, ItsKris said:

I am going to switch the CPU cooler in the right position. So maybe I could use these two BeSilet fans I have for the intake instead on the GPU? Then I could get a use for them and just get the CRJ dual cable.

that should be ok for now but I would still try to have intakes if possible.  I was offering the idea of moving it as a addition to the GPU mod. and a temporary solution till you get another fan.

 

4 hours ago, ItsKris said:

Doesnt it mean i get less performane out of my GPU?

 

2 hours ago, OCNewbee said:

nope. usually stock voltages are too high. You can get away with much lower voltage and still get the same speed. I undervolted mine and it runs around 10 C cooler.

 

undervolting is an option, but you cant guarantee there will be no loss in performance. 

2 hours ago, OCNewbee said:

Here are some tips that was also mentioned by other people.

1) deshroud

Considering deshrouding your GPU. I deshrouded my 1080 and replaced them with 2x 120mm corsair LL fans (I didn't want to spend more money on Noctua ones). Attach that cooler to corsair commander pro so you can set a nice fan curve.

*Do not buy generic fan hubs. Only corsair commander pro or bust. 

*Do not buy a PWM adapter and link it to your GPU because the fans will annoyingly stop and run at random times due to GPU boost 3.0 or something. This sound is really annoying.  

what are you taking about. this is not true at. using the cable is perfectly fine. there is no issues will GPU boost 3.0. if you still dont want to the cable you can use the motherboard fan header and use software to control fans via GPU temp or an offset fan curve based on CPU temp. and you really dont need corsair fans. your config is so expensive your want to limit GPU performance potential with the under volt.

 

OP I would not fallow this advice.

 

2 hours ago, OCNewbee said:

replace TIM

If you are going to deshroud, might as well replace the thermal compound and the thermal pads. This arguably lowers it around 2 degrees or so. 

this maybe helpful 

2 hours ago, OCNewbee said:

better air flow <advise against>

From looking at your setup, adding more fans near the GPU will not change your temps much. 

again sigh. who advise against better airflow.

[OCNewbee]

3 minutes ago, narrdarr said:

what are you taking about. this is not true at. using the cable is perfectly fine. there is no issues will GPU boost 3.0. if you still dont want to the cable you can use the motherboard fan header and use software to control fans via GPU temp or an offset fan curve based on CPU temp. and you really dont need corsair fans. your config is so expensive your want to limit GPU performance potential with the under volt.

 

OP I would not fallow this advice.

No man. There is this thing called fanstop. If you attach the fan directly to the GPU and if your video card does not have a physical fanstop button, this is a living nightmare. 

 

But, I think as narrdarr mentioned, it would be a good idea if you can attach your fans to a motherboard fan header and use software to set the fan curve. This would be the cheapest option. 

 

For me, I am lazy and I am very anal about fan speed so I like to use the commander pro to set each fans to my exact fan curve.

6 minutes ago, narrdarr said:

again sigh. who advise against better airflow.

I know this from experience man. For GPUs, adding more fans doesn't always make too much of a difference in their load temp.

At least in my case, I had a similar setup to his.

 

I had two fans and I had a poor GPU thermal performance so I added two more Noctua 140mm at the bottom as intake. Made little difference. Almost negligible. I don't think the OP wants to spend like $30~$60 for 1~2 degree difference in thermal performance.

 

Undervolting using afterburner was the best idea from my experience. 

 

 

[narrdarr]

11 minutes ago, OCNewbee said:

No man. There is this thing called fanstop. If you attach the fan directly to the GPU and if your video card does not have a physical fanstop button, this is a living nightmare. 

 

But, I think as narrdarr mentioned, it would be a good idea if you can attach your fans to a motherboard fan header and use software to set the fan curve. This would be the cheapest option. 

 

For me, I am lazy and I am very anal about fan speed so I like to use the commander pro to set each fans to my exact fan curve.

I know this from experience man. For GPUs, adding more fans doesn't always make too much of a difference in their load temp.

At least in my case, I had a similar setup to his.

 

I had two fans and I had a poor GPU thermal performance so I added two more Noctua 140mm at the bottom as intake. Made little difference. Almost negligible. I don't think the OP wants to spend like $30~$60 for 1~2 degree difference in thermal performance.

 

Undervolting using afterburner was the best idea from my experience. 

 

 

fan stop isnt even relevant.  it's just a zero rpm mode for when the GPU is under a low load and a specific temp. the temp is different for all cards. but doesnt even matter. so what if the fans spin at the minimum speed with low load.

 

fyi you can do everything that the command pro does with fancontrol software.

 

as for airflow 

its dependent on if you at the point of dementioning return or not. you maybe he may not be. 

 

again undervolting maybe helpful may not be. 

[OCNewbee]

59 minutes ago, narrdarr said:

fan stop isnt even relevant.  it's just a zero rpm mode for when the GPU is under a low load and a specific temp. the temp is different for all cards. but doesnt even matter. so what if the fans spin at the minimum speed with low load.

 

fyi you can do everything that the command pro does with fancontrol software.

 

as for airflow 

its dependent on if you at the point of dementioning return or not. you maybe he may not be. 

 

again undervolting maybe helpful may not be. 

I mentioned fan stop because it is very annoying to have your fan revv up when your curve is not set that way. I think the op would prolly like to avoid having his gpu revv at random times.

 

No. You cannot control all the fans with fan software. This requires having a motherboard with many pwm/ fan headers. My motherboard only has two. For controlling many fans individually, you need commander pro.

 

As for gpu temp., idle temps are improved by additional fans. But it does not help the load temp in any configuration unless you significantly change the layout of the case.

 

 

 

 

[Grabhanem]

From what I see, the problem is not the GPU fans but the GPU heatsink itself - it just doesn't have enough surface area to cool effectively. A third-party cooler would make the biggest difference.

[narrdarr]

13 hours ago, OCNewbee said:

I mentioned fan stop because it is very annoying to have your fan revv up when your curve is not set that way. I think the op would prolly like to avoid having his gpu revv at random times.

 

 that more of a rare worse case scenario where temps bounce from below fan stop temp then up far enough to cause the fans to ramp to an audible level then back down and up down and up. this can happen for a variety of reasons and I have personally experienced it with a zotac gtx 1070 mini due to a failing fan along with a heatsink that is undersized for the card.

none the less fanstop/zero rpm mode is only a feature and one that doesnt even matter as a fan at it lowest rpm will go unnoticed anyways. 

 

ps

not ever sure why we are discussing this. even if the card has this feature the heatsink is too weak to take advantage of a zero rpm mode/ fan stop.

13 hours ago, OCNewbee said:

No. You cannot control all the fans with fan software. This requires having a motherboard with many pwm/ fan headers. My motherboard only has two. For controlling many fans individually, you need commander pro.

you are arguing semantics. yes you can depending depending on the fan connection  configuration. and even if you couldn't using the crj cable to connect directly to GPU is 1/6 the cost of commander pro.

 

13 hours ago, OCNewbee said:

As for gpu temp., idle temps are improved by additional fans. But it does not help the load temp in any configuration unless you significantly change the layout of the case.

uhm what?.

first

yes it does. even if you dont see the difference in load temps you will see the difference in boost clock along with stability in the boost clock.

second 

this statement goes against your statement regarding fan stop/zero rpm mode as it would directly affect it as the card could never reach a low enough temp to use the feature.  oh wait I almost forgot you want the OP to potential gimp his GPU and spend an additional 60$ on a commander pro to make it happen. 

 

 

 

[OCNewbee]

2 hours ago, narrdarr said:

not ever sure why we are discussing this. even if the card has this feature the heatsink is too weak to take advantage of a zero rpm mode/ fan stop.

I agree. The heatsink is too weak. That is why many people recommended deshrouding and replacing it with 120mm fans. My intention was to help him have a setup that would not be annoying. But you are right. This is outside the scope of the argument. For pure thermal performance, fanstop does not matter. It is only annoying. For me, this annoyance (fan revving randomly) was so great that I had to tell him this. 

 

2 hours ago, narrdarr said:

you are arguing semantics. yes you can depending depending on the fan connection  configuration. and even if you couldn't using the crj cable to connect directly to GPU is 1/6 the cost of commander pro.

Yes I also agree with you that my advice is very expensive. But not all motherboards have many fan connectors. I simply advised him the commander pro because I like to control everything precisely and I assumed that many people would like to also enjoy the same capability. But you are right. If he is price sensitive, this is not a very good option. He is better off going with fan splitters. But if he only has two fan connections, and he has to link other fans to his GPU temp, his computer case will be VERY loud. Judging from his fan curve, I think he may care about noise.

 

2 hours ago, narrdarr said:

yes it does. even if you dont see the difference in load temps you will see the difference in boost clock along with stability in the boost clock.

 When you have a thin heatsink, load temps do not change much unless the fan is on maximum. Judging from his linear fan curve, I guessed that he cares about noise. 

 

2 hours ago, narrdarr said:

this statement goes against your statement regarding fan stop/zero rpm mode as it would directly affect it as the card could never reach a low enough temp to use the feature.  oh wait I almost forgot you want the OP to potential gimp his GPU and spend an additional 60$ on a commander pro to make it happen. 

I suppose you could be right on this as well. Undervolting could cause a lower performance but at the same time, undervolting could allow a greater performance at a lower temperatures. For example, my 1080 was able to push 1900 mhz on 925mv. Before, it requires me to push ~1050mv to hit 1900 and the temp was much much higher. So in all fairness, you cannot say that my recommendation would gimp his GPU. You could be right but I could be right as well.

 

I know that you know a great deal about computers. But you have to also consider that recommendations are merely differences in personal approach and values.

For me, I don't really care about spending extra hundred bucks or so to have 1) complete control and 2) lower temp.

 

It seems that you are much more utilitarian than me. You care more about 1) the most cost effective approach and 2) ad hoc solutions.

I hope you are not offended by our conversation because you know a lot about computers and you have contributed greatly to this forum.

[narrdarr]

5 hours ago, OCNewbee said:

I agree. The heatsink is too weak. That is why many people recommended deshrouding and replacing it with 120mm fans. My intention was to help him have a setup that would not be annoying. But you are right. This is outside the scope of the argument. For pure thermal performance, fanstop does not matter. It is only annoying. For me, this annoyance (fan revving randomly) was so great that I had to tell him this. 

 

Yes I also agree with you that my advice is very expensive. But not all motherboards have many fan connectors. I simply advised him the commander pro because I like to control everything precisely and I assumed that many people would like to also enjoy the same capability. But you are right. If he is price sensitive, this is not a very good option. He is better off going with fan splitters. But if he only has two fan connections, and he has to link other fans to his GPU temp, his computer case will be VERY loud. Judging from his fan curve, I think he may care about noise.

 

 When you have a thin heatsink, load temps do not change much unless the fan is on maximum. Judging from his linear fan curve, I guessed that he cares about noise. 

 

I suppose you could be right on this as well. Undervolting could cause a lower performance but at the same time, undervolting could allow a greater performance at a lower temperatures. For example, my 1080 was able to push 1900 mhz on 925mv. Before, it requires me to push ~1050mv to hit 1900 and the temp was much much higher. So in all fairness, you cannot say that my recommendation would gimp his GPU. You could be right but I could be right as well.

 

I know that you know a great deal about computers. But you have to also consider that recommendations are merely differences in personal approach and values.

For me, I don't really care about spending extra hundred bucks or so to have 1) complete control and 2) lower temp.

 

It seems that you are much more utilitarian than me. You care more about 1) the most cost effective approach and 2) ad hoc solutions.

I hope you are not offended by our conversation because you know a lot about computers and you have contributed greatly to this forum.

not offended, but you going to spend the extra money just do it proper. get a rajintek morpheus. might even be able to run the OP card passively with no fans at all.

[Mark Kaine]

I think you could get temps down like 5-10C minimum with a proper fan configuration. 

 

No exhaust fan? ✔ 

Cpu fan mounted the wrong way? ✔ 

 

Well there's not much else you can do, maybe put two additional fans under the GPU,  looks like there maybe are mounting holes?  Won't be beneficial much, but a little bit, maybe an additional 1C...

 

Otherwise you can just get a third-party GPU cooler,  proper case fan setup is still a must imo. 

 

 

[ItsKris]

On 3/31/2021 at 6:32 PM, narrdarr said:

that should be ok for now but I would still try to have intakes if possible.  I was offering the idea of moving it as a addition to the GPU mod. and a temporary solution till you get another fan.

 

 

undervolting is an option, but you cant guarantee there will be no loss in performance. 

what are you taking about. this is not true at. using the cable is perfectly fine. there is no issues will GPU boost 3.0. if you still dont want to the cable you can use the motherboard fan header and use software to control fans via GPU temp or an offset fan curve based on CPU temp. and you really dont need corsair fans. your config is so expensive your want to limit GPU performance potential with the under volt.

 

OP I would not fallow this advice.

 

this maybe helpful 

again sigh. who advise against better airflow.

Hey,

 

I have found out that there literally is no CRJ cable in my country but I found out now that I could use motherboard fan headers instead. I also looked into 3rd party coolers and I didnt see any with reasonable price in my country also I would rather not spend that much money on it.

So I can mount the fans to the gpu and just connect them to my motherboard fan header? (Btw I am using a fanhub for my motherboard as it had only one fan header).

Would this make a difference? Is it worth it and what I need for it?

 

 

I have zipties and thermal paste.

[ItsKris]

On 4/2/2021 at 7:15 PM, Mark Kaine said:

I think you could get temps down like 5-10C minimum with a proper fan configuration. 

 

No exhaust fan? ✔ 

Cpu fan mounted the wrong way? ✔ 

 

Well there's not much else you can do, maybe put two additional fans under the GPU,  looks like there maybe are mounting holes?  Won't be beneficial much, but a little bit, maybe an additional 1C...

 

Otherwise you can just get a third-party GPU cooler,  proper case fan setup is still a must imo. 

 

 

What do I need for proper case fan setup then?