Question RTX 3070 and MSI Afterburner fan control questions

[SiBo]

On my new PC (which I had built for me as I couldn't get my hands on a graphics card) I've a question about fan speeds on the GeForce 3070.

First, I noticed the fans don't spin under idle, which I know is a feature. I've only had the PC a couple of days but so far they have never spun (aside from when using config in MSI Afterburner, see below), although the temp has been up to 60 when I did a stress test. This is probably OK too, as I heard they come on from 60 - 65, although maybe someone can confirm ?

My main query is using MSI afterburner. It doesn't seem to work. What I get is the following:

1. If I uncheck Auto on Fan speed, it doesn't matter where I put the slider, the fans don't come on.
2. If I enable a fan curve the fans do come on, but only at a constant 1070-1080RPM. The data on the fan curve is ignored.
3. As soon as I deselect the fan curve option, the fans go off again.

So in other words the fans do work, but I only have the option of them running at a set speed or them not running at all.

This in itself isn't a big deal as I don't use the PC for gaming and it's unlikely the GPU will ever reach above 60C (today it's running at 31C, and 26C with the 'default' cooling). However, this seems bizarre behaviour and I'm wondering what the problem is.

(FYI I am using CPUID to monitor the fan speeds. It only shows two fans but I gather this is normal for these cards. Again, God knows why).

Also, another bit of weirdness, when I disable the fan curve, or close Afterburner, the fan speed drops immediately in CPUID to 0. Surely a fan can't stop that fast ?

Can anyone cast any light on this?

BTW I ran a benchmark to check out graphics card performance and it seems OK
https://www.userbenchmark.com/UserRun/40327545

 

[JohnBonhamsGhost]

Can anyone cast any light on this?

who manufactures your 3070?

Afterburner cannot precisely monitor or control modern 3rd party GPU fans.
if the GPU isn't an MSI model, than you will have to use the specific software provided by the card manufacturer to control all fans properly.

but temp-wise it may not be an issue.
idling or regular browsing under 40° and gaming or heavy video processing under 70°C is decent.
if you're hovering ~30°C with light usage, i wouldn't worry about it.

why were you concerned about getting a RTX 3070 if you aren't gaming?
a much cheaper, lower tiered card would be sufficient for any video transcoding and way more than enough for regular desktop use.

 

[SiBo]

It's a Geforce RTX 3070.

I can't find any specific software other than Afterburner that will allow custom fan control. All there is is GeForce Experience, which appears to have no purpose.

I need a reasonable card because I'm an illustrator. I didn't want a 3070, I originally ordered a 3060 but the wait was at least four months, so I opted to upgrade to a 3070 which are more readily available.

 

[JohnBonhamsGhost]

"GeForce RTX 30*" is only the series of the card, not the manufacturer.

 

[SiBo]

MSI RTX 3070 VENTUS 3X OC

 

[SiBo]

Also, according to GPUZ, the fans (when running) are at 30%.

EDITED: To summarise, they only run if MSI afterburner is set to apply a fan curve. It doesn't matter what the fan curve says, all that matters is whether there's a fan curve operational.

I can now get it to apply the slider % directly (I don't know why that's started working) but the fan curve still operates as above.

 

[SiBo]

Here's a screenshot

 

[SiBo]

Happily I can solve my own problem. I'll put the solution (which is extremely simple and involves my own error) in case anyone else has the same issue.

The 3070, and probably others in the range, have a minimum fan speed of 30%. So on my graph above, the fan would not come on until I reached 52C regardless of the setting of 40C.

So the solution is to move the baseline up from 0% to 30%, as anything below that is ignored. It might be helpful for Afterburner to prevent setting nodes below 30%, or at least give a warning on save, but now I know I know.

 

[SiBo]

Actually no. It does work only so far, in that the fans respond to the values on the graph over 30%, but when it drops under 30%, or to zero, the fans don't turn off. So I believe that's bug. I'll leave it there as it's clear there's not much else to be done about it.