Calling Zotac 4090 owners (strange misreporting fan speed bug)

Raiden85 · 5 Nov 2022 at 22:48

Thought it may be better to create a new post as this may get lost in the 4090 owners threads. For anyone that has a Zotac 4090 ideally the Extreme Airo version as this is what I have can you do a very simple test. Run any game and open something like GPU Z or HWINFO as this bug gets detected in all programs that can report min/max fans speeds.

Now for some reason fan 1 sensor which controls the fan near the ports and center have this extremely tiny spike in RPM reading that doubles the actual reading that happens randomly and often.

Now to start this is the card manually set at 100%, the fans max out at about 3000 RPM.

Now running any game at the stock fan settings the card will be at 30% or about 1100rpm on all fans but check out this tiny little spike on fan 1, if I check at what RPM speed is reported its double the actual reading but look at the fan speed % it never budges, and even with my ear next to the card the fans never ramp up or even attempt to, the card stays quiet. Forgot to change the average on fan 2 but it's max is 30%

Now I have manually set the fan speed to 70%, now when the spike in the graph occurs again check out the RPM, it's doubled again which for this reading it's impossible as it reads at 4600 RPM when the card can't go passed roughly 3000 RPM, but at 70% fan speed the RPM is 2300 RPM but according the the fan 1 reading during that tiny spike is doubled.

It's as it the card during those spikes is adding the two fan speeds together and reporting as double what it really is. Strange as this happens in every program that can read the GPU RPM and report the min/max but the actual fan % never changes just the RPM. Changed the number below on fan 2 to 70% as I left it on the minimum reading.

cp_997 · 5 Nov 2022 at 23:11

Hi, I have the same card and tried to replicate your test. I used Cyberpunk 2077 and did fan speeds 30/70/100

These are my results, within an RPM or 2 both fan speed 1 and 2 are consistent with the speed setting and I'm not seeing any doubling up.

https://flic.kr/p/2nXuo7c

Jay-G25 · 5 Nov 2022 at 23:38

Yes had this issue with my Zotac Trinity oc , it's going back to ocuk for rma as I'm not happy about it . Mine goes upto 6400rpm so doubling it's rpm , not acceptable on a £1900 gpu . The Fans also made a weird buzzing sound almost like coil whine even though the card was under no load at desktop with fans set to 100% sometimes it was really audible other times not so often .

Raiden85 · 6 Nov 2022 at 00:06

Thanks both, would rather not have to RMA this as the fans overall are working fine and I have no coil whine at all and it's not affecting the card in any way for now. The fans seem to be working perfectly normal apart from that issue so will keep an eye on it as I can always RMA if I really have to.

Jay-G25 · 6 Nov 2022 at 00:17

Raiden85 said:
Thanks both, would rather not have to RMA this as the fans overall are working fine and I have no coil whine at all and it's not affecting the card in any way for now. The fans seem to be working perfectly normal apart from that issue so will keep an eye on it as I can always RMA if I really have to.

My card had no coil whine either and would clock very high ( 3100mhz + ) but for the money it cost I won't accept anything less than perfect and as its within the 30 day return faulty for refund period I decided to do this now , if this had gone wrong say a year or so down the line then I would say OK its had a few years use but less than 30 days and it's playing up already! What goes wrong next is what I'm thinking and also could cause issues with a future potential sale . Wish you the best of luck with yours whatever you decide to do

Metalface Mark · 6 Nov 2022 at 10:55

chrisgough said:
Hi, I have the same card and tried to replicate your test. I used Cyberpunk 2077 and did fan speeds 30/70/100

These are my results, within an RPM or 2 both fan speed 1 and 2 are consistent with the speed setting and I'm not seeing any doubling up.

https://flic.kr/p/2nXuo7c

I can report exactly the same as chrisgough, no spikes in fan speed in gpuz

cHk4 · 6 Nov 2022 at 12:19

Metalface Mark said:
I can report exactly the same as chrisgough, no spikes in fan speed in gpuz

Same, mine is looking ok.

Jay-G25 · 6 Nov 2022 at 12:33

With mine it would sometimes be ok on auto and give a normal reading but would sometime spike to double rpm ( Fan1 : 3400rpm , Fan2: 1700rpm ) it would almost always do it if i set the fans to 100% and ran timespy for example , by the end of the run it would have spiked and as i like to run benchmarks and will normally have the fans set to 100% to aid cooling so found this unacceptable . The fact that others are reporting theirs are fine confirms what i knew that it shouldn't be going so high ( even for a split second ) and is indeed a faulty product, as mentioned above my fans also make a weird sound so not sure if its related to the rpm spike or not .

LtMatt · 6 Nov 2022 at 12:46

Raiden85 said:
Thanks both, would rather not have to RMA this as the fans overall are working fine and I have no coil whine at all and it's not affecting the card in any way for now. The fans seem to be working perfectly normal apart from that issue so will keep an eye on it as I can always RMA if I really have to.

Raiden…

Jay-G25 · 6 Nov 2022 at 12:53

LtMatt said:
Raiden…

From Mortal Kombat or Metal Gear Solid ?

LtMatt · 6 Nov 2022 at 13:01

Jay-G25 said:
From Mortal Kombat or Metal Gear Solid ?

Neither we were giving him some light ribbing in Discord about Zotac and their fans.

cHk4 · 6 Nov 2022 at 13:41

Jay-G25 said:
With mine it would sometimes be ok on auto and give a normal reading but would sometime spike to double rpm ( Fan1 : 3400rpm , Fan2: 1700rpm ) it would almost always do it if i set the fans to 100% and ran timespy for example , by the end of the run it would have spiked and as i like to run benchmarks and will normally have the fans set to 100% to aid cooling so found this unacceptable . The fact that others are reporting theirs are fine confirms what i knew that it shouldn't be going so high ( even for a split second ) and is indeed a faulty product, as mentioned above my fans also make a weird sound so not sure if its related to the rpm spike or not .

Hmm interestingly I'm at 30% RPM after gaming for a while, one fan (FAN2) stayed at 1100 RPM the whole time, and the other one (Fan1) has jumped from 1100 to 2179 at a brief spike and it's done that twice. I'm assuming if I went to 100% for a period it would do the same... So does that mean mine has an issue?

muon · 6 Nov 2022 at 13:53

I'm confused what the OPs RMA reason will be.

Jay-G25 · 6 Nov 2022 at 13:54

cHk4 said:
Hmm interestingly I'm at 30% RPM after gaming for a while, one fan (FAN2) stayed at 1100 RPM the whole time, and the other one (Fan1) has jumped from 1100 to 2179 at a brief spike and it's done that twice. I'm assuming if I went to 100% for a period it would do the same... So does that mean mine has an issue?

Yes mate does sound like the same issue , very sloppy from Zotac and shouldn't be happening as that is not classed as normal behavior imo . Try doing a few runs of timespy and leave the fans on 100% as mine will 90% of the time spike doing this .

*edit to say leave fans on 100% not auto , sorry :cry:

Jay-G25 · 6 Nov 2022 at 14:34

muon said:
I'm confused what the OPs RMA reason will be.

Fans spiking to double their rpm , clearly not right. I wouldn't expect to get in a car and while driving down the road expect the rpm to shot to 14k rpm for a split second without touching the pedal, that would be classified as a fault and straight back to the manufacturer. Do you think it's acceptable that they are doubling the rpm and would you be happy to lay out £1900 for that to happen?

Raiden85 · 6 Nov 2022 at 14:37

cHk4 said:
Hmm interestingly I'm at 30% RPM after gaming for a while, one fan (FAN2) stayed at 1100 RPM the whole time, and the other one (Fan1) has jumped from 1100 to 2179 at a brief spike and it's done that twice. I'm assuming if I went to 100% for a period it would do the same... So does that mean mine has an issue?

It’s a strange bug as the percentage is always accurate is just the rpm, the fans are all definitively running at the same speed when it spikes. If one fan was really hitting 2400 rpm you’d definitely hear it as it would sound like a jet engine. Will try the quiet bios later and see if it still does it.

muon · 6 Nov 2022 at 14:42

Jay-G25 said:
Fans spiking to double their rpm , clearly not right. I wouldn't expect to get in a car and while driving down the road expect the rpm to shot to 14k rpm for a split second without touching the pedal, that would be classified as a fault and straight back to the manufacturer. Do you think it's acceptable that they are doubling the rpm and would you be happy to lay out £1900 for that to happen?

It's not actually spiking.

What if I told you it was a a third party monitoring device you plugged into your car which was erroneously claiming it was spiking. Because that is what is happening. A car engine spiking to 14k rpm will blow it to bits.

Please read the thread next time.

My motherboard is rubbish at reading PWM speeds with a PWM controller attached. Maybe I should RMA the motherboard right? Actually let's blame the fans, which are actually working perfectly fine.

Raiden85 · 6 Nov 2022 at 14:58

And that’s the problem if I tried to RMA it so it’s not even worth trying, they could test the card all day long for a year and it would be fine as the fans are actually working without issues.

Jay-G25 · 6 Nov 2022 at 15:15

muon said:
It's not actually spiking.

What if I told you it was a a third party monitoring device you plugged into your car which was erroneously claiming it was spiking. Because that is what is happening. A car engine spiking to 14k rpm will blow it to bits.

Please read the thread next time.

My motherboard is rubbish at reading PWM speeds with a PWM controller attached. Maybe I should RMA the motherboard right? Actually let's blame the fans, which are actually working perfectly fine.

The reading is wrong which it shouldn't be on 2 bits of software i have always trusted to monitor my pc health , it is only wrong on this gpu no other so the gpu or fans themselves is at fault not the software . If you are happy to accept it that is fine but i am not on a product costing this much .

I was referring to the rpm gauge on a car giving a false reading ( like what is happening here ) not the engine itself spinning to 14k, this has happened in the past to cars and is classed as a defect and get recalled.

And i am reading the thread thanks , in fact i have contributed with my own issues about the card much like the op .

Jay-G25 · 6 Nov 2022 at 15:18

Raiden85 said:
And that’s the problem if I tried to RMA it so it’s not even worth trying, they could test the card all day long for a year and it would be fine as the fans are actually working without issues.

i could get mine to do it very easily by running a timespy benchmark with the fans set to 100% , i took a video of it for oc and at the start was 3200rpm and by the end reading 6400rpm .