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Nvidia minimum fan speed - why does this keep happening?

Not really viable if you have a big cpu cooler though which is my issue.
You could put the fan on the CPU cooler the other side in a pull configuration. A Zotac 5090 will probably be long enough that you don't need to though.
 
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I've not found a solution yet for my zotac 5090. Kinda just had to get used to the fans randomly turning on when watching youtube videos/browsing. I'm generally always wearing headphones which helps.

It's really dumb that the card has a "quiet" bios, but the lowest fan speed at 30% is still 1300-1350ish lol. It's not quiet!



Have you made sure you've got the "auto" button ticked on afterburner?

I dunno if it got changed but using manual controls used to stop you from being able to use the fan-stop. It's been a while since I used a manual curve in afterburner though as I've not found it necessary

Tried auto and manual on afterburner and nvidia app, no success.

Honestly it's not that loud, just a waste of my fans in my build if the GPU is louder than anything else in the system with perceivable fan noise vs near silent.

Was told to try and boot into safe mode, but unfortunately because I use a pin I end up in a loop with it where I can get back to normal windows due to it being fully offline.

Not sure what my next step will be now, as otherwise it's the least coil whine I've had on a GPU.
 
You could put the fan on the CPU cooler the other side in a pull configuration. A Zotac 5090 will probably be long enough that you don't need to though.
I've thought about it before admittedly due to ram clearance, but I decided against it due to people mentioning it has worse accoustics.

I'd probably have to try test it for space I think it'd be tight either way, I don't think the zotac is as long as some 5090s.

Tried auto and manual on afterburner and nvidia app, no success.

Honestly it's not that loud, just a waste of my fans in my build if the GPU is louder than anything else in the system with perceivable fan noise vs near silent.

Was told to try and boot into safe mode, but unfortunately because I use a pin I end up in a loop with it where I can get back to normal windows due to it being fully offline.

Not sure what my next step will be now, as otherwise it's the least coil whine I've had on a GPU.

Have you tried just totally uninstalling afterburner? I wonder if there's just something that's stuck in the profile. I don't see why you shouldn't be getting the fan stop under 50c.

I have a pin on my PC but I don't have troubles going into safe mode, so I find that part a bit odd though?
 
I've thought about it before admittedly due to ram clearance, but I decided against it due to people mentioning it has worse accoustics.

I'd probably have to try test it for space I think it'd be tight either way, I don't think the zotac is as long as some 5090s.



Have you tried just totally uninstalling afterburner? I wonder if there's just something that's stuck in the profile. I don't see why you shouldn't be getting the fan stop under 50c.

I have a pin on my PC but I don't have troubles going into safe mode, so I find that part a bit odd though?

I'll try that now :)
 
May have found a solution for others - Uninstalled afterburner as recommended

set your monitor to 60hz and performance mode to normal in windows and nvidia control panel

then change it to your desired monitor refresh rate once booted up.

My fans aren't spinning now :D
 
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I just tested this with Afterburner and a Asus TUF 3060ti if I set the fan speed % to 30% it turns the fans off its only till I set it to 40% it'll bounce from 200-800 fast and occasionally drop to zero though when looking at the fans they slow down and speed up. Proberly not the best setting for long term use but mine is always left on auto.

100% fan speed is 3k rpm and 50% is around 850.
 
So a 92mm fan does just fit. I put it on a pretty low RPM, think it's only 500rpm at the moment, and it's dropped the temps quite a bit at idle. Will see how it goes. I've not tied it down or anything yet, it's just sat ontop of the GPU, so I can decide whether to keep it. It sure is ugly as sin having an extra fan like that, hahaha.
 
So a 92mm fan does just fit. I put it on a pretty low RPM, think it's only 500rpm at the moment, and it's dropped the temps quite a bit at idle. Will see how it goes. I've not tied it down or anything yet, it's just sat ontop of the GPU, so I can decide whether to keep it. It sure is ugly as sin having an extra fan like that, hahaha.
500 RPM seems unnecessarily slow, which 92mm fan are you using? I have the Thermalright TL-P9, the ARGB version is more or less the same price which should make it look a bit nicer.
 
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500 RPM seems unnecessarily slow, which 92mm fan are you using? I have the Thermalright TL-P9, the RGB version is more or less the same price which should make it look a bit nicer.
Its the thermalright yea. I haven't messed with speeds if I'm honest. I just set it low because I've not really used the fan before(I don't think I've ever used 92mm fans before this, always been 120 or higher) so I don't know its noise vs speed sweet spots. I probably can set it higher without troubles. It's hard to hear the speed of it when I'm in the bios because the GPU fan seems to stay on regardless with no fan stop.
 
Its the thermalright yea. I haven't messed with speeds if I'm honest. I just set it low because I've not really used the fan before(I don't think I've ever used 92mm fans before this, always been 120 or higher) so I don't know its noise vs speed sweet spots. I probably can set it higher without troubles. It's hard to hear the speed of it when I'm in the bios because the GPU fan seems to stay on regardless with no fan stop.
At 35% (750 RPM) it's pretty much silent, while gaming I set it at 50% as it's not loud enough to be heard over my GPU fans. While gaming my GPU fans were running about 100 RPM lower with the Thermalright fan running at 50%.
 
I am operating the card in an open case, so basically no airflow, however also no heat accumulation inside the case. But even if it was in a closed case with zero airflow there is no reason the card should behave like it does.

Also as planned I have placed Noctua 120mm fan over the backplate venting area (a square cut out from the backplate with exposed heatsink) and running that fan on inaudible levels has completely eliminated the problem of GPU fans ramping up during "idle". However there is still problem of running old or esports games with light GPU load (i.e. around 100W) which will still trigger GPU fans spinning at 1400 rpm despite the GPU chilling at around 40C. Once the fans start spinning there is no chance of them stopping until card reaches around 33C, so no luck in light load scenario.
It's quite annoying during map loading moments, or waiting for matches where there is no in game sounds.

Unsurprisingly I have found that just by adding this one 120mm fan at the backplate (without necessity to mod the card) this dramatically improves the overall temperatures and / or noise vs. temperature balance. Now the card is able to run Cyberpunk with path-tracing while chilling at around 60C - 65C and while having the GPU fans at 1400rpm as well (while the Noctua fan still being close to inaudible). The built in GPU fans now actually have headroom for lower rpm even at full load. Therefore yet again I would much prefer for the card's fans running at lower rpm and having temps at around 75C instead thus yet again this stupid 30% fan speed limit is holding back the noise performance of the card even at full load. It's just so stupid. There are definitely games which have quiet passages in them where again this 1400rpm BS is breaking the immersion.
Like you, I am very sensitive to noise. I optimized my desktop (AMD 9950X, MSI 870 Pro, Asus Nvidia 3060 GPU with 2 fans) to be completely silent using FanControl and having all my fans run at very low RPM - about 350 RPM for the CPU/case fans and 660 RPM (the lowest possible value) for one of the two GPU fans which keeps the card cool enough to ensure the second one never forcibly comes on.

I was about to order a 5060Ti card just now which were announced today when I learned about the appalling high minimum RPM of ca. 1200RPM for all cards whose review I was able to find, except for the Asus 5060Ti - which however consumes 2.5 slots instead of 2 slots. I'd prefer to keep all my PCIe ports usable, so that one's out.

However, I wanted to reach out since I find your idea of strapping a Noctua fan to the backplate of the GPU truly innovative. I have never heard about anyone doing this and certainly had not considered it myself since it seems very difficult to attach. How exactly did you manage to attach the fan - and can it be removed again from the GPU without leaving a trace, or did you somehow have to glue it there?

Thanks for the great idea. Maybe I get a 5060Ti after all and use your "Noctua backplate fan mount" idea.
 
I was curious to see how easy this issue would be to fix if I upgraded to a 5080 as the fans randomly spinning up at a high RPM would really annoy me. I bought a cheap Thermalright 92mm TL-P9 fan for £5 and attached it to my GPU above the flow through area with a couple of cable ties. I set the fan speed at 35% (790 RPM) which is inaudible, it starts to become barely audible at around 40%.

The idle temperature while using around 20w went from 41c to 32c. Watching a 4K 60 fps Youtube video (29w) went from 47c to 35c. RTX video upscaling on a 1080p 50 fps video to 4K (43w) went from 53c to 38c. For non gaming tasks this would be comfortably below the 50c or 60c limits that the fans kick in.

Sounds like a great idea. Thanks for reporting the impact it had on your temperatures which is quite considerable. How exactly did you place these cable ties, i.e. did you thread them through the exposed fins of the heat sink, or did you wrap them around the entire GPU? Also, I assume you are blowing air into the GPU (from above downwards), i.e. in the opposite direction of a normal case's air flow which typically pulls in air at the lower front and exhausts them at the top and top rear - is that right? I wonder if it would be better to change the fan's air direction so it pulls air through the GPU (i.e. aligned with the direction of the rest of the case's air flow, moving from bottom towards the top of the case, thus reducing turbulence) - though I doubt it would be easy, as this would require a very tight fit on the GPU.
 
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Sounds like a great idea. Thanks for reporting the impact it had on your temperatures which is quite considerable. How exactly did you place these cable ties, i.e. did you thread them through the exposed fins of the heat sink, or did you wrap them around the entire GPU? Also, I assume you are blowing air into the GPU (from above downwards), i.e. in the opposite direction of a normal case's air flow which typically pulls in air at the lower front and exhausts them at the top and top rear - is that right? I wonder if it would be better to change the fan's air direction so it pulls air through the GPU (i.e. aligned with the direction of the rest of the case's air flow, moving from bottom towards the top of the case, thus reducing turbulence) - though I doubt it would be easy, as this would require a very tight fit on the GPU.
I already posted a picture with the zip ties, it's pulling air up which strangely had slightly better temperatures than pushing down.
 
May have found a solution for others - Uninstalled afterburner as recommended

set your monitor to 60hz and performance mode to normal in windows and nvidia control panel

then change it to your desired monitor refresh rate once booted up.

My fans aren't spinning now :D

Thank you so much. Since last week my clocks were stuck at around 2500mhz 75w and 500rpm (30%) on idle.

Didn't need to uninstall afterburner and power management was already on normal in control panel, so I just set refresh to 60hz, rebooted, then reset refresh back to 120hz, and now my GPU is back to normal - 230Mhz, 28w, 0rpm on idle.

What a wierd bug, what could cause this? Only thing I can think of it installing the new 576.15 driver but not sure
 
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