Why Does My Fan Speed Up?

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WabeWalker

Supreme [H]ardness
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I have a new GTX 275 (from MSI) and it's completely silent in the games that I've tested so far (GTA 4, Far Cry 2, PES 2009, and Stalker: Shadow of Chernobyl) - except for Stalker Clear Sky.

In Clear Sky my fan is making a slight buzzing noise - that noise is obviously coming from the two fans on the card.

It's a very slight buzzing noise (it sounds like those small hand-fans you might buy on a sumer day to cool your face), but I have to admit, it's driving me nuts. Is there anything I can do about this?
 
Your fan will typically speed up as the gpu temperature increases. The fan speeds up to keep your gpu cool.
 
It speeds up due to acceleration.

You can prevent that by powering down the system.

Being silly aside, I'd find it appalling if your fan didn't automatically speed up if necessary. I would have to assume it's because the card is getting too hot and requires additional air flow to cool it. Do you have your settings, res/aa higher in that particular game? Just for kicks you could turn them waaay down and see if that stops the higher fan speed.
 
Nothing to be done about it -- Clear Sky is a very demanding game, and the card is working hard, getting hot. If it's coil buzz you might could drip some hot glue on the offending components, but that would void your warranty.
 
Why does the buzzing noise commence as soon as I start playing?

If I hit the ESC button, during play, and go into a menu, the buzzing stops, immediately. But as soon as I go back to playing the buzzing returns.

And it's only doing this in Clear Sky?
 
Do games have fan-profiles that are somehow programmed by the company that produced the game - because my fan spins up the split second I launch Stalker Clear Sky.

Whenever I'm in a menu, the fan just stops dead in its tracks. When I return to the game the fan spins again. It's instantaneous.
 
Okay, I downloaded RivaTuner, and set the fan to 60% - the fan clearly ramped up, and this was the first time I was hearing it.

This other noise is something else then.

What's this coil buzz thing that Elios is talking about - is there anyway to fix it?
 
WabeWalker said:
Okay, I downloaded RivaTuner, and set the fan to 60% - the fan clearly ramped up, and this was the first time I was hearing it.

This other noise is something else then.

What's this coil buzz thing that Elios is talking about - is there anyway to fix it?
Click to expand...

Search is your friend...

It's the components on the card making noise when under load. It's very common and little can be done to fix it (short of RMAing the card or trying some other methods that will likely void your warranty).
 
I don't think that the noise I'm hearing is 'coil buzz'.

What I can't understand is that when I play Far Cry 2 at max settings, with AA set to 8, the card is dead silent? Then I launch Stalker Clear Sky, and immediately... and I mean immediately... I hear the fans start making that clicking noise.

And before you say that Far Cry 2 isn't a very demanding game, these settings are pushing the 275 to its limits. My old 9800 GT couldn't even run Far Cry 2 at max settings with that much AA.

I just don't understand this at all.

GTA 4 - dead silent.
Far Cry 2 - dead silent.
Stalker Clear Sky - noise.
NBA 2K9 - noise.

The noise, by the way, just about drives me around the bend - it's this constant sharp clicking of the fans, unlike the ramping up of the fan itself, which is a deeper, more fan-like noise, if that makes any sense.

This has got to be software related. Why would NBA 2K9 cause my fan to make the same noise it's making while running Stalker Clear Sky?

Anybody? I'm willing to entertain even the wildest idea here.
 
I've got a great idea.
Play some music.
Since you seem to want to throw the idea of more heat in those games out of the window.
Do me a favor and go into Rivatuner and turn the fan up to 100% and see if it makes that noise, if it does, turn it down by 5% increments until it stops. I dont see any other explaination for the sound only happening in certain games.

P.S.
Did you make sure it wasn't the CPU fan, or possibly your PSU.
another way to check where the noise is coming from would be to put your hand over the exaust vents/fans and hearing it go lower.
 
Last edited:
ßeta;1034074684 said:
I've got a great idea.
Play some music.
Since you seem to want to throw the idea of more heat in those games out of the window.
Do me a favor and go into Rivatuner and turn the fan up to 100% and see if it makes that noise, if it does, turn it down by 5% increments until it stops. I dont see any other explaination for the sound only happening in certain games.

P.S.
Did you make sure it wasn't the CPU fan, or possibly your PSU.
another way to check where the noise is coming from would be to put your hand over the exaust vents/fans and hearing it go lower.
Click to expand...


In Clear Sky, the noise begins immediately, as soon as I turn the game on - so wouldn't that preclude this from being a heat issue? Also why would the GPU fans not make this same noise in games that are as equally demanding, such as GTA 4, or Assassin's Creed, or Far Cry 2. In a game that isn't demanding, NBA 2K9, I'm getting the same sharp buzzing noise - and again, it happens right away. Unless I'm in a 2D menu. If I'm in a menu then the buzzing noise stops immediately.

I've manually turned up the fan all the way, and also to different percentages, and that sound is completely different from the sound I'm hearing while playing Clear Sky.

With my previous card, the 9800gt, I never heard this noise.

But in Rivatuner, how do I turn the fan completely off? Can you even do that?

Playing Far Cry 2 is just bliss, because it's so quiet. Then I go back to Stalker Clear Sky and it's like a hundred crickets have come to pay me a visit.

EDIT: The solution to this problem might be to buy a pair of headphones. Oh well, it's still a great card. The ironic thing here though is that I didn't buy the 4890 because I was worried it would be too loud, since noises tend to bother me a lot. LOL.
 
if the sound is high pitch is 100% coil buzz/wine/ what ever you want to call it
the fan noise on the GTX line is very low pitch which is why its not noticable as older cards
 
Elios said:
if the sound is high pitch is 100% coil buzz/wine/ what ever you want to call it
the fan noise on the GTX line is very low pitch which is why its not noticable as older cards
Click to expand...

It's not coil buzz. I've heard coil buzz on Utube and it's definitely not that. It's more like a hissing, clicking noise. I think it's probably just the MSI two-fan design that's causing this. I think I'm just going to have to use headphones with this card.
 
If it's not happening when you pause the game and go into menus then it's probably the coil buzz. I have the same thing on my 4890 and it only happens on a few games/programs. The best way I've found to minimize it happening is to turn on Vsync.
 
Mr.StayPuft said:
If it's not happening when you pause the game and go into menus then it's probably the coil buzz. I have the same thing on my 4890 and it only happens on a few games/programs. The best way I've found to minimize it happening is to turn on Vsync.
Click to expand...

I tried that. But I'm going to try it again.

This coil buzz - does it sound like a cricket? The coil buzz that I heard on Utube sounded more like a spaceship.

Bah - I'm not even making sense anymore.
 
Yes, it's a very high pitched whine. Remember how CRT monitors sometimes had a whine? It's just an EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE sound like a mosquito makes.
 
Sounds like the fan bearings are going bad. You will want to either get aftermarket cooling or RMA it. Stopping the fans would not be a good idea either.
 
It's not coil buzz, because it's not happening with most games. Most of the titles are running dead quiet. I can't hear the card at all while playing Fallout 3, Far Cry 2, GTA 4, or Assassin's Creed. See, that's kind of the whole point of this thread.

If the card itself were faulty then the noise would be happening during all titles, and it isn't.

It's definitely a spinning, grinding noise. It sounds exactly the like the mechanical clock on my stove, and a bit like the rattler on a rattle snake. It just bugs me that I can't figure out what's causing it.
 
WabeWalker said:
It's not coil buzz, because it's not happening with most games. Most of the titles are running dead quiet. I can't hear the card at all while playing Fallout 3, Far Cry 2, GTA 4, or Assassin's Creed. See, that's kind of the whole point of this thread.

If the card itself were faulty then the noise would be happening during all titles, and it isn't.

It's definitely a spinning, grinding noise. It sounds exactly the like the mechanical clock on my stove, and a bit like the rattler on a rattle snake. It just bugs me that I can't figure out what's causing it.
Click to expand...


already read 2 or 3 people say it was the bearings on the fans.. and thats what it probably is.. try messing with the fan speeds and see if you can recreate the sound without a game being played.. if you can.. then its the fans and id rma it.. if you cant.. then its the coils or something else.. if its coils.. turning vsync on would fix the problem 99.9% of the time.. in the end id still rma the card.. but your choice..
 
if I remember correctly, my GTX 285 fan starts speeding up when the card temp hits 80 or higher, try to use some stress program like furmark and see at which point the noise starts coming.
and use some temperature monitoring tool to see what’s your card temp while playing games just to confirm that Clear Sky pushes the temp above 80 or something
note: watch the temp while running furmark, it can burn the card in no time
 
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