R9 290 Non-Reference Design Fan Control Question

[Terminal_Boy]

Does anyone know if the AIB partners now supplying own-brand card with non-refernce cooler designs make any changes to the fan control circuitry to cope with the current drawn by the extra fans?

I want to try using my HIS 290's on-board fan control circuitry (using After Burner to set fan sped/profile) and don't want to damage the card by drawing too much current for the 3 fans on my Arctic Accelero Xtreme 3.

To date, I've tried to manually set fan speed on the AX3 using the following methods:

- Arctic "7V" (Molex) cable : nice and quiet, but doesn't provide enough cooling to VRM1 when over clocking.

- Arctic "12V" (Molex) cable : plenty of cooling, but my OCD doesn't like the fans spinning 100% when the gPU isn't under load.

- Using my Zalman ZM-MFC1 fan controller : Despite getting a special cable made up, I've had no joy with this as the AX3's fans don't spool up. I suspect that the 7W (0.6A) per channel output of the controller isn't enough to kick the fans off.

If the AIB non-reference cooler designs do modify the fan control circuitry, I'll try another method such as making up a "10V" fan supply cable.

 

[Terminal_Boy]

I can report that my HIS 290 powers the AX 3's fans just fine and they are fully controllable via AB.

Have custom profile that keeps things near silent until the GPU starts loading up. Fans go to 100% at 65 deg C as the GPU only gets that warm when OC'd at which point VRM1 needs all the cooling they get from the AX 3's fans.

I guess that having 3 linked fans means no PWM function as fan speed isn't reported to AB or GPU-Z.