[SOLVED] GPU Fans, inconsistent behavior.

[Breydoak]

GPU: PowerColor Radeon R9 270 2gb.
Have a weird problem, GPU fans start to spin at very inconsistent temperatures and speeds. I am forced to use Afterburner's custom fan curve, because without it fans sometimes fail to start spinning at all, causing a reboot. Usually, it goes from 0 straight to 100% RPM, skipping all other steps I set up (but at least it starts spinning at all 😛 ).

As you can see on the screenshot, the fan started working only when temps got to 88 C, then turned off after a couple of seconds, then started again at 90 C and after that kept working at about 80% for another couple of minutes. What can possibly cause this weird behavior?

 

[Darkbreeze]

Probably, the fact that the card is about 6 years old and it's likely that either you have a failing capacitor somewhere on the board, or one of the thermal diodes is failing. Truthfully, there could be any number of potential reasons why but all of them are most likely caused by age related fatigue, or extended use with a cheap power supply that has been bombarding it with high levels of ripple or out of spec voltage regulation long enough that it has had an effect on the card components.

A failing power supply or motherboard, or bad driver could be related as well. My bet would be that the graphics card is simply failing but there's also an outside chance you could have fans with weak motors. Given the cost of replacing the cooling system, and it maybe not being the problem after all, versus replacing the card, it's not likely worth bothering with. It's money better put towards a newer card with better performance anyhow.

If however you have a REALLY crappy power supply, THEN it might be a good idea to start there, because you wouldn't want to use it with a new card anyhow AND it could be the root of the problem anyways.

What is the EXACT model of your power supply, and what are the rest of your full system specs?

Generally, if you create a custom curve telling the fan to come at X temperature, and it doesn't come on until it gets to Y temperature, it's a bad card.

Might be worth doing a clean install of the AMD graphics drivers though, because bad drivers or graphics drivers with MANY layers of previous installations, can certainly cause all kinds of weird issues.

 

[Breydoak]

Probably, the fact that the card is about 6 years old and it's likely that either you have a failing capacitor somewhere on the board, or one of the thermal diodes is failing. Truthfully, there could be any number of potential reasons why but all of them are most likely caused by age related fatigue, or extended use with a cheap power supply that has been bombarding it with high levels of ripple or out of spec voltage regulation long enough that it has had an effect on the card components.

A failing power supply or motherboard, or bad driver could be related as well. My bet would be that the graphics card is simply failing but there's also an outside chance you could have fans with weak motors. Given the cost of replacing the cooling system, and it maybe not being the problem after all, versus replacing the card, it's not likely worth bothering with. It's money better put towards a newer card with better performance anyhow.

If however you have a REALLY crappy power supply, THEN it might be a good idea to start there, because you wouldn't want to use it with a new card anyhow AND it could be the root of the problem anyways.

What is the EXACT model of your power supply, and what are the rest of your full system specs?

Generally, if you create a custom curve telling the fan to come at X temperature, and it doesn't come on until it gets to Y temperature, it's a bad card.

Might be worth doing a clean install of the AMD graphics drivers though, because bad drivers or graphics drivers with MANY layers of previous installations, can certainly cause all kinds of weird issues.

Rest of the specs:
R5 1600
16 GB 3000 Mhz RAM
A320M PRO-M2 V2
240 GB SSD M.2 WD Green

PSU I am using is Cougar STX 700W, but I used other GPUs with it and all worked fine. Fan its self spins fine, no noises, so I guess it is as you said a failing card. Time to get a new GPU I suppose, sad times 🙁

Thank you for your time and very detailed response, much appreciated!