Question Does GPU Fan Speed Have Any Affect on Power Draw and Power Supply?

[The Guy From The Thing]

just want to clarify if the speed of the GPU fans on my RTX 3070 affect the power draw of the chip and PSU respectively (Phanteks Revolt 1000w)

I set custom fan curves in MSI Afterburner, and my current settings are 40c = 40% speed. if I set it to 40c = 0% speed, would that have an effect on how much power the PSU and GPU are using? and if I did the inverse and set it to 40c = 100% speed, would it increase the power draw of the PSU/GPU?

(I’m not actually going to set it to 40 = 100, just using an example)

 

[hotaru.hino]

Yes, it's not like fans are acting on free energy or something. They'll take up a handful of watts at most though, not enough to really influence anything unless you're really running up the limit on the PSU.

 

[The Guy From The Thing]

Yes, it's not like fans are acting on free energy or something. They'll take up a handful of watts at most though, not enough to really influence anything unless you're really running up the limit on the PSU.

I see, according to HWInfo, they run at 58% speed basically all the time. I think I have some form of coil whine from either the GPU or PSU while I’m idle that I can only hear from the back of the case (due to the fans on the front), and was wondering if reducing the fan speed could help stop it at least while I’m idle?

 

[hotaru.hino]

I see, according to HWInfo, they run at 58% speed basically all the time. I think I have some form of coil whine from either the GPU or PSU while I’m idle that I can only hear from the back of the case (due to the fans on the front), and was wondering if reducing the fan speed could help stop it at least while I’m idle?

It likely won't. If it's like my card, which has three fans, 60% only adds about 2W to the total consumption.

 

[The Guy From The Thing]

It likely won't. If it's like my card, which has three fans, 60% only adds about 2W to the total consumption.

good to know. I’ll mess with the fans anyway just to see if it adds any kind of noise, there’s an airflow vent right above my PSU and it’s just tough to figure out if the noise is my gpu or psu

it could even be my rear fan but usually I can’t hear my case fans unless I put my ear to them. I don’t have time to pull my pc out so I can get a better listening angle so I’ve been trying to work around that

 

[The Guy From The Thing]

It likely won't. If it's like my card, which has three fans, 60% only adds about 2W to the total consumption.

also, although the noise that I’m hearing isn’t necessarily loud or noticeable, it does kind of turn into an intense coil whine-like sound when I run Heaven Benchmark at 300+ frames/full gpu load

again, the vent being right above the psu makes it hard to diagnose but that’s what makes me wonder if it could be the gpu, cuz when it whines under max load, it’s very noticeable from the front.

is there a specific constant spot on the gpu that coil whine ‘originates’ from? if it is coil whine, maybe the whine comes from the far left side of the gpu, which is the side furthest from the front of the case?

 

[hotaru.hino]

Coil whine comes from the so-called "chokes" on the video card, which are essentially coils of wire, hence the name "coil whine"

What they look like varies, but they're always on one side or the other of the GPU and VRAM chips in a line. In this case, it's the column of "boxes" on the left side of the board:

 

[The Guy From The Thing]

Coil whine comes from the so-called "chokes" on the video card, which are essentially coils of wire, hence the name "coil whine"

What they look like varies, but they're always on one side or the other of the GPU and VRAM chips in a line. In this case, it's the column of "boxes" on the left side of the board:

ahh, I see. top image seems to be Gigabyte? I believe that’s what brand of 3070 my card is too, so would that mean the “boxes” in my gpu would also be on the left or does it vary from individual card to card

 

[Avro Arrow]

The power draw of a video card is only slightly affected by fan speed but even at 100%, it won't be enough to matter.