Looking for peaceful graphics card solution - a few Qs
Okay, so having fitted my computer with a quieter case fan and power supply, the loudest component is now my nvidia geforce 7900gs graphics card. Whilst not intolerable, I would like a solution to make it near, or absolute silent, and so in light of this a few questions:
1) How can I be sure the noise i'm hearing is the fan, and not a whine from the card? 2) How do I find out at what temperature low - if at all! - the fan switches off at? i.e. driver functionality 3) Do I dare use nvclock (nvclock -f -fanspeed x) to go below my current 20% fanspeed at a temp of 56C? 4) Would a cooling unit make any difference, especially if the driver won't shut down the fan anyway? 5) Is there a safe script I could try out? Thanks in advance. |
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Have you tried running the computer if it is safe to do so with the case fan disconnected? If it is a molex there will be no automatic or manual control over it. If it is a 3 pin fan connector you may have the ability to control it with the motherboard. Quote:
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If your computer's hardware supports it then it should be possible to run sensors-detect. This will detect your motherboard and CPU thermal sensors if supported and is part of the sensors package. You will then be able to at any time query this information using the sensors command. Quote:
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Thanks for all your suggestions, netsurf. I should probably make it clear however that I was referring to the graphics card fan in my Qs, and have no worries elsewhere (case fan, CPU, PSU and so on, all being quiet)
By 'cooling unit' I meant something like this: http://www.arctic.ac/en/p/cooling/vg...s1-rev.-2.html I'm wondering that if I were to bring the temp down on my graphics card the nvidia driver will kick-in and switch the fan off at a certain low threshold (or at least this my hope!) I am considering either getting a cooling unit like the above, or a fanless graphics card, but only short of a script solution (pwmconfig I have tried before, but is no good for this.) |
Hello again NivanaII,
I am not sure that the fan can be turned off with nvidia cards at all as they tend to get hot very quickly from experience. If the drivers allow the power off of the graphics card fan then the quickest way I can imagine would be to take the side off the case with the machine on and then momentarily set the fan to 0% or as far as it will go. This should also be possible in nvidia-settings using coolbits "1" in the xorg config. Other than this the only alternatives as you mentioned would be either a fanless graphics card or see if it is possible to replacing the cooling system on your current one with a quieter system :) |
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Best test for that is to stick something in the fan and se if that cuts the noise. Dont use a finger, sometimes GPUs fans are pretty fast. 2- Err...I foget. Mostly the fans never turn off anyway, no matter how cool the video card runs. 3- You can dare, if you want. I probably wouldnt. 4- Yes, it could....but its probably not worth it. Its about $35-40 US for the GPU cooler you linked to, and you could get a whole passive cooled video card which would be at least as fast as the 7900GS for not a huge amount more. BTW, I'd be wary about running 'pure' passive cooling with a stock 7900GS. Having a fan pointing at the video card with passive cooling is much safer, and if you got a 120mm fan the noise should be a lot lower than with the standard 7900GS fan. The easy way to get a fan cooling the video card is with a Zalman FB123- http://www.zalman.com/eng/product/Pr...ad.asp?idx=226 5- No idea. There is one other idea- get the passive cooling, then mod the nVidia BIOS with nibitor to change the defualt GPU core and memory speeds, plus the voltage. Drop the core and memory speeds, and the voltage, the card should run a lot cooler. Warning- this will slow the card down. It wont matter at all for desktop use, but if you are a gamer it will impact on your framerates. |
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To allow for fan control from nvidia-settings you must add this to the Device section of xorg.conf:
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Option "Coolbits" "4" You can also downclock the card and the temps will go down as well. However, probably the best thing to do is clean the dust out. |
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I gave the fan a clean too (tiddly little thing!), but it's made no difference. |
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The only issue with changing to passive cooling it that if you dont have decent airflow in the case, or use a passive cooler that cannot take the heat of the video card you can cook the whole card. Quote:
Most GPU heatsinks for use with fans have a flat area under the fan right over the top of the GPU. Thats the part that gets hottest, and with a stock hetsink setup its the areas that gets the most airflow. If you changed over to a FB123 + fan with the stock heatsink @ stock speeds, temps could rise. Its unlikely they would get high enough to cause instant damage, but it could shorten the lifespan of the card. If you have a dead motherboard you migth be able to use the northbridge heatsink on the video card, depending on the disgn of the board and northbridge heatsink. If you could do that the FB123 + fan should work well, even at stock speeds. |
My almost 3 year old system has a passive cooled graphics adapter fitted in a case with temperature controlled fans which spend some of their time stationary. The room temperature now is over 40 C. GKrellM shows the GPU at 80 C; it used to be around 90 (sensor drift?). Scary.
I know that's silly hot and it should mean a short life but it was like that for more than a year before I knew how hot it was so I figured it could stay like that and I'd buy another when it failed ... FYI the model is Gigabyte "GeForce 7200 GS GV-NX72G512E2 Rev 2.3" which X reports as a "GeForce 7300 SE/7200 GS (G72)". |
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As an experiment I just tried incrementally decreasing the fanspeed with nvlock, and at around 13% the CPU fan overtakes in noise, the GPU temperature of course climbing in this minute or two of time from 56C to 70C. Where it plateaus I did not wish to find out, ramping the speed back up as I did. I know now at least that an arctic unit would be an excessive purchase for what would be good, but not earth shattering improvement, i.e. i'm in obsessive territory. :) Question now I suppose is do I want to keep a graphics card running at a temp of 70C for less noise...
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I would go for this one, it is compatible with your card and if you attach a slow running 120mm fan to it you should have a really quiet and cool card.
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So, did you underclock it ?
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