Windforce GTX960 fan behaviour

[timtimtim]

4GB model. Once reboot has completed and Windows7 x64 is in a steady state, doing nothing, the fans cycle up and down between about 1200 rpm and 2200 rpm over a 5 second period continuously. Its a fast ramp up to 2200 and then dies away to 1200. Have installed Guru II and set a more abrupt step sequence in the fan profile but it appears to have no effect. Drivers are 347.25.

Any help much appreciated.

[timtimtim]

OK, I've had a play with the manual fan settings in Guru II and seem to have hit on a solution. The default fan profile doesn't cut it. The trick seems to be to raise the low fan speed from 30% to 40% all the way through to 60 degC, then 60% at 60 degC, 80% at 70 degC and 100% at 80 degC.

[pilot2fly]

I just purchased the Gigabyte GTX960 2GB Windforce (smaller size with 2 fans) and have the EXACT same problem. Fans would surge constantly and it was VERY noticeable. Installed current drivers and everything, then I searched google and found your thread. This fix worked for me as well, but it's strange that out of the box the fans surge like that. Played Mad Max and FarCry 4 so far with no issues.

Is this fan behavior normal? I'm glad I'm not the only one who had this issue.

[MonsMagnus]

Same exact problem here with a GV-N960OC-4GD.  The only difference is I'm running Windows 10 pro.  Since I replaced an existing Nividia card with this one, I can confirm the problem lies in the Bios fan configuration of the new card.  I have submitted a request to Gigabyte Tech support to see if there is a way we can make a permanent modification to the fan controls WITHOUT running the OC utility. 

Changing the fan speed settings in manual as described in an earlier post seems to fix the problem, but I don't like having to run additional programs.

[newbieonekenobi]

I have a similar and a bunch of other problems with my WindForce card with an ATI GPU, too. The fans also surge, and there seem be to problems with temperature reads.

[MonsMagnus]

Has anyone been able to get a response from Gigabyte technical support?  I submitted my question to Technical support 4 days ago and it doesn't appear to have been read.  If I cant get this resolved this week it will have to be returned.  (Should have bought the EVGA I guess.  But since my Gigabyte MB has performed flawlessly I went Gigabyte)

 

[MonsMagnus]

By the way timtimtim,  I don't see how moving the fan speed setting will make it better since it doesn't appear that I can change the temperature point at which it applies the new fan speed.

On my OCguru the point at which any new fan speed will be applied is locked down to 30 degrees c.  Since my GPU is always hovering around 29 to 30 degrees c the fans are constantly changing from off to the minimum fan speed which is also hard coded to be approximately 23%.  This is extremely annoying as we all know.  If there were a way to change the temperature break point in the manual settings to avoid this it would solve the problem, but there isn't as far as I can tell.

** EDIT **
I see why it works now.  You are masking the problem by raising the minimum fan speed so as to avoid the step that occurs when the GPU temp rises above 30c. 

I say again, we shouldn't have to run a separate utility on startup just to hide a fan control issue with these cards.

[newbieonekenobi]

Has anyone been able to get a response from Gigabyte technical support?  I submitted my question to Technical support 4 days ago and it doesn't appear to have been read.  If I cant get this resolved this week it will have to be returned.  (Should have bought the EVGA I guess.  But since my Gigabyte MB has performed flawlessly I went Gigabyte)

 

Gigabyte doesn't seem to have the best reputation for support — nor does its main competitor Asus for that matter. I'm also waiting right now. I'll give them about a week maybe. If they can't solve the problem they should have the guts to just say they can't.

[MonsMagnus]

I finally got a response.  It was a single line and was quite obvious the tech didn't care, didn't understand, or both.  Here is their response;

"Fan speed is based on GPU temperature, it cannot be set lower than the default spec."

I sent a follow-up response to them trying to further explain, but since I don't think I'm going to get anywhere I am ordering my new EVGA today. 

I made a mistake going with Gigabyte, wont happen again.

[MonsMagnus]

More Info:
I setup my OC GURU to run the fans in manual.  Here is the difference shown via the GPU-Z graphs I have attached.

[MonsMagnus]

I have continued to get nothing of substance from tech support so I have indeed ordered a new EVGA GTX970.  I've had good luck with EVGA cards in the past (The gigabyte card referenced in this thread replaced an EVGA 750TI that works perfectly) so I am returning the Gigabyte card.  My new card should be here tomorrow! 

Good luck folks, and Adios Gigabyte.

[timtimtim]

The saga continues...

Today, I noticed that the fan *bearing* noise is intrusive while the audio is muted (this GTX960 is in a 4k HTPC build).

I re-read as many reviews as I could find (both user and site) and they all say how quiet this card is. Some of us must have bought cards from a duff batch.

Anyway, the GPU on the card never goes above 28 deg C according to Guru II, so I am thinking that I will disable the fans somehow to see how temp goes up w/o fan cooling applied. Does anyone know how this might be done?

[timtimtim]

Thanks MonsMagnus for passing on your experience with the (lack of) tech. support. Good luck with the EVGA. I'll be sticking with GTX960 for the built-in HEVC for 4k; might yet go for the EVGA NVIDIA GTX 960 4GB FTW ACX 2.0+ - fans turn off below 60 degC. Hurrah!

[MonsMagnus]

I went ahead and purchased the EVGA GTX 970.  Cost a little more, but almost double the performance of the GTX 960.  Just installed it today, and guess what?  No fan noise!!!  This thing is super quite even when running torture test bench marking programs at full HD resolution.  (I cant test it any higher than 1920x1080.)  Oh yeah, and EVGA even has Tech support that weigh in on the forums as well as a way to call them direct.  Sorry about your giga bite, er uh Gigabyte card.

[MonsMagnus]

Forgot to mention, the only way the fans can be disabled would be to disconnect the power.  (Of course any way you shut off the fans you will void the warranty.)

One more plug for EVGA - My card shuts the fans off by default until card reaches 60c, and then the double bearing fans still cant be heard.