Question GTX 970 perpetually stuck at 34% fan speed yet 0 RPM, and one fan not spinning at all ?

[codyfinn]

I recently got a used Gigabyte GTX 970 Windforce. It works, and temp stays around 28-33 degrees. I've benchmarked it with 3DMark Time Spy demo and it ran through it just fine. However, it's exceptionally loud. The only time the fan speed is normal is during bootup, and when I uninstalled the drivers with DDU. When generic drivers kicked in, the fan speed went back to being loud. From my understanding, I don't think the fans should even spin until around 60 degrees. I've tried messing with the fan speed on multiple programs; Gigabyte Extreme Engine, MSI Afterburner, and EVGA Precision. Nothing changes. I see the fan speed says it's at 34%, but the RPM is at 0. One fan isn't spinning at all, though. It's the one closest to the PCIe slot. It twitches when starting up, but otherwise it does nothing. Even if I give it a little push. Would this be a hardware issue? I'm unsure what to do at this point.

Should I take it apart and see if maybe some wires are not connected well? Should I order replacement fans? Or did I possibly just buy a bum card?

 

[Cyberat_88]

Again, a quiet gamer PC ? Wrong mentality. Your target is cooling not quiet.
35C is HOT, 50C is extremely hot, 65C is the max. you should have when running at peak.
Your fan should be at 50% speed on 35C that gradually increase to 100% to 60C.
Noise ? Tough, deal with it or quit gaming and buy a laptop.
I have a 15,000 RPM fan as extra on the case, pulling out heat, connected to the CPU aux. probe, with liquid cooling on too.

 

[dotas1]

Again, a quiet gamer PC ? Wrong mentality. Your target is cooling not quiet.

That here is not even remotely helpful in this situation. You can't decide for someone else if it's better for them to have more noise. Besides there are plenty solutions that are very quiet and do miracles to cooling.

35C is HOT, 50C is extremely hot, 65C is the max. you should have when running at peak.

That is just plain wrong, especially for GPUs. Most cards run flawlessly up to 80ish C degrees.

Noise ? Tough, deal with it or quit gaming and buy a laptop

Wrong mentality on your part this time. People come here asking for help, not someone to tell them to suck it up.

@codyfinn There are many other options but in order for us to help, you need to provide some more info. Can you list your case and how many fans you have in the system? Have you dusted it recently? Have you repasted the GPU?

 

[Karadjgne]

There's 2 sometimes 3 settings on most modern gpus. Eco/fanless mode, standard and sometimes performance.

These settings can be applied in 1 of 2 ways, either software or by physical switch, and thats according to the actual gpu.

Fanless/Eco mode will not spin any fan after boot until the gpu reaches @ 60-65°C, depending on the gpu. After that it'll use standard fan profile, but that profile kicks in starting at @ 60-65°C on the curve.

Standard mode is a set curve, all fans operate according to temp, raising or lowering duty cycle as needed.

Performance mode is the same, but the curve is steeper, so duty cycle raise faster according to temp.

All fans spin, it's not a thing where only one fan or 2 of the fans spin, it's all fans. If there are fans not spinning, replace the fans. Can get from the vendor or eBay easy enough.

You can run the gpu with busted fans upto @ 60°C ish, after that it'll require cooling as the vram/VRM's will fast exceed what it takes to get that temp.

 

[_ThunderClap_]

Ur fan needs replacing and i think ur VRMs are toasty so reapply thermal pads and thermal paste on the VRMs