Question Question: Can I run a dual fan GPU without one of its fans?

Sep 16, 2022
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Hello everyone! Recently one of the fans on my Colorful GTX 1660 Super stopped working. I already purchased the replacement fans in order to repair it, but, I'm wondering, is it safe to continue using the GPU and playing games when temperatures are seemingly fine? I've ran a couple of tests and I haven't really seen the GPU hit some major temperatures, something around 65ºC for the GPU core and a max of 80ºC for " GPU hotspot" according to HWMonitor. Those temperatures aren't too different from what the gpu used to run at when it had two fans. The only "problem" it has shown is that the only surviving fan is stuck at 100% speed, thus making it really noisy. I haven't seen any graphical artifacts, slowdowns or anything of the sort. The GPU is behaving normally.

This is the model in question. The black fan is the one that stopped working.

https://www.techpowerup.com/gpu-specs/colorful-gtx-1660-super-nb-v.b7417


So, can anyone shed some light on this mystery? Thank you very much!
 
D

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My son had a GTX 980 Ti. The bearings on the 3rd fan were faulty resulting in a loud screeching noise when the PC was powered on. So he stuck a cable tie in the fan to stop it spinning. That stopped the noise. He plays some pretty hard hitting games and his card lasted 6 months then started shutting the system down and showing artifacts. That's a 3 fan GPU.

Moral of the story. Not recommended, but short term you might get away with a non-functional fan but sooner or later it's probably going to cause damage if you keep pushing the GPU.
 
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Sep 16, 2022
2
0
10
My son had a GTX 980 Ti. The bearings on the 3rd fan were faulty resulting in a loud screeching noise when the PC was powered on. So he stuck a cable tie in the fan to stop it spinning. That stopped the noise. He plays some pretty hard hitting games and his card lasted 6 months then started shutting the system down and showing artifacts. That's a 3 fan GPU.

Moral of the story. Not recommended, but short term you might get away with a non-functional fan but sooner or later it's probably going to cause damage if you keep pushing the GPU.
I'm thinking about using it like this for at maximum 4 weeks. That should be enough time for the fan replacement to arrive, since it's probably due by the first week of October, even earlier if delivery is fast enough.