Question GPU fan wobbling and hitting shroud - is it safe to remove it completely ?

[k@rt]

One of the three fans on my Gigabyte GTX 1080 Ti has started wobbling and hitting the shroud, makes an awful noise and often stops fan dead. From reading around is seems there is no repairing these fans and replacing is the only option.

But until then can I just pull the fan out completely?

I was monitoring temps while gaming earlier and even with the fan often stopping the max temp it hit was only 76 (168F). I have a big case (NZXT H7 Flow) with good airflow but I obviously don't want to risk killing the GPU. I don't know if removing one fan is likely to make certain parts of the card overheat and damage, or whether heat is fairly evenly distributed across the whole sink. I guess I could add another case fan and zip tie it to the GPU where that fan used to be, but it wouldn't be controlled by GPU fan curve.

Any recommendations would be most appreciated.

 

[hedwar2011]

As title says, one of my three Gigabyte GTX 1080tTi fans has started wobbling and hitting the shroud, makes an awful noise and often stops fan dead. From reading around is seems there is no repairing these fans and replacing is the only option.

But until then can I just pull the fan out completely?

I was monitoring temps while gaming earlier and even with the fan often stopping the max temp it hit was only 76 (168F). I have a big case (NZXT H7 Flow) with good airflow but I obviously don't want to risk killing the GPU. I don't know if removing one fan is likely to make certain parts of the card overheat and damage, or whether heat is fairly evenly distributed across the whole sink. I guess I could add another case fan and zip tie it to the GPU where that fan used to be, but it wouldn't be controlled by GPU fan curve.

Any recommendations would be most appreciated.

I wouldn't recommend removing the fan completely unless you are absolutely comfortable with taking the GPU apart and know it's wired to the board inside the GPU.

Here is a YouTube video on how to replace the fan and you can find replacements by googling something like "1080ti fan replacements".

 

[k@rt]

I wouldn't recommend removing the fan completely unless you are absolutely comfortable with taking the GPU apart and know it's wired to the board inside the GPU.

Here is a YouTube video on how to replace the fan and you can find replacements by googling something like "1080ti fan replacements".

Sry I'm a little confused by this. If I am going to replace the fan I will have to remove it completely to put the new one in anyway (so I'll have to take the plastic shroud off but I think that's all, I won't have to remove the sink or take the GPU apart any more than that). The question is though can I remove it now and run the GPU with only 2 fans for a few days until a replacement is delivered.

 

[hedwar2011]

Sry I'm a little confused by this. If I am going to replace the fan I will have to remove it completely to put the new one in anyway (so I'll have to take the plastic shroud off but I think that's all, I won't have to remove the sink or take the GPU apart any more than that). The question is though can I remove it now and run the GPU with only 2 fans for a few days until a replacement is delivered.

It technically will run just fine but I would recommend if you start noticing weird things to stop use until you get the replacement.

 

[k@rt]

It technically will run just fine but I would recommend if you start noticing weird things to stop use until you get the replacement.

Okay great thanks. So in your opinion it should theoretically be okay, but I should keep a close eye on it all the same. I'll make sure I keep HWinfo, HWmonitor and GPU-Z running at all times and any sign of trouble shut it down immediately.

Thank you very much for the advice!

 

[SyCoREAPER]

It will look goofy but if you botch the repair you can always ziptie a fan to it lol

I laugh but I'm being serious, if you damage something it likely will cost more to fix it properly than getting a new card

 

[ohio_buckeye]

Linus actually had a video from a few years ago showing how to zip tie fans on a card. Hit up YouTube and you should find it. Even if your card looks weird who cares as the 1080ti is pretty old now but still a beast.

 

[k@rt]

It will look goofy but if you botch the repair you can always ziptie a fan to it lol

I laugh but I'm being serious, if you damage something it likely will cost more to fix it properly than getting a new card

Well I was thinking of doing this in the interim until I can get a new fan delivered. The broken fan keeps hitting the plastic shroud and makes an awful noise, so I'd rather remove it. I have plenty of free fan headers on my motherboard so I can easily stick an extra fan into the case.

 

[k@rt]

Linus actually had a video from a few years ago showing how to zip tie fans on a card. Hit up YouTube and you should find it. Even if your card looks weird who cares as the 1080ti is pretty old now but still a beast.

Okay, thanks. I'll look it up. I think I've seen that sometimes people do this, prolly on Linus's channel. Although an actual guide would always be helpful.

 

[ohio_buckeye]

Found the video I was talking about.

View: https://youtu.be/-yQHAMz1v5g?feature=shared

 

[Joseph_138]

I wouldn't remove it unless you are planning to put a new one in it's place right away. Those cards with three fans are typically ones that are overclocked heavily, so they are given three fans for that reason. If they didn't need them, the manufacturer would sell it as a two fan card, at lower clock speeds. The cards that have two fans, usually use larger diameter fans, as well, so you won't even have as much cooling as a card that comes with only two fans, if you try to run a three fan card with only two, using the stock cooler. You might get away with replacing the stock cooling fans with a pair of big, Noctua fans, but that's going to be an expensive way to replace a fan that doesn't cost very much on ebay. It's not worth pouring more money than you have to into a card that you will likely be replacing soon, anyway. It will also be easier to sell your card with the stock fans, than with a pair of Noctuas bodged on.