Question Lowering fan speed in Afterburner doesn't lower RPM and is mostly affected by power limit?

ApplesGoneBloopie

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I've been testing out temperatures and fan speeds in my PC for a while now, and I only just realized that my GPU is the culprit for the ridiculously loud fan noise I've been experiencing. I thought it was my PSU's fan because limiting power in Afterburner seemed to be the only thing that helped. However, I recently downloaded some software that shows both the RPM of the fans as well as the fan speed (Afterburner only shows fan speed), and it turns out that my GPU fan runs at 4000+ RPM in most intensive cases. For instance, if I boot up pretty much any modern game and have the power limit in Afterburner set to roughly anything above 80%, the fan of my GPU will run at around 4000RPM. However, if I use a power limit of around 75%, my GPU fan goes back down to around 2300 RPM. Also, my GPU isn't running all that hot with or without the high RPM. The GPU doesn't break 80C, so I think the temperature of it is fine.

Is there any way I can get control over the RPM? Why would increasing the power limit make my GPU fan uncontrollable?

GPU: 2080ti
CPU: i9-9900k
RAM: 32GB Corsair Vengeance RGB Pro
Mobo: Z390 UD rev 1.0
 
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it depends on the manufacturer\distributor of the GPU.

Afterburner uses a fairly simple method of GPU fan speed control. while most modern GPUs use a more sophisticated approach. so in a lot of instances it cannot read or control individual fans or in some instances any of the fans.
in these scenarios the GPU's built-in temperature control will kick in and run the fans at pre-set speeds based on the amount of power they are using. this is usually built-in to the GPU BIOS.
the author of Afterburner has commented on it a few times, stating that they may or not implement better options for fan control, but that it seems to work fine as it is. i wish they would...

depending on the GPU, sometimes only using the actual GPU manufacturer's control software will give you complete control over the fans and show readings of RPM, etc.

for example;
with my last two EVGA cards, Afterburner has only been able to control a single fan out of three with a custom curve.
the other two fans stay at 0 RPM until reaching a certain voltage, then those two fans kick in with their pre-set fan curve.
i have to also run EVGA's Precision X1 if i want a custom fan curve for all three fans. and it also shows the full stats of the status of the fans.

but i've found the default GPU BIOS controlled fan curve is usually sufficient.
sometimes it will idle higher than i'd like, but it never passes low 60s with heavy gaming or video transcoding.
 

ApplesGoneBloopie

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it depends on the manufacturer\distributor of the GPU.

Afterburner uses a fairly simple method of GPU fan speed control. while most modern GPUs use a more sophisticated approach. so in a lot of instances it cannot read or control individual fans or in some instances any of the fans.
in these scenarios the GPU's built-in temperature control will kick in and run the fans at pre-set speeds based on the amount of power they are using. this is usually built-in to the GPU BIOS.
the author of Afterburner has commented on it a few times, stating that they may or not implement better options for fan control, but that it seems to work fine as it is. i wish they would...

depending on the GPU, sometimes only using the actual GPU manufacturer's control software will give you complete control over the fans and show readings of RPM, etc.

for example;
with my last two EVGA cards, Afterburner has only been able to control a single fan out of three with a custom curve.
the other two fans stay at 0 RPM until reaching a certain voltage, then those two fans kick in with their pre-set fan curve.
i have to also run EVGA's Precision X1 if i want a custom fan curve for all three fans. and it also shows the full stats of the status of the fans.

but i've found the default GPU BIOS controlled fan curve is usually sufficient.
sometimes it will idle higher than i'd like, but it never passes low 60s with heavy gaming or video transcoding.
This didn't end up solving it. I set all the fan curves to be pretty low (not low enough to hurt anything) in both the BIOS and Precision (using one without the other and using both at the same time just to make sure there was no interference), but the fans still go crazy at around 4000RPM under any slightly intensive load and limiting the power still seems to be the only solution. However, I did notice that at least one of the fans seems to keep itself low if I lower the power limit, and it's just one fan that goes crazy.
 
turn off Afterburner's fan control option, if it's still running.
I set all the fan curves to be pretty low (not low enough to hurt anything) in both the BIOS and Precision
your system BIOS can't read PCIe card's fan speeds, so I assume you mean you tried to modify the GPU's BIOS?

in the case of Precision X1, you do have an EVGA GPU?
you would need to set your custom fan curve and apply it, save it in a profile, and then leave Precision open for it to keep control of the GPU fans.
 

ApplesGoneBloopie

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turn off Afterburner's fan control option, if it's still running.
your system BIOS can't read PCIe card's fan speeds, so I assume you mean you tried to modify the GPU's BIOS?

in the case of Precision X1, you do have an EVGA GPU?
you would need to set your custom fan curve and apply it, save it in a profile, and then leave Precision open for it to keep control of the GPU fans.
The BIOS bit is my bad as I was not aware that the GPU fans couldn't be controlled from the BIOS. As for the Precision software, I'm gonna try that again once I re-install the GPU I was referring to, but I believe I did all that stuff properly. What I'm currently looking into is a way to get into the GPU BIOS and try to set fan curves there if possible, but I currently don't know of a way to get into the GPU BIOS, so I'm gonna have to look it up.
 
What I'm currently looking into is a way to get into the GPU BIOS and try to set fan curves there if possible, but I currently don't know of a way to get into the GPU BIOS, so I'm gonna have to look it up.
you do not want to fool with your GPU's BIOS.
it is not as simple as just opening up a menu and altering settings.
and you can end up causing major problems and\or damage to the card.

again, do you even have an EVGA GPU?
Precision X1 is not going to work unless you do.

if you do not have an EVGA GPU;
you will have to use the control software from the manufacturer of your GPU that is designed for your particular GPU.
 

ApplesGoneBloopie

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you do not want to fool with your GPU's BIOS.
it is not as simple as just opening up a menu and altering settings.
and you can end up causing major problems and\or damage to the card.

again, do you even have an EVGA GPU?
Precision X1 is not going to work unless you do.

if you do not have an EVGA GPU;
you will have to use the control software from the manufacturer of your GPU that is designed for your particular GPU.
Sorry that I didn't answer your question earlier; I do have an EVGA GPU. Also, yeah, I'm pretty scared to mess around with GPU BIOS stuff.