is it safe for the fans to set its speed at 78% while gaming for hours?

whiteknights · Nov 13, 2017

i have sapphire HD 7870XT Dual-X. both fans was spinning in the first two years from buying the card and temps was around 70c at full load and fan speed was at 50%- 60%. after that i started to notice that the second fan doesn't spin unless fan speed at 78% or above.

and now after a couple more years and after i replaced my old thermaltake 450w PSU with FSP Hexa 500w, i've noticed that even the other fan doesn't spin on idle unless temps are above 42c and the moment i stress the gpu with furmark or with a game it goes down instantly to 0 RPM (i don't know why?) until 78% then start to ramp up again with the other fan.

even with the fan curve set it to ramp before 78% it doesn't, .. but i think thats in gaming or stressing only, which is strange.
i can ramp it up before 78% but with no stress on gpu.

so it looks like i have no choice except making a fan curve at 78% during gaming.. and I'm wondering if its going to effect the fans on the long run and shorten its life?.

xxepiccrulerxx · Nov 15, 2017

Yes, having your fans run so hard for this long is for sure going to decrease your cards life span by a large amount, especially with having an AMD chipset in the GPU, which we all know AMD is notorious for hot temps, your fans stop, your card gets hot and kills itself eventually..
I personally recommend picking up a new GPU ASAP
Hope this helps!

scout_03 · Nov 15, 2017

why you dont leave them on auto settings for the fan and does your case provide any good air flow so the gpu temp wont go so high .

unspeakable · Nov 15, 2017

for the fans dying it might take 2-5 years which is fine. If it's overheating and throttling you might just want to go into fan settings and set it so you know it stays cools. You might want to invest in a cheap $50 all in one watercooling if you want to keep the card though since its dying.

xxepiccrulerxx · Nov 15, 2017

unspeakable :

WIth a card this old and him running the fans constantly are going to deteriorate the GPU rather fast, and since its and AMD chipset, and AMD is notorious for running hot, when the fans can no longer suffice to keep it cool, it will eventually kill itself
might take a little bit for it to die but IMO its time for an upgrade
partially because it has one foot in the grave and partially because its a pretty old card (its 5 years old as of a couple days ago, and 5 years in computer parts is like 50 in real life xD)

ohiou_grad_2006 · Nov 15, 2017

If you want to limp it along, you could get a pci slot fan cooler.

With my case, I got a new RX 480 8gb, but it was running a little warmer than I wanted. What I did was pick up one of these.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/3-Fan-Mount-Rack-PCI-Slot-Bracket-20-Screw-4-Connector-For-Video-GPU-Card-Cooler/201988061471?epid=20007093048&hash=item2f076d391f:g:xs8AAOSwKoRZaKs9

And buy a couple of high cfm 80mm case fans. Orient them in the bracket so they force cool air up into your video cards air intake. On my RX 480, my temps probably dropped a good 6-7 degrees just doing that.

whiteknights · Nov 15, 2017

thank you all for respond... my case is thermaltake commander MS-III and it have a good airflow. all other components are cool. the problem like i said just with my GPU fans. the GPU itself has nothing to do with it, the card is running cool at idle. and when i set a fan curve it runs cool at full load 70c with 78% fanspeed. so my main concern here is the 78% fan speed running while gaming. i don't know if its normal to set it at 78% at full load.

scout_03 · Nov 16, 2017

since it have only 1 fan in front and 2 on top and 1 in back did you try to had one at bottom to cool your gpu they also have a side one spot for one to also cool the gpu check on thermaltake for this so you will be able to leave gpu fan on auto .

ohiou_grad_2006 · Nov 16, 2017

Yeah, from the description above, you need to add more airflow around your GPU. If you can't add side fans, see the links I showed above to get a bracket to put some fans in a spare PCI slot.

scout_03 · Nov 16, 2017

case already have option for gpu cooling fans .

whiteknights · Nov 16, 2017

it seems like i can't set GPU fan at auto anymore. because there is something wrong with the GPU fan RPMs.. it doesn't go along with the percentage of the fan speed.. for example if GPU temp raises to 60c fan speed get increased to 40%, BUT the actual RPM stays at 0.. RPM only raises when fan speed is above 70%

so the issue is not with my case Airflow neither with my GPU, its with my GPU Fan RPMs.

scout_03 · Nov 17, 2017

what did you use for the fan speed set up .

whiteknights · Nov 18, 2017

i used MSI Afterburner.. but this issue seems to happens even in the bios. so I'm not sure if its my GPU PCB, or my GPU bios.. could a software control a gpu even out side the OS?

The Paladin · Nov 18, 2017

can you capture the fan control screen of your msi afterburner ? I would like to see your fan curve points.
also run HWINFO and see what the GOU temps are running at.

both are intertwined to control the fans.
assuming your right and the fans are not longer responding to programming, your possibly looking at an attempt to reload the Bios on the video card or replacing it.

whiteknights · Nov 18, 2017

The Paladin :

okay thank you.. but even when MSI afterburner is closed, or I'm in the bios or safe mode.. the fan seems to turn on for around 3 minutes then turn itself off again when Temps gets lower.

also i just need any explanation for why the moment i stress the gpu the other fan that used to work all times goes down to low RPMs until its 78% then it ramps up from low RPMs to 3000's RPM's suddenly and work with the second fan.. and why it doesn't spin at idle unless temp is above 42c (48c now), then when temp decreases to late 30's the fan turn off again, and so on..

this happens with or without MSI afterburner, it happens in the bios and safe mode also, so I'm guessing MSI afterburner or any third party programs has nothing to do with it.

how can i reload the bios of the video card? do you mean updating it?.. and what are the risks?

also i have two 6pin PCIE connectors. I'm thinking of using two molex instead plugged to the GPU, just to test and see if there was any bad 6pin pcie cable.. i don't know if its wrong using two molex.

ohiou_grad_2006 · Nov 18, 2017

You should not use molex for connecting to a gpu. Sure it may work, but usually if a power supply does not have 6 pin connections, your psu may not be good for running that gpu.

whiteknights · Nov 18, 2017

ohiou_grad_2006 :

i was just thinking of using molex for a minute not permanently, just to see if there was any bad 6 pin connectors that made the fan doesn't spin all times. although my current PSU suppose to be much better than my old PSU, and i had my old PSU running my GPU for 5 years with no issues.

ohiou_grad_2006 · Nov 18, 2017

I see. Might be ok temporarily but I would not recommend doing that as a permanent fix.

The Paladin · Nov 18, 2017

okay and when you use MSI afterburner, you press on the Cog-wheel on main graphic menu and get to main menu select second tab fan control and set a curve and you have that little check box at the top "Enable user defined software automatic fan control ?

whiteknights · Nov 18, 2017

The Paladin :

yes. but I'm using an older version of MSI afterburner = 3.0.0 beta. i have to check it every time i want to set a fan curve but i doubt that it could be any software related issue as i said, i don't know.

also when watching an HD video through internet or opening VLC, the GPU fan usually doesn't spin unless i pause the video or close it and wait for a moment for the fan to start spin.. Temp can go above 75c while watching a video and after closing it the GPU suddenly notice that the card is hot and the fan starts.

the fan RPMs seems having troubles getting along with % fan speed and with temps.

whiteknights · Nov 18, 2017

also if i set a constant fan speed at anything below 66% the fan turn itself off when temp gets lowered to 30's (even if the fan speed still at 65%).. the only way i can have fan doesn't turn off is that if i set fan speed at anything above 65%.. anything less than that, fan starts to lower its RPMs with a slight rattling sound as the temps get lowered.

any explanation?

The Paladin · Nov 19, 2017

1. for god sake upgrade to latest version of MSi afterburner
2. set the curve so it run from 50'c on like in my curve I show you.

whiteknights · Nov 19, 2017

The Paladin :

i was thinking of uninstalling my driver and installing a newer version first, but okay i will upgrade to the latest MSI afterburner before that..

do you think it could be a software issue even though it does happen in bios?

is it safe for the fans to set its speed at 78% while gaming for hours?

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