Fan not spinning until 80% - fan or controller issue?

[Confused Stu]

Just wondering if anyone has any experience of both graphics card fans not spinning at all until it's at 80% or above (at which point it spins up very loudly, temperature drops, so the fan goes back to stopped and the temperature builds up until it kicks in at 80%, rinse and repeat!). This would all happen around 80C with the stock fan curve, I think.

The model doesn't have a zero fan feature (well, mine does but that's kind of the issue!).

I'm wondering if the issue is likely to be the fans, in which case I can buy a pair of replacements from China and have it fixed in a month or so for £20, or if the issue is likely to be the controller, in which case I'd have to look at an aftermarket cooler hooked up to the PC fan headers for more money.

I was thinking dodgy fans at first, but as it's both fans starting/stopping at the same time, should I be thinking controller instead?

 

[drakulton]

Run HWmonitor and see what percentage the fan controller is telling the fans to run at. It might help point you to what's wrong.

 

[Kelt]

Have you tried using Afterburner to set a custom curve?

 

[skylineboy]

Have you tried using Afterburner to set a custom curve?

Try this.

 

[Blackjack Davy]

Manufacturers seem to be more interested in reducing noise than than temperature these days presumably because they know cards have a relatively short life as most people sell up and buy the latest after a year or two so cards roasting themselves to death doesn't feature into the equation whereas complaints about noisy fans does.

Custom fan profile with AB or even custom bios, afterburner is the safer option.