Can Bad Fan Bearings Ruin My GPU?

[andrescelano]

Lately my HD 7950 has been making a sort of a rattle sound which I believe are related to fan bearings. The noise sometimes goes away when the GPU is idle but most of the time it is there when I am gaming. I tried to oil them this morning but I can't remove the fan completely. My question is, will I have problems with this later on? The rattle is annoying but I can live with it and I have not gotten any crashes or artifacts when I am playing games and my temperatures are around 65 degrees when playing. Thanks and this is the noise.
https://youtu.be/9314fk3StqE

 

[photonboy]

Adding oil usually does nothing or can ruin the fan.

Do you know what you're doing there?

There's not much you can do aside from replacing the fan or entire cooler which may not be worth your time and money. You could investigate if there's an identical or compatible fan that will easily fit.

(BTW the video doesn't tell me anything useful in terms of audio)

 

[InvalidError]

Depending on how severe the vibrations from that 'rattle' are, it could eventually cause mechanical failure on the GPU (breaking PCB traces, solder joints, glue, etc.) or even the motherboard slot.

 

[R_1]

yes. the bearings are there to provide smooth motion, the smooth motion in the fans bearings keep the load on the motor low.
your motor on the fan is having to work harder just to do its job, couple that to friction of the bearings colliding, the sound you are hearing, the bearing will wear from a sphere to something like a golf ball (not exactly but you get the idea) these two things will cause the fan to fail which can cause your gpu to die

While you can't remove the fan completely you can replace the heat sink and fan with an after market cooler like this one. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835186098&cm_re=hd_7950_fan-_-35-186-098-_-Product

but you'd be better off with a new card financially speaking.

 

[andrescelano]

Ok thanks. Yeah the noise is there but it really isn't super loud and like I said it eventually goes away but comes back after a while. I might get a gtx 970 if i get some money, if not I don't know what I could do but yeah, it is kinda like a soft rattle not something really shaky.

 

[andrescelano]

I am back guys, just to let you know that I have fixed this problem by taking apart my GPU and replacing the fans in it.