Question Random fluctuations of GPU fan speed during load

[savvytech97]

Hey guys! I need some help with an issue that i'm currently facing for the past week. During heavy load sessions (i.e. gaming), my GPU fan speed would stay consistent. Up until it reaches 80 degrees Celcius for several minutes, the speed of the fan suddenly jumps up to about 3300 RPM and then return back to a constant fan speed. The thing is, after checking the MSI afterburner graphs, the fan speed percentage and fan tachometer readings do not tally up. When the fan tachometer increases to about 3300 RPM, the fan speed percentage displayed does not change (denoted with red arrow in the link). This fluctuation only occurs during heavy loads and not during idle loads. I've reinstalled MSI afterburner and even reinstalled my GPU drivers but nothing has changed.

The GPU is a MSI RTX 2060 Super Armour OC edition.

Is there anyone who knows how to fix this issue? I would greatly appreciate it.

https://imgur.com/a/woFkwFZ

View: https://imgur.com/a/woFkwFZ

 

[Lutfij]

We're going to need additional information. Please list your specs like so:
CPU:
Motherboard:
Ram:
SSD/HDD:
GPU:
PSU:
Chassis:
OS:

including the age of your PSU. Which version of MSI's Afterburner are you using? Make sure you're on the latest BIOS update for your motherboard.

 

[savvytech97]

We're going to need additional information. Please list your specs like so:
CPU:
Motherboard:
Ram:
SSD/HDD:
GPU:
PSU:
Chassis:
OS:

including the age of your PSU. Which version of MSI's Afterburner are you using? Make sure you're on the latest BIOS update for your motherboard.

CPU: Ryzen 3700x
Motherboard: MSI B450M Mortar Max
Ram: Corsair DDR4 3200MHz CL 16 (2x8GB)
SSD/HDD: SanDisk 500 GB SSD and WD 1 TB
GPU: MSI RTX 2060 Super Armour OC
PSU: Super Flower Leadex 2 Gold 650W (several months old)
Chassis: Aigo Darkflash DLM 21
OS: Windows 10 Home
MSI Afterburner 4.6.1

 

[mortemas]

At first glance it looks like a glitchy fan controller, but you might want to see what the fan curve is set to in Afterburner (although I'm not sure it can read a fan curve from the card). It could be riding the threshold of a defined fan speed increase right at 80c, but then again it doesn't show up in the fan speed % charts (could be too quick to register, perhaps due to some smoothing algorithm for the fan % calculation). You could also try setting your own fan curve to see if it fixes the issue. Obviously it's happening when the GPU has been pretty toasty for a while, but technically the max temp allowed is 89c and although I'd look to improve temps they are still within spec for that Turing chip. I would first go to the MSI forums to see if this quirk is happening with other MSI gpu owners, then get an RMA if no answers there or a custom fan curve doesn't solve it.

 

[savvytech97]

At first glance it looks like a glitchy fan controller, but you might want to see what the fan curve is set to in Afterburner (although I'm not sure it can read a fan curve from the card). It could be riding the threshold of a defined fan speed increase right at 80c, but then again it doesn't show up in the fan speed % charts (could be too quick to register, perhaps due to some smoothing algorithm for the fan % calculation). You could also try setting your own fan curve to see if it fixes the issue. Obviously it's happening when the GPU has been pretty toasty for a while, but technically the max temp allowed is 89c and although I'd look to improve temps they are still within spec for that Turing chip. I would first go to the MSI forums to see if this quirk is happening with other MSI gpu owners, then get an RMA if no answers there or a custom fan curve doesn't solve it.

I tried to set my own custom fan curve previously. When I cross-referenced the fan speed curve with that of the graphs in Afterburner, it doesn't make sense since at approximately 80+ degrees, the fan should run at about 67% which is less than the sudden spike in 3300 RPM denoted by the red arrow. I peeked around the MSI forums too and noticed several people reporting similar issues though with the RTX 2080ti card so i'm not sure if the issue is related.