Question Over 4000 RPM spikes on RTX 2070S ?

yvblake

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Oct 28, 2021
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Hello,

Got a Gigabyte 8G RTX 2070 Super. Been playing games for the last couple of years with settings turned way down because the fans will spin up to over 4k RPM whenever it gets into the high 70s. It will run for a couple of seconds at this high speed, then go back down to an inaudible speed for a few seconds, rinse and repeat.

Listening to the acceleration and deceleration is really annoying, so been running games at 720p with graphics turned waaay down to get around this.

Recently decided to look more into it. Trying to play games with RTX supported settings turned on and 1080p. Set up a custom curve w/ afterburner to push the fans to 100% if the card is above 35. (this way I can get used to the constant sound and not have to listen to it sporadically.)

Problem is, afterburner only takes the fans up to about 3000 RPM at 100%. Therefore still gotta listen to my vacuum cleaner (aka 4000 RPM fans) turn on and off every time the card gets past the mid-70s.

Any suggestions how to confront this issue? It's really driving me to my wit's end.
 
many times Afterburner cannot properly control 3rd party GPU's fans.
some of the time it cannot communicate with all fans, sometimes it's settings will be overridden by built-in settings, etc...

try settings all fans to a static 50% RPM.
if they are still ramping up then you are suffering from one such issue.

you may need to use Gigabyte's own GPU control software for full control over the fans.
 

yvblake

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Oct 28, 2021
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many times Afterburner cannot properly control 3rd party GPU's fans.
some of the time it cannot communicate with all fans, sometimes it's settings will be overridden by built-in settings, etc...

try settings all fans to a static 50% RPM.
if they are still ramping up then you are suffering from one such issue.

you may need to use Gigabyte's own GPU control software for full control over the fans.

Thanks, I'll look into it. TIL gigabyte has their own GPU control software.

Update: Gigabyte Aorus's 100% speed seems to put the card at ~3000RPM as well. Still goes up to 4000 RPM when at higher temperatures unfortunately. Wish I could just have a way to keep it at this 4000 RPM for the whole play session.

or you can reduce GPU power target with MSI afterburner.
The card will heat up less.

Also you may want to improve cooling inside your pc case - add some case fans or get a better pc case.

Thanks for the tip. Tried setting voltage curves before and didn't notice any changes at something like -50 mv, and then had my GPU start shutting down (presumably) at around -100mv. Or do you mean the % power slider on afterburner? Don't remember if I ever messed with that.

Edit: forgot to mention this computer has 4 chassis fans although only one is an exhaust fan. Would a second exhaust fan pointing up help? You mentioned case and yes unfortunately this case does not have room for a second exhaust fan pointing out, only up.
 
Last edited:
Hello,

Got a Gigabyte 8G RTX 2070 Super. Been playing games for the last couple of years with settings turned way down because the fans will spin up to over 4k RPM whenever it gets into the high 70s. It will run for a couple of seconds at this high speed, then go back down to an inaudible speed for a few seconds, rinse and repeat.

Listening to the acceleration and deceleration is really annoying, so been running games at 720p with graphics turned waaay down to get around this.

Recently decided to look more into it. Trying to play games with RTX supported settings turned on and 1080p. Set up a custom curve w/ afterburner to push the fans to 100% if the card is above 35. (this way I can get used to the constant sound and not have to listen to it sporadically.)

Problem is, afterburner only takes the fans up to about 3000 RPM at 100%. Therefore still gotta listen to my vacuum cleaner (aka 4000 RPM fans) turn on and off every time the card gets past the mid-70s.

Any suggestions how to confront this issue? It's really driving me to my wit's end.
If the fans are hitting 100%, it likely means the card is thermal throttling. It probably needs the thermal paste reapplied because it was possibly incorrectly applied from the factory or the cooler may not be sitting flat and properly mounted on the GPU die. I would have RMA'ed the card at the first signs of high fan speed when at idle temperatures.
 

yvblake

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Oct 28, 2021
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If the fans are hitting 100%, it likely means the card is thermal throttling. It probably needs the thermal paste reapplied because it was possibly incorrectly applied from the factory or the cooler may not be sitting flat and properly mounted on the GPU die. I would have RMA'ed the card at the first signs of high fan speed when at idle temperatures.

This is a good thought and I appreciate it but unfortunately I bought the whole computer off of a reseller on ebay and didn't notice any issue until well outside of the returns window. Don't know if I'm comfortable with taking the cooler off of the card, but maybe a local computer repair shop will be able to help out with that.
 
Or do you mean the % power slider on afterburner? Don't remember if I ever messed with that.
Yes - I meant power slider. When card reaches certain power threshold, it will not be allowed to increase power draw.
This results in lowered temperatures (also slightly reduced performance).
Edit: forgot to mention this computer has 4 chassis fans although only one is an exhaust fan. Would a second exhaust fan pointing up help? You mentioned case and yes unfortunately this case does not have room for a second exhaust fan pointing out, only up.
Can you show a photo of your system with side panel removed (all case fans visible) ?
(upload to imgur.com and post link)
 
Gigabyte Aorus's 100% speed seems to put the card at ~3000RPM as well. Still goes up to 4000 RPM when at higher temperatures unfortunately
have you tried setting GPU fans to 50% static?
not a curve at all, just stuck at 50% and see how it behaves.
this case does not have room for a second exhaust fan pointing out, only up
if the top of the case is ventilated then this would still be exhausting out.
whether through the ceiling or through the rear it is still exhausting outwards.
bought the whole computer off of a reseller on ebay
if this is some prebuilt system then it likely doesn't have good fans included.
you would probably do much better replacing all of them with high quality, high airflow fans.
depending on the case itself and it's design you may be able to replace them with much nicer 140mm versions.

what case is it and what CPU cooler are you using?
 
What is the orientation of cpu fan? Isn't it fighting against rear exhaust fan?
And how does front panel look like? Does it have any openings or is it completely closed?
If you look at the area where the RGB is, you can't see the motor, so It looks like it's pointed in the correct direction toward the rear fan, @yvblake but would still be better on the other side of the cooler above the ram to push air over it for more effective cooling instead of pulling air over it.
 

yvblake

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Oct 28, 2021
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What is the orientation of cpu fan? Isn't it fighting against rear exhaust fan?
And how does front panel look like? Does it have any openings or is it completely closed?
If you look at the area where the RGB is, you can't see the motor, so It looks like it's pointed in the correct direction toward the rear fan, @yvblake but would still be better on the other side of the cooler above the ram to push air over it for more effective cooling instead of pulling air over it.


These fans are all "ugly side" facing towards the rear so yeah it's pulling hot air from the cpu cooler rather than pushing. Never been having too many problems with CPU temperatures before or after putting the air cooler on (AIO that came with the computer started making an annoying noise too.)

As for intake, there is about an inch-wide of recessed metal dust-grille that runs along the sides between a glass front and the intake fans - picture kinda shows it, though not perfectly. I have to clean the dust off of this stuff all the time even with a HEPA sitting right next to the intake. Better the dust is caught on the grille than the internals so I'd like to be able to leave the glass cover on if possible.

Tried your suggestion and been lowering the % power slider. 5% at a time, now down to 70%. Then I got busy something came up, didn't get to test too much yet at 70% power but 75-100% power all had the fan kicking back up to 4000 RPM.
 
Tried your suggestion and been lowering the % power slider. 5% at a time, now down to 70%. Then I got busy something came up, didn't get to test too much yet at 70% power but 75-100% power all had the fan kicking back up to 4000 RPM.
Your card is defective in some way and it's likely either dried out thermal paste or improperly applied thermal paste from the factory. Someone might have opened the card and did a terrible job putting it back together. Lowing the power limits is not really a fix.

As I see it, you have two options.

  1. Assuming nobody opened the card already, you might still be able to get warranty service on the card if you have a receipt or bill of sale from ebay and your payment method for the system.
  2. The more realistic option is that you can take the card apart yourself or have someone do it for you to reapply thermal paste and possibly replace or fix thermal pads on the vram.
 
@ high 70-80°C your card's fans should be reaching max, or near to max, RPMs.
there is nothing physically the matter with your card in that regard.
the fact that you can't keep it below this temperature range could very well be the lack of cool airflow throughout the system.
regarding the annoying fan noise; let us know how the fan's perform when set at a static %, with no fan speed curve in place whatsoever.

you should first work on lowering the card's temperatures by allowing more cool air intake into the card before getting into any physical manipulation of the card's onboard cooling.

if you allow this card to be dismantled in any way you will void any possible warranty related options for the life of it.
if this card was provided new with the system this would be a bad idea.
contact the seller and get documentation regarding all of this system's original included product registration before attempting.
many times there can even be an option to extend product registration to a 3rd party upon sale or gifting.
 
@ high 70-80°C your card's fans should be reaching max, or near to max, RPMs.
For the OP's GPU model with 3 fans, this is wrong. The manufacturers don't want the fans running at max rpm, because it puts way more wear and tear on them than necessary. At 80c on the GPU die with a 3 fan model, the fans should be more like 50-65%. On 1 or 2 fan model you would typically see up to 75-95% fan speed at high temperatures.

I personally think something is wrong with the GPU and the OP should have it checked out. Maybe not taken a part, but at least tested in a different system. The card may not even have warranty service available since it may have just gone past 3 years since it was sold and most of the GPU warranties only go for 2-3 years.

@yvblake take a picture of all the barcodes and information on the backplate of the GPU and go register it on Gigabytes website. See if it still qualifies for warranty service and if they will accept your ebay purchase receipt or invoice.
 

yvblake

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Oct 28, 2021
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Thanks yall. Did the 50% static fan speed test and it looks like will still kick up to 4000 RPM during high temperatures. Did this with afterburner and aorus engine from gigabyte. I'm guessing that 4000 RPM is some kind of failsafe mode that runs alongside throttling and is intended keep the card safe.

I'll look into checking on the warranty or talking to the reseller. Would I also have to speak with CyberpowerPC? (as it's assembled by them).

If it's expired I'll see about getting the cooler serviced.
 
Would I also have to speak with CyberpowerPC? (as it's assembled by them)
depends whether the card came installed with the pre-built system or if it was a later inclusion by the previous owner/reseller.

if the seller already had the system registered and they were are able to transfer the warranty to yourself then you would be dealing with Cyberpower for the warranty.
the same applies for the card alone if it was a later addition, then you would be dealing with Gigabyte directly.
 

yvblake

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Oct 28, 2021
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Got an update: called up Gigabyte and they said they will service the card under the warranty, no need for registration. This is great news! Just shipped it out yesterday and I'm looking forward to seeing how it will do once it comes back. Thanks for the help
 
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