Recommended Fixed GPU fan speed?

Hello gurus,
here's something that's been bugging me for a while. I have a GTX 980 Ti Palit Jetstream, and I only play retro shmups/STGs (some even date back to 1996), these are very limited games when it comes to graphics, so my 980 Ti is barely feeling the load from them, and staying at very low temps, so low to a point that the fans NEVER kick in in a whole gaming session. After an hour and a half of gaming yesterday GPU temp was 38 degrees, the fans didn't even kick in once in the whole hour and a half. This is worrying me because there are other components that might need cooling like the VRMs or memory, so I was thinking of switching the fans to a fixed speed while I'm gaming, and switching back to the default fan curve for other use. (I use ThunderMaster, it's Palit's GPU monitoring software)

Doing some research on this, I read: 'running it (the fans) at 100% all the time will cool it down to the point where it will actually start making the magnetic coils inside brittle from just being too cold, therefore damaging them and reducing electricity flow through them.' (http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/answers/id-1775934/changing-fan-speed-break-gpu-fan.html)

So my question is, what do you guys recommend setting the fixed fan speed to? Need to find a balance so it doesn't get too cold to avoid the issue as stated above, but also enough to give some good cooling to other components on the GPU.

Thanks in advance gurus Looking forward to you wisdom.

 

BIOS on cards like these are for 0dB (fanless) operation when the GPU temperature is below 60C.
So until 60 C your fans should not turn on and it is fine,but if you want fans running use programs like MSI Afterburner,Nvidia inspector,evga precision ETC and set a fan speed to where you are ok with the noise.

 

With my 1070 I have a custom fan curve made with Afterburner as the temperature increases the speed of the fan increases up until it get to like 90C or so is when it maxes out the fans. Plus I have my fans idle at around 20% so the sound is hardily noticeable.

 

Thank you both for the replies. I already have a custom fan curve set up in ThunderMaster (it's Palit's equivalent of Afterburner), I had set it last summer so the fans start at 30% at 40 degrees and starts escalating the more the temperature rises (I don't like the default setting where fans do not switch on until 60 degrees). It's working fine when I'm testing it out on FurMark and other benching software, or when it's summer. The problem is, in winter and currently in spring, when gaming I'm not hitting the 40 degree start I had set, so I was thinking of either making the fans start at a lower temperature, or use a fixed speed while gaming. I don't think it's good for the GPU to go a whole winter and spring of constant gaming sessions without the fans ever switching on? At the same time I don't want to make it too cold (that statement I posted in the first post about if it's too cold coils could become brittle worries me), retro shmups being very old games don't push the graphic card at all, so while gaming the temperature barely moves. As I said first, 38 degrees was the max it rose to yesterday without the fans even cooling it. But just because the PCB doesn't need cooling, it doesn't mean other components on the GPU wouldn't benefit from the added airflow (like the VRMs and the VRAM). But then I'm worried that having for example a constant 40% fixed speed might make it too cold since the games won't be raising the temperature of the GPU. (It literally is on 135 Mhz while gaming, occasionally bumping up to the 200 range for a couple of seconds when things get hectic).

tl;dr: In short, what I'm searching for is a speed to not make it too cool, but still enough to provide adequate airflow to other components on the GPU.

What do you mean idle at 20%? This might be what I need cause my temps while gaming are close to idle (maybe 10 degrees more than idle).

 

It's the lowest part of the graph that where I set my lowest speed to.

 

OMG did I fall for this guy,usually I am better than this.
Stop being a nutbar the heat from a GPU does not matter what so ever on any component.Hell the Vram is rated at 120c blah blah blah..

EDIT :Nvidia now makes the GPU's so any nutbar can not frack it up,so play your games and do not worry about a old card like 980ti.It should last 10 years at any temperature.

 

Thank you for the clarification Fender178. Appreciate the help.

I don't appreciate the way you worded your reply gerardfraser. 'OMG did I fall for this guy' 'nutbar', my topic wasn't an attempt at trolling or 'making you fall' as you put it, I am actually concerned about the health of my 'old card'. I know I'm quite paranoid on certain things, but most of this paranoia stems from other findings and things I read. Example, take a look at Google's study regarding hard drive failure rates due to temperature: https://static.googleusercontent.com/media/research.google.com/en//archive/disk_failures.pdf,
Contrary to popular belief, in this study Google states: 'Previous studies have indicated that temperature deltas as low as 15C can nearly double disk drive failure rates', so too cold is as much as an issue as too hot. That's why I am concerned about what fixed speed to set the GPU fan at, because how 'too cold' could be an issue for hdds, it might also be a factor that could negatively affect a GPU. After all, the part I quoted from Tom's Hardware about the magnetic coils in the GPU becoming too brittle from the cold was selected as the best answer, so there must be some logic behind it. Since the games I play barely increase the GPU temp (maximum +10 degrees from idle), I don't want the fixed fan speed to drive it down too cold, that's why I asked. Figured in a forum full of enthusiasts, I'm not the only 'nutbar' that was ever concerned about this.

 

I feel comfortable in saying that if you take up the fans to where you least notice them, and/or happy with the temp, that you will be fine. After all it is high performance fans.

 

There's no need to worry. If the GPU isn't running hot enough for the fans then the other components shouldn't need them either (it's not like the VRMs are going to run super hot when the GPU doesn't require much voltage). All the hot-running components are connected to the heatsink so heat should be distributed and dissipated fairly evenly, and there is little risk of one component getting too hot.

 

How would running a fan at 100% all the time make the GPU too cold? It's not like running the fan faster magically produces cold air. The GPU will still be well above room temps.

 

WOW!!!

 

Thank you JaxMacFL, yes I agree with you on a speed where I will least notice them, after all I don't have an overheating problem, so I don't need a fast speed, just something to push some fresh air over the components.

Thank you for the reassurance D3M1G0D, but that makes it sound like it's fine for my GPU to be in fanless operation for most of the year (it only gets hot enough to hit my current fan curve in summer). Although the GPU temp is staying low (38 degrees), I'm recording gameplay using x264, processor temps around 65 degrees, hdd that's recording around 50 degrees, that excess heat is ending up in the case, I think it would be nice for the GPU components to get some fresh cooler air around them even though they don't 'need' it since they're not running so hot, rather than being surrounded by that warm stagnant air.

Not sure, it was selected as the best answer though, that's why I asked here for further clarification from the gurus

 

321, you can always up the the fans when needed.

 

It's Thermodynamics. Air in motion can sap heat away faster, ergo it's cooler relatively. This is what causes wind chill temps. Now, whether the fans at high speed move enough air to cause such a disparate temp difference with the coils is a whole another matter.

 

I believe that would behoove you, if at all, if you you had a liquid loop cooler system.

 

I get that, but it's not going to be cool enough to cause any type of hardware failure.

 

Swirling air inside the case isn't going to do much good. If you want more fresh air then install some more case fans (preferably in a configuration that allows the air to flow freely from front to back).

 

My 1070 with Accelero Xtreme 4 always runs at 35%.

+125 / +500 and never goes above 60C.

 

Thanks for all the positive replies gurus. Greatly appreciate it, especially confirmations that it can't get too cold to cause hardware failure.

Thanks TheDeeGee, something like that is what I'm looking for. I'll start off with 30% and go from there.

I already installed an extra 2 case fans, and yes in the configuration as you stated, from front to back, and also on the top. That's why I'm also making sure that every component has it's own adequate cooling. Same as the PSU has it's fan, hdds and SSD have the intake fan blowing over them, and also my processor with it's aftermarket one (which is always on, even at idle on 30%), just assumed the GPU would also benefit from it

Thanks again for all the help gurus

 

It's always better to have some airflow, even when the GPU is idle. But that's just how i roll.

In your situation i would just make a profile which keeps the fan speed at 30% untill the GPU hits 45C or something. Once it goes beyond that make it go up to perhaps 70% at 75C for demanding games.

I suggest running some heaven benchmarks to see how the card behaves with various fan profile curves.

GPU cooler wise i only have experience with Arctic for the past 15 years. It's all i trust in terms of noise levels.