Question MSI Afterburner custom fan curve, fan tachometer oscillating

[best_wink]

Hey.

I just got a new GPU (MSI GTX 1660 Ti). While the card seems to work great for the most part I don't like the sound of the fans spinning up and down all the time when playing games. So I set a custom fan curve in MSI Afterburner to have it never go below 15% fan speed. However, while the custom curve is enabled the tachometer oscillates between the intended speed (15%, ~1000 rpm) and zero very rapidly. By very rapidly I mean about once a second. Here's what the fan speed and tachometer curves look like:
1
2

The fans don't seem to do anything weird physcially (they're spinning constantly while this is happening), and the tachometer seems to work normally when user defined curve is not in use (i.e. when playing a video game).

What gives?

My specs:
OS: Windows 10 Pro 64-bit
CPU: Intel Core i5 4690K @ 3.50GHz 38 °C (100 F), Haswell 22nm Technology
RAM: 8,00GB Dual-Channel DDR3 @ 799MHz (9-9-9-24)
Motherboard: MSI Z97-G43 (MS-7816) (SOCKET 0)
GPU: 2047MB NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Ti (MSI)
Storage:
111GB KINGSTON SV300S37A120G (SATA-2 (SSD))
931GB Seagate ST1000DM003-1SB10C (SATA )
Optical Drives:
ASUS DRW-24F1MT
Audio: NVIDIA High Definition Audio
PSU: Corsair RM850x

 

[Karadjgne]

See if there's an eco mode on the gpu. Sometimes it's a physical switch, sometimes it's a software switch (it'll be in the vendor software supplied with that card)

 

[best_wink]

See if there's an eco mode on the gpu. Sometimes it's a physical switch, sometimes it's a software switch (it'll be in the vendor software supplied with that card)

Thanks for your reply!

That would make a lot of sense. I've looked around but I can't find anything related to my card and an eco-mode. Do you have any idea where to find information on that?

 

[Karadjgne]

Msi. Look up the exact model, armor, gaming etc there's almost alway something in the overview that'll say if it has an eco mode, usually with pictures.

ZERO FROZR – COOLING ON DEMAND

First introduced in 2008 by MSI, ZERO FROZR technology stops the fans completely when temperatures are relatively low, eliminating all fan noise when no cooling is needed. When the heat is on during gaming, the fans will automatically start spinning again to keep your powerhouse cool.

From MSI Armor 6G page. That's an eco-mode. It'll have a slightly different fan curve to standard mode or performance/turbo. If there isn't a physical switch, there will be a setting linked in Msi Afterburner, as that's the software designed to be used with msi gpus. If you have them pre-set for performance mode, the fan curve is considerably more aggressive than standard mode, so will kick the fans faster at lower temps, to keep the gpu cooler.

I have something similar on my Asus GTX970, unfortunately eco mode temp to spin fans is @ 65°C, so during heavier gaming, when my gpu hits 65°C, it's a constant on (high rpm) / off again, which will drive anyone batty. So that's disabled (on by default) in Asus gpu software, and since it's a firmware switch it applies permanently whether software runs or not. So now I'm sitting with a standard mode, or turn on software which applies my 124% OC and performance mode fans.