Should I let my GPU fans always spin or not?

[that_potato_guy]

(I know that by default gpu fans don't always spin) By default my gpu sits for around 51°c but if I change it to spin always at the lowest rpm allowed by amd adrenaline it settles around 41°. So should I let the gpu fans always spin or let the card do it's thing? I mean I'm getting around 10° cool temps but the fans are always spinning so it would shorten their life span ig. What do you guys do with your cards?

[jaslion]

Just leave it at default 0 rpm is therr for noise, dust and fan longevity reasons.

 

That card doesnt care one bit about being 10c colder.

[TVwazhere]

I personally let mine spin slowly above 30ºC, but that's just me. For best long term result, it's probably best to not let them spin under 50ºC (but make sure this temps also includes other parts like VRM and power delivery)

[that_potato_guy]

On 12/5/2022 at 8:35 PM, jaslion said:

Just leave it at default 0 rpm is therr for noise, dust and fan longevity reasons.

 

That card doesnt care one bit about being 10c colder.

Ya you're prbly right it's not like it's getting way too hot

[that_potato_guy]

On 12/5/2022 at 8:40 PM, TVwazhere said:

I personally let mine spin slowly above 30ºC, but that's just me. For best long term result, it's probably best to not let them spin under 50ºC (but make sure this temps also includes other parts like VRM and power delivery)

Hmm you got a good point. But how can I check if the temps include vrms and others? And what software do you use to control the fans? Cuz msi afterburner didn't work for me I think adrenaline is forcing the card to apply it's own config

[TVwazhere]

12 minutes ago, that_potato_guy said:

Hmm you got a good point. But how can I check if the temps include vrms and others? And what software do you use to control the fans? Cuz msi afterburner didn't work for me I think adrenaline is forcing the card to apply it's own config

I have EVGA cards, which when using their Precision X1 software will show you different temps across the card. It's not available for every card though, so for tracking of those temps you can use something like HWinfo 64 or HWmonitor, which might show VRM temps Nevermind those programs dont seem to show VRM temps either

[Snail Jerky]

7 hours ago, that_potato_guy said:

Ya you're prbly right it's not like it's getting way too hot

Great original question btw. I thought about it too when I first started using my RX 6600. I never had a card that doesn't spin at all at lower temps and I was concerned. 

 

Then I later saw a short blurb by GN Steve about hotspots and components nearby. Maybe it won't affect me and my particular GPU, but it is something to keep in mind.

 

I think the other posters are right about your card and the 10c difference. Not a big deal.

 

 

Personally for me I'm still thinking about it. Zero RPM is on, but I wonder about that fan longevity compared to overall GPU longevity. Unlike most people, I set my goal to maintain my new system for as long as possible. Running 2 months so far out of 10 years, which is the goal. =D

What I didn't like is default settings for fan tuning, under high loads the hotspot hit 79c consistently. I tried custom settings and managed to get that down to 65c-72c(minor noise increase). I think every 3-6 months I will try and educate myself on what other people have experienced with these cards. Wait till there are compelling reasons and info on whether to turn Zero RPM off.

(even though I think I am biased toward being extra safe. My previous GPU GTX 770 memory failed after 7.5 years. And I wonder if that is a long term heat damage issue... it hovered around 60-85c during usage for most of its life) 

[that_potato_guy]

13 hours ago, TVwazhere said:

I have EVGA cards, which when using their Precision X1 software will show you different temps across the card. It's not available for every card though, so for tracking of those temps you can use something like HWinfo 64 or HWmonitor, which might show VRM temps Nevermind those programs dont seem to show VRM temps either

Man evga is just superior. Anyway pls inform me if you found anything regarding this matter 

[that_potato_guy]

4 hours ago, Snail Jerky said:

Great original question btw. I thought about it too when I first started using my RX 6600. I never had a card that doesn't spin at all at lower temps and I was concerned. 

 

Then I later saw a short blurb by GN Steve about hotspots and components nearby. Maybe it won't affect me and my particular GPU, but it is something to keep in mind.

 

I think the other posters are right about your card and the 10c difference. Not a big deal.

 

 

Personally for me I'm still thinking about it. Zero RPM is on, but I wonder about that fan longevity compared to overall GPU longevity. Unlike most people, I set my goal to maintain my new system for as long as possible. Running 2 months so far out of 10 years, which is the goal. =D

What I didn't like is default settings for fan tuning, under high loads the hotspot hit 79c consistently. I tried custom settings and managed to get that down to 65c-72c(minor noise increase). I think every 3-6 months I will try and educate myself on what other people have experienced with these cards. Wait till there are compelling reasons and info on whether to turn Zero RPM off.

(even though I think I am biased toward being extra safe. My previous GPU GTX 770 memory failed after 7.5 years. And I wonder if that is a long term heat damage issue... it hovered around 60-85c during usage for most of its life) 

Yo I got the same card too but my 6600 got hotspots around 84°. Can you tell me what custom settings you've used to keep it cool? Did you just increased its fan rpm? Cuz my 2 fan card can get pretty loud And I noticed something strange when playing csgo it acts weird at certain loading screens like the fans would suddenly ramp up super fast for no reason I'm using radeon chill for that issue but it capps the fps at 300. Csgo isn't even a gpu heavy game I know my i5 12400 can handle it perfectly then what's happening!! 

 

Btw I think the GTX 770 had a good life span 10 years is like squeezing every little juice outta that card which isn't a bad thing cuz you've paid for it. But still 7.5 years is a nice age the memory failure could be cuz of high temps or any other reason we would never know.

[Snail Jerky]

19 hours ago, that_potato_guy said:

Yo I got the same card too but my 6600 got hotspots around 84°. Can you tell me what custom settings you've used to keep it cool? Did you just increased its fan rpm? Cuz my 2 fan card can get pretty loud And I noticed something strange when playing csgo it acts weird at certain loading screens like the fans would suddenly ramp up super fast for no reason I'm using radeon chill for that issue but it capps the fps at 300. Csgo isn't even a gpu heavy game I know my i5 12400 can handle it perfectly then what's happening!! 

 

Btw I think the GTX 770 had a good life span 10 years is like squeezing every little juice outta that card which isn't a bad thing cuz you've paid for it. But still 7.5 years is a nice age the memory failure could be cuz of high temps or any other reason we would never know.

I'm betting on that my situation is very different from yours. I have a 1080p 60hz TV, so running above 60fps is not useful most of the time. I'm not competitive at all, I play casual.

 

I'm using a custom fan curve. Running slightly more aggressive than you probably. As you noticed, fan noise is the downside. And what I do might not work for other people's system.

 

Average room temp is roughly 18c-21c during fall/winter and 25c-28c in spring/summer. Have a good airflow case in the 4000D Airflow, and my CPU runs pretty low power/heat. Ryzen 5 5600 with 3rd party cooler. My Rx 6600 is around 31c on startup, idling on Win 10 desktop. Having several browser windows up, and watching youtube it gets to low 35c-43c. HWaccel is on for watching videos in browser. <---- I don't know how important, if at all. I see people post about not using and don't have any idea myself if there is any negative to it.

 

I'm not familiar with Intel CPU temps, I'm assuming it gets decently hot. And that the heat/temps inside your case/around your components are generally higher than mine.

 

But I feel the same about hearing the GPU fans ramping up and down a lot in a short time. So something that I've seen suggested is record those common peak temps you see during usage like games you play often. And set up your fan curve to be aggressive before you are near those common peak temps. 

 

So you get less of the fan ramping noise, because the heat buildup is more gradual rather than jumps. I think your fan curve is too steep.

Maybe have the points on your fan curve be further apart horizontally! But WARNING, it means their position vertically also needs to have a higher jump to keep up.

And try to get a good idea of the noise level at diff Fan RPM. Make a note of the RPM where you can't stand the noise. And start working on the curves before that. You still want to have 1 or 2 points in that high Fan RPM, because you don't want your GPU to burn up! 

 

 

I want to help you, but I'm a tech newbie. Only really started looking into this stuff during the summer. You want more knowledgeable people to chime in.

 

I was also thinking about video guides. But just a quick search on YT, there weren't any made by people I recognize. Also the guides all seem to be HOW TO, not teaching you WHY, What to look out for. We all have different specs/parts..    (based off titles, I can't watch every video on there..)

 

[Snail Jerky]

My PC is setup for longevity! Not for performance.

 

I don't play very many new games,  waiting for Dragons Dogma 2, Homeworld 3, Space Marines 2. My system should run those at least med-high 60fps.

 

Here's my tuning settings if you're curious.  All I know is the default of 84% fan speed is HORRIBLY LOUD.

 

[ based on my fan curve graph below, the highest point sits at the third vertical line that is visible. Which is between the labeled 62c and 100c. So the difference should make it 81c? And if the GPU hits that my fans will go to 75% RPM that is still horribly loud. But luckily it doesn't ever go there.

CS:GO uncapped & XCOM 2 <-- bug??  ingame rendered cutscenes, are the only games I can reach 100% UTIL and 100W Power. Highest temp recorded is 75c when that happens. 

So the point below that, which is at 50% FAN RPM and roughly 72c works well for my system. That keeps it at 75c at the most extreme loads. 50% FAN RPM is noisy, but it is bearable.. For me

Again I run 1080p 60fps Vsync, which means I usually don't even hit the 50% FAN RPM / 72c marker. I stay around the next two markers to the left which is 64c / 40% FAN RPM.  And the 50c / 20% FAN RPM as I have ZERO RPM enabled. ]

 

There is probably room to optimize even more. This stuff is all new to me, and had enough of testing for a long while. Ain't broke, no need to fix.

 

It is really interesting to see what other people with similar parts are experiencing. Seeing if we are missing out on anything, or how to improve.

 

 

 

 

 

[Mark Kaine]

its a preference thing and also how hot/warm the card actually gets.

mine sits around 36c while idle and i don't really see why the fans should be spinning at this point.  even light loads like watching yt videos, etc it barely goes above 40, again I see no reason why the fans should spin at this point. 

ive set it so it starts spinning around 45c, which typically means games, but not always,  some games it doesn't even get much warmer, and the fans dont spin therefore (its way under what nvidia defines as their starting point anyway) 

[that_potato_guy]

13 hours ago, Snail Jerky said:

My PC is setup for longevity! Not for performance.

 

I don't play very many new games,  waiting for Dragons Dogma 2, Homeworld 3, Space Marines 2. My system should run those at least med-high 60fps.

 

Here's my tuning settings if you're curious.  All I know is the default of 84% fan speed is HORRIBLY LOUD.

 

[ based on my fan curve graph below, the highest point sits at the third vertical line that is visible. Which is between the labeled 62c and 100c. So the difference should make it 81c? And if the GPU hits that my fans will go to 75% RPM that is still horribly loud. But luckily it doesn't ever go there.

CS:GO uncapped & XCOM 2 <-- bug??  ingame rendered cutscenes, are the only games I can reach 100% UTIL and 100W Power. Highest temp recorded is 75c when that happens. 

So the point below that, which is at 50% FAN RPM and roughly 72c works well for my system. That keeps it at 75c at the most extreme loads. 50% FAN RPM is noisy, but it is bearable.. For me

Again I run 1080p 60fps Vsync, which means I usually don't even hit the 50% FAN RPM / 72c marker. I stay around the next two markers to the left which is 64c / 40% FAN RPM.  And the 50c / 20% FAN RPM as I have ZERO RPM enabled. ]

 

There is probably room to optimize even more. This stuff is all new to me, and had enough of testing for a long while. Ain't broke, no need to fix.

 

It is really interesting to see what other people with similar parts are experiencing. Seeing if we are missing out on anything, or how to improve.

 

 

 

 

 

Ya we do really got different setups I got a 165hz pannel so for me I gotta have atleast 300fps for minimal input lag in csgo. Anyway I've undervolted my card and I think it helped a lil the fans aren't ramping up that fast and ya I changed the fan curve to a lil more aggressive curve. And I'm thinking about adding 2 more fans in my case just beneath the gpu to help it breath easily. For you tho 60fps shouldn't be any problem and ya your fans won't even reach 50% so you're good

[that_potato_guy]

11 hours ago, Mark Kaine said:

its a preference thing and also how hot/warm the card actually gets.

mine sits around 36c while idle and i don't really see why the fans should be spinning at this point.  even light loads like watching yt videos, etc it barely goes above 40, again I see no reason why the fans should spin at this point. 

ive set it so it starts spinning around 45c, which typically means games, but not always,  some games it doesn't even get much warmer, and the fans dont spin therefore (its way under what nvidia defines as their starting point anyway) 

I wanna let mine sit on 40-45c for idle conditions too but amd adrenaline won't let me change the zero rpm on my own it just applies it's own config where the fans start spinning at 58c and takes it back to 48c and the cycle repeats.

 

I don't know any other software that'll allow me to force change it except msi afterburner but I found out that once you close it adrenaline again forces its way. So I really have 2 choices here let my fans spin always which will give me my comfortable temps in idle conditions or let zero rpm on and let amd do its thing

[Mark Kaine]

12 minutes ago, that_potato_guy said:

I don't know any other software that'll allow me to force change it except msi afterburner but I found out that once you close it adrenaline again forces its way. So I really have 2 choices here let my fans spin always which will give me my comfortable temps in idle conditions or let zero rpm on and let amd do its thing

but you don't need to close afterburner...? its really lightweight... i have afterburner always running (also because of my undervolt)  but yeah, its just always open / minimized because the Nvidia default fancurve really sucks imo... fans start spinning at 60c or so which is just way too late and my card will *always* run cooler with my custom curve.

[that_potato_guy]

14 hours ago, Mark Kaine said:

but you don't need to close afterburner...? its really lightweight... i have afterburner always running (also because of my undervolt)  but yeah, its just always open / minimized because the Nvidia default fancurve really sucks imo... fans start spinning at 60c or so which is just way too late and my card will *always* run cooler with my custom curve.

Yo wait you're right it just minimizes to tray bro wtf it was such a ez fix