[SOLVED] Is it safe to run a graphics card without a fan?

[chris h the guy]

So, I have my good 4 year old GTX 960 4GB, which works completely fine... if you ignore that the fan that the fans are dead. No sign of life even when booting, so I believe they are completely gone.

Now, the question is: Can you run a graphics card without a fan, given you have your case fans running and a small fan blowing on it, such as this https://www.amazon.com/Honeywell-HT-900-TurboForce-Circulator-Black/dp/B001R1RXUG without damaging your computer in any way?

I have ordered some cheap fans (https://www.ebay.com/itm/402187503302 ) from eBay and I am wondering if this ghetto setup would work in the meantime before they arrive in approximately 2-4 weeks, when I could attempt the repair on my graphics card.

I am going to be running low-demand games such as Osu!, Minecraft, and League of Legends.

Edit: I just found a brilliant way to add fans to my graphics card, via zip tie. I have attached a case fan and a cpu fan to my graphics card. Does anybody know the detriments of doing this super ghetto homemade fans?

 

[Darkbreeze]

If you run it without a fan you won't have to worry about whether it is ok to run it without a fan for very long. Understand?

If not, then the shorter answer is no, it is not ok. It is EXACTLY how you destroy a perfectly fine graphics card over a fifty or sixty dollar (At most, usually, under normal circumstances) replacement fan assembly.

 

[kiriakos-gr]

As long you do offer sufficient airflow (Due external fan) the VGA it will function.
But now, no one can say that is SAFE.
They are plenty of multimeter them capable to use wired temperature probe so you to monitor the temperature by your self.
Over 80 Celsius the GPU will overheat and start to SLOW DOWN.
You better stick to 2D for now.

 

[Darkbreeze]

As long you do offer sufficient airflow (Due external fan) the VGA it will function.
But now, no one can say that is SAFE.
They are plenty of multimeter them capable to use wired temperature probe so you to monitor the temperature by your self.
Over 80 Celsius the GPU will overheat and start to SLOW DOWN.
You better stick to 2D for now.

You can't offer sufficient airflow to a GPU without there being a fan on it, IF it is a model designed to HAVE a fan on it. If it were capable of being passively cooled then it would not have come with a fan. If you were to significantly reduce the GPU and memory clocks, then you MIGHT be able to get by for a while without a fan, but anybody who knew sufficiently how to do such a procedure wouldn't have had a need to ask about it and likely wouldn't DO it anyhow.

It's a bad idea, and it's easy for you to tell somebody else it's ok when it isn't your hardware at risk.

 

[Furzumz]

I just found a brilliant way to add fans to my graphics card, via zip tie. I have attached a case fan and a cpu fan to my graphics card. Does anybody know the detriments of doing this super ghetto homemade fans?

Linus did this and actually got good results (even better results than the stock fans) but keep in mind he was using those expensive Noctua fans

However it might not work well with blower style cards

Just make sure to keep an eye on your temperatures. Don't wanna fry your card if it isn't working well

Edit - also keep in mind you could outright melt the zip ties under heavy load. Gotta get decent enough zip ties to avoid that

View: https://youtu.be/-yQHAMz1v5g

 

[kiriakos-gr]

People you better slow down at using your keyboard with out making careful reading of the messages.
The OP suggested to use temporarily a huge external fan 220V 35W 185 CFM .

 

[Darkbreeze]

The bottom line is, none of this is feasible for the average person and ANYTHING Linus does is probably questionable and needs to be taken with a grain of salt. Personally, knowing a little something about the kind of BS things he does at trade shows, I wouldn't watch or pay attention to anything he suggests doing.

If you have a motherboard that allows you to assign a custom source for it's thermal response, in this case the GPU, per fan header, then yes, you COULD get away with using a regular case fan, potentially. But it's STILL a bad idea and probably ends up costing nearly as much, maybe more, than what it would cost to replace the fan assembly on the card with a correct type unit anyhow if you don't already have the fan or if you purchase a quality fan. Garbage in, garbage out.

 

[gamenadez]

So, I have my good 4 year old GTX 960 4GB, which works completely fine... if you ignore that the fan that the fans are dead. No sign of life even when booting, so I believe they are completely gone.

Now, the question is: Can you run a graphics card without a fan, given you have your case fans running and a small fan blowing on it, such as this https://www.amazon.com/Honeywell-HT-900-TurboForce-Circulator-Black/dp/B001R1RXUG without damaging your computer in any way?

I have ordered some cheap fans (https://www.ebay.com/itm/402187503302 ) from eBay and I am wondering if this ghetto setup would work in the meantime before they arrive in approximately 2-4 weeks, when I could attempt the repair on my graphics card.

I am going to be running low-demand games such as Osu!, Minecraft, and League of Legends.

Edit: I just found a brilliant way to add fans to my graphics card, via zip tie. I have attached a case fan and a cpu fan to my graphics card. Does anybody know the detriments of doing this super ghetto homemade fans?

No it does not affect the performance, with zip tie. As long the temperature of your GPU does not reach 80c..
It is safe to run a GPU without a fan running. If you have Intake Fan to cool off inside your case.. I have RX 580 and the fan doesnt even run unless i play games. it still sit on 35c and 50c on maximum depending on room temp, its 24/7 on.

 

[chris h the guy]

I'll attach a photo of what my graphics card looks like: https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/215875446116450315/727059685261312050/image0.jpg
Sorry, I don't have any other better way of sharing but yeah, it seems to be working quite fine actually for now. I did a quick half an hour test on Osu! and it seemed to not go above 50*C so I am pretty happy with it. I also made sure to put the smaller zip-ties not touching the heatsink so they will not melt and made the big zip-ties go around the card.
Also, this setup isn't the absolute worst I have put this graphics card through. I have literally put case fans above and below the graphics card to cool it and it worked for a year before I decided to change boards and make things look a little more pretty. By the way, I also forgot to include the fact that I have (https://www.bonanza.com/listings/NZXT-Sentry-3-Touch-Screen-Fan-Controller/845902516?goog_pla=1 ) a fan controller so I can easily adjust based off of what game I am playing.
And yes, I have a lot of fans.

 

[cryoburner]

The bottom line is, none of this is feasible for the average person and ANYTHING Linus does is probably questionable and needs to be taken with a grain of salt.

In what way is strapping case fans onto a graphics card cooler not feasible for the average person? It seems like a perfectly reasonable solution to me, and one that might even work better than the stock fan setup, which is probably designed more around keeping the cooler's size to a minimum, and keeping manufacturing costs in check.

 

[Darkbreeze]

If you believe that, then I have even less faith in your contributions here than I had before. I'm not going to argue it further though beyond this post. If you yahoos want to figure out a way to strap flood control air movers to the side of your cards, by all means, be my guest.

If you are unable to see how backing up recommendations for substandard work arounds is a bad idea for the average Joe, then perhaps you are not looking at the recommendations you make from the right viewpoint. We're not talking about somebody who builds systems regularly or performs any variety of modifications. We're talking about the caliber of user that had to ask if running without a fan in the first place was acceptable, and to the idiot that keeps saying yes, it's ok, please, again, by all means, feel free to REMOVE the fans from YOUR card and run it that way. We'll see you back here in about a week whining about how your card has died and you can't figure out why. Some days I don't know why I even bother trying to sort out all the stump heads around here.

 

[DalaranPhoenix]

Tough choice since you can't sell a 960GTX for much money so not sure if it justifies spending 50 bucks for aftermarket fans on it... But you should definitely NOT run it without a fan good lord... How can anyone in good conscience recommend that??? Jury rigging some case fan on it just seems too FallOut 4 unless you have a Repair Skill of 90+

I would spend some extra cash to get some fan on it, or buy an old card for cheap and put the fan on, ie anything to get some fan with at least 2000 RPM on it. 960 is a good card, it will last you another couple years as a back up card, I wouldnt use it for some cheap experience like that

 

[chris h the guy]

Well, I guess I am not the average joe PC builder since I have put together a few builds already by now.
But yeah, case is closed (literally). As expected, the card could be seriously damaged as well as some other parts, but I have solved my cooling issue by strapping some case fans on my graphics card (for the low spec games that I run anyways).

Thanks for all of the replies!

 

[kiriakos-gr]

Well, I guess I am not the average joe PC builder since I have put together a few builds already by now.
But yeah, case is closed (literally). As expected, the card could be seriously damaged as well as some other parts, but I have solved my cooling issue by strapping some case fans on my graphics card (for the low spec games that I run anyways).

Thanks for all of the replies!

You may prove to your self that your experiences they did grow, by you selecting in the future graphic cards them including a dual ball bearing fan.
For example SAPPHIRE and ASUS they are both good examples about not cheating in the quality of DC fans that they use.