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Is it bad to leave GPU fans running at 100% all the time?

Hi P
By Hi P
in Graphics Cards
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Go to solution Solved by emosun,

there is no reason other than noise to not have a fan at 100%.

The power they use is insignificant , and an electric fan is designed to run at 100% speed 100% of the time. It's an electric fan , not a gas motor. It's within it's spec to run at it's rated speed.

Idk why anyone would say it wears them out faster........ if you ran it beyond it's rated voltage then yeah that would definitely make it wear out faster but not 100%.
 

28 minutes ago, johnt said:

It just moves the hot air away from the GPU faster and into your room... the heat has to go somewhere! 

Yeah if the fan was at 0% the same thing would happen. The heat doesn't get beamed somewhere else other than the room if the fan speed is slower

Posted

I don't mind the noise as I use a headset, but I was wondering if doing so could mess up my GPU fans or something.

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1 minute ago, Hi P said:

I don't mind the noise as I use a headset, but I was wondering if doing so could mess up my GPU fans or something.

consider undervolting and setting a more optimal fan curve

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Why do you want to run them at full power? It just moves the hot air away from the GPU faster and into your room... the heat has to go somewhere! 

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6 minutes ago, johnt said:

Why do you want to run them at full power? It just moves the hot air away from the GPU faster and into your room... the heat has to go somewhere! 

I have mine pointed at my feet. You don't know!

CPU: Ryzen 2600 GPU: RX 6800 RAM: ddr4 3000Mhz 4x8GB  MOBO: MSI B450-A PRO Display: 4k120hz with freesync premium.

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12 minutes ago, johnt said:

Why do you want to run them at full power? It just moves the hot air away from the GPU faster and into your room... the heat has to go somewhere! 

It was just a thought that I had yesterday, while playing Metro Exodus with RTX I noticed my GPU was at around 85c while Afterburner (auto) left it at 74% fan speed

 

So... for around an hour I manually left it at 100% fan speed and my temps were around 77c

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4 minutes ago, Hi P said:

etro Exodus with RTX I noticed my GPU was at around 85c

That's quite toasty... I won't pry lol

 

14 minutes ago, LOST TALE said:

I have mine pointed at my feet. You don't know!

Winter is coming, ey? lol

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there is no reason other than noise to not have a fan at 100%.

The power they use is insignificant , and an electric fan is designed to run at 100% speed 100% of the time. It's an electric fan , not a gas motor. It's within it's spec to run at it's rated speed.

Idk why anyone would say it wears them out faster........ if you ran it beyond it's rated voltage then yeah that would definitely make it wear out faster but not 100%.
 

28 minutes ago, johnt said:

It just moves the hot air away from the GPU faster and into your room... the heat has to go somewhere! 

Yeah if the fan was at 0% the same thing would happen. The heat doesn't get beamed somewhere else other than the room if the fan speed is slower

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5 minutes ago, emosun said:

there is no reason other than noise to not have a fan at 100%.

It's typically frowned upon to have a noisy machine these days... which is why I was wondering why the Op wants to crank it. I never heard my GPU fans until I switched to Noctua on my CPU cooler and case. And then I was like "what's that noise??"

 

But if he's running 85 C... he might have other optimizations he could make to improve GPU temps than relying on fan speed alone.

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Just now, johnt said:

It's typically frowned upon to have a noisy machine these days...

Well then I guess the council of quiet pcs is going to have a word with me at the next HOA meeting?

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11 minutes ago, emosun said:

Idk why anyone would say it wears them out faster..

Also the fans are mechanical. Making them spin faster for extended periods could technically wear out the oil and bearings at a faster rate. Idk Linus swears GPU fans go bad, but I've never seen it. I had one EVGA card go bad with loose welds from heating/cooling cycles.

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1 minute ago, emosun said:

Well then I guess the council of quiet pcs is going to have a word with me at the next HOA meeting?

Do you have an obnoxiously loud PC? lol I'll pass along your name for their consideration.

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1 minute ago, johnt said:

Do you have an obnoxiously loud PC? lol I'll pass along your name for their consideration.

Define obnoxious , it doesn't bother me.

3 minutes ago, johnt said:

Also the fans are mechanical. Making them spin faster for extended periods could technically wear out the oil and bearings at a faster rate.

this is actually opposite

Running the fans slower causes the fan itself to collect more dust which ruins bearings and oil far faster than speed alone. I have a pair of 80mm led fans I bought in 2005 that have only ever run at full speed and 17 years later they still work fine.

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1 hour ago, johnt said:

I never heard my GPU fans until I switched to Noctua on my CPU cooler and case. And then I was like "what's that noise??"

You haven't hear Noctua's industrialPPC fans yet??? They can get loud at max speed for the 3000RPM variants. 

CPU Cooler Tier List  || Motherboard VRMs Tier List || Motherboard Beep & POST Codes || Graphics Card Tier List || PSU Tier List 

 

Main System Specifications: 

 

CPU: AMD Ryzen 9 5950X ||  CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-D15 Air Cooler ||  RAM: Corsair Vengeance LPX 32GB(4x8GB) DDR4-3600 CL18  ||  Mobo: ASUS ROG Crosshair VIII Dark Hero X570  ||  SSD: Samsung 970 EVO 1TB M.2-2280 Boot Drive/Some Games)  ||  HDD: 2X Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB(Game Drive)  ||  GPU: ASUS TUF Gaming RX 6900XT  ||  PSU: EVGA P2 1600W  ||  Case: Corsair 5000D Airflow  ||  Mouse: Logitech G502 Hero SE RGB  ||  Keyboard: Logitech G513 Carbon RGB with GX Blue Clicky Switches  ||  Mouse Pad: MAINGEAR ASSIST XL ||  Monitor: ASUS TUF Gaming VG34VQL1B 34" 

 

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7 minutes ago, emosun said:

this is actually opposite

I feel like many would argue with you, including me 🙂 

 

I think running your fans are important to avoid dust build up, but the speed is not as important given most PC fans run at several hundred rpm at their lowest settings. Of course running a fan at like 5 rpm is not going to do much. Also, running physical components at faster rates (in air) generates more heat, which causes a faster break down of the mechanical components. Even after the bearing oil has leaked out or worn out, the fan will continue spinning, just louder and internally warmer.

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5 minutes ago, CommanderAlex said:

You haven't hear Noctua's industrialPPC fans yet??? They can get load at max speed for the 3000RPM variants. 

Those are definitely loud! I didn't go with those for my mini ITX build though 

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33 minutes ago, johnt said:

Those are definitely loud! I didn't go with those for my mini ITX build though 

Yeah I could never do full blown industrialPPCs in my case.

CPU Cooler Tier List  || Motherboard VRMs Tier List || Motherboard Beep & POST Codes || Graphics Card Tier List || PSU Tier List 

 

Main System Specifications: 

 

CPU: AMD Ryzen 9 5950X ||  CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-D15 Air Cooler ||  RAM: Corsair Vengeance LPX 32GB(4x8GB) DDR4-3600 CL18  ||  Mobo: ASUS ROG Crosshair VIII Dark Hero X570  ||  SSD: Samsung 970 EVO 1TB M.2-2280 Boot Drive/Some Games)  ||  HDD: 2X Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB(Game Drive)  ||  GPU: ASUS TUF Gaming RX 6900XT  ||  PSU: EVGA P2 1600W  ||  Case: Corsair 5000D Airflow  ||  Mouse: Logitech G502 Hero SE RGB  ||  Keyboard: Logitech G513 Carbon RGB with GX Blue Clicky Switches  ||  Mouse Pad: MAINGEAR ASSIST XL ||  Monitor: ASUS TUF Gaming VG34VQL1B 34" 

 

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55 minutes ago, johnt said:

But if he's running 85 C... he might have other optimizations he could make to improve GPU temps than relying on fan speed alone.

Do you have any suggestions on what could I do? Because this temp problem has only happened on this game due to RTX (I think) 😥

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12 minutes ago, Hi P said:

Do you have any suggestions on what could I do? Because this temp problem has only happened on this game due to RTX (I think) 😥

undervolt

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1 minute ago, person123456789 said:

undervolt

Would that mean less GPU performance?

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17 minutes ago, Hi P said:

Do you have any suggestions on what could I do? Because this temp problem has only happened on this game due to RTX (I think) 😥

What case are you running? Which gpu? How many case fans and which orientations? A photo might be helpful too. 
 

There are also software frame limiters from nvidia you can use to limit fps to your monitor’s refresh rate. Anything higher is wasting heat. 

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14 minutes ago, johnt said:

What case are you running? Which gpu? How many case fans and which orientations? A photo might be helpful too.

Case: Mastercase H500
GPU: RTX 2080 Ti (2 fan)
Fans: 2x 200m (front), 1x 120mm (back)

I'm looking at videos on undervolting as suggested 🤔

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2 hours ago, Hi P said:

Fans: 2x 200m (front), 1x 120mm (back)

Ye ol' Cooler Master. This company never seems to go away lol but somehow they managed to make the NR200 which is a brilliant mini ITX case.

 

Okay so your setup is 2x200mm intake and 1x120mm exhaust? What are you doing with the top fan slots?

 

I also wouldn't consider undervolting before limiting your fps.

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