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Topic: GPU fans started failing, had to improvise a little (Read 10493 times)

hero member
Activity: 751
Merit: 517
Fail to plan, and you plan to fail.
Don't know which model you are talking about with Sapphire but those Sapphire Dual-X 280X which had exploding MOSFETs and also featured crappy sleeve bearing fans which were as bad as Gigabyte pretty much.

Can confirm, Sapphire rolls out some designs that are just shit. Their RX 470 4GB stock design cards were a similar shit design with exploding mosfets. I have had over 30 out of about 200 fail on me with the exact same mosfet issue. And the burn was so severe that sapphire has even refused RMA on two of those 30.
No other brand/model have failed for me - not even sapphires other models.
member
Activity: 854
Merit: 12
arcs-chain.com
Nicely done... a true miner can't be stopped by a simple fan   Grin
I have a few Gigabytes, they are working for more than 2 years and they are doing quite well, both in performance and fans (one had problems in one), and I also have MSIs, that are not so good in terms of performance, but are also doing good...
maybe I was lucky with the series or something... always heard that the Asus were prone to problems...
legendary
Activity: 3808
Merit: 1723

I've dealt with the bad Gigabyte Windforce fans since the 2013 Litecoin mining days when the Radeon 7950/7970 were constantly throttling due to at least 1 fan failing.

Gigabyte is the worse of them and then asus, best is sapphire, hands down.

In my experience its the other way around, the ASUS brand seems to have held up the most and  Sapphire was the 2nd worst.

Don't know which model you are talking about with Sapphire but those Sapphire Dual-X 280X which had exploding MOSFETs and also featured crappy sleeve bearing fans which were as bad as Gigabyte pretty much.

The Gigabyte was a step up because their warranty was easier to deal with. With Sapphire you need to be original owner, have receipt and ship it overseas for repair. Something not worth doing for a simple fan swap.
member
Activity: 444
Merit: 31
Still a manic miner
Its all about the batch you had and the maintenance you do..

I have Gigabytes 280x Windforce (12 of them) and only a few needed fan repairs..

All my Sapphire 7950 VaporX fans are dead.. (+40 boards.. maybe 1 fan still working, all the rest replaced) after 2-3 years.


The culprit is the metal bushing... oil dries and they get stuck. Get fans with ball bearings and forget about troubles.

MY current Gigabyte AORUS 1070s are spinning like 1st day, after +2 years non stop.

Dont blame the brand, its the model you buy
member
Activity: 358
Merit: 10
I will never buy Gigabyte gpu's ... I've heard that their fans are shit ever since I've been in this game.

Gigabyte GPU fan doesn't work anymore and also there are so many issues associated with it and people are actually complaing but I heard Sapphire is a good one
copper member
Activity: 349
Merit: 0
📱 CARTESI 📱 INFRASTRUCTURE FOR DAP
I will never buy Gigabyte gpu's ... I've heard that their fans are shit ever since I've been in this game.

Gigabyte GPU fans are the worst you can ever imagine, don't even imagine it. If you want pace of mind then you go for Sapphire
hero member
Activity: 1274
Merit: 556

I've dealt with the bad Gigabyte Windforce fans since the 2013 Litecoin mining days when the Radeon 7950/7970 were constantly throttling due to at least 1 fan failing.

Gigabyte is the worse of them and then asus, best is sapphire, hands down.
Well, as I said previously, and in another thread in here, I've had many ASUS cards and they've all been doing very well. The dust-repellent ball-bearing fans they put on even the low-end entry-grade GPUs are very, very good. I can really recommend them. I just sold 14 ASUS RX 570 Expedition OC's and they were spotless after mining two and a half years in my attic.
sr. member
Activity: 2142
Merit: 353
Xtreme Monster

I've dealt with the bad Gigabyte Windforce fans since the 2013 Litecoin mining days when the Radeon 7950/7970 were constantly throttling due to at least 1 fan failing.

Gigabyte is the worse of them and then asus, best is sapphire, hands down.
legendary
Activity: 3808
Merit: 1723
PLEASE READ!

It has become evident that there is clearly quality issues with the fans Gigabyte's Windforce series graphics cards. I have come across hundreds of forum posts with people claiming they have had the following issues:

- Loud fan noises
- Fans failing to spin
- Bearing failures
- Fans hitting other internal components

Upon attempting to return their faulty graphics cards to Gigabyte or their retailer in which they purchased them from, many have experienced complete denial of any issues with the fans, some have been told they were using them for GPU mining - when they weren't, and many have still experienced the same issues after the repaired or replaced graphics card has been returned to them.

In my case, I was unlucky enough to purchase 120 of these graphics cards for my IT business to sell - So far, we have had over half of these fail which has caused irreparable damage to my business as my customers who purchased the graphics cards did not want to use any Gigabyte products anymore and demanded refunds. Since returning the faulty cards to my supplier only 4 weeks after purchasing them, I was completely denied of any refund and the cards were eventually repaired and sent back to me.
Although offering a warranty repair is a better outcome than nothing, these cards have been still experiencing the same issues so they have absolutely no resale value - I mean, who would purchase a graphics card that can't even survive 4 weeks out of a 3 year warranty?

I have since engaged a lawyer and will be taking the matter further.

The reason I have started this petition is because I know that there are potentially thousands of people who have experienced this poor quality issue from Gigabyte. For Gigabyte to turn around and deny any quality issues is absolutely unacceptable. I mean, google even has an autocorrect for "gigabyte windforce fan issues".

As far as I am aware, this only involves the Windforce series graphics cards - but could involve others.

If your Gigabyte graphics card contains the word "Windforce" this could affect you!

If you have personally experienced any issues with these graphics cards - please get in contact with me

Please share!!
http://chng.it/G9phQGSN

I've dealt with the bad Gigabyte Windforce fans since the 2013 Litecoin mining days when the Radeon 7950/7970 were constantly throttling due to at least 1 fan failing. These are the ones with the triple fan setup. They said that since it has 3 fans it would run cooler, quieter and fans are more durable, completely untrue.

I would RMA them and a few months later, same issue. It was usually the fans closest to the opposite of the DVI+HDMI outputs section for some reason.

Your best bet is just to pull the blade and re-oil them monthly or as needed, and it usually gets them going again. I think the reason why they fail in mining rigs is due to being mounted vertically instead of horizontally like in a PC case, it causes more stress and they die prematurely.
jr. member
Activity: 700
Merit: 1
SetupMasternodes.com
always clean GPU fans on a monthly basis. Especially if you are mining!
newbie
Activity: 4
Merit: 0
PLEASE READ!

It has become evident that there is clearly quality issues with the fans Gigabyte's Windforce series graphics cards. I have come across hundreds of forum posts with people claiming they have had the following issues:

- Loud fan noises
- Fans failing to spin
- Bearing failures
- Fans hitting other internal components

Upon attempting to return their faulty graphics cards to Gigabyte or their retailer in which they purchased them from, many have experienced complete denial of any issues with the fans, some have been told they were using them for GPU mining - when they weren't, and many have still experienced the same issues after the repaired or replaced graphics card has been returned to them.

In my case, I was unlucky enough to purchase 120 of these graphics cards for my IT business to sell - So far, we have had over half of these fail which has caused irreparable damage to my business as my customers who purchased the graphics cards did not want to use any Gigabyte products anymore and demanded refunds. Since returning the faulty cards to my supplier only 4 weeks after purchasing them, I was completely denied of any refund and the cards were eventually repaired and sent back to me.
Although offering a warranty repair is a better outcome than nothing, these cards have been still experiencing the same issues so they have absolutely no resale value - I mean, who would purchase a graphics card that can't even survive 4 weeks out of a 3 year warranty?

I have since engaged a lawyer and will be taking the matter further.

The reason I have started this petition is because I know that there are potentially thousands of people who have experienced this poor quality issue from Gigabyte. For Gigabyte to turn around and deny any quality issues is absolutely unacceptable. I mean, google even has an autocorrect for "gigabyte windforce fan issues".

As far as I am aware, this only involves the Windforce series graphics cards - but could involve others.

If your Gigabyte graphics card contains the word "Windforce" this could affect you!

If you have personally experienced any issues with these graphics cards - please get in contact with me

Please share!!
http://chng.it/G9phQGSN
newbie
Activity: 210
Merit: 0
I experimented a bit today, removed plastic shround with fans from my Palit Gamerock 1080ti and attached two 120x1200x25mm fans directly to radiator:

https://www.tme.eu/html/gfx/ramka_375.jpg

SUNON EEC0251B1-A99

These fans blow like crazy, 183 m3/h, 3100rpm.

It made no difference at all to the temperature  Sad Sad Sad  Very surprised. I expected quite large drop of temperature, but got nothing. Put original fans back.
hero member
Activity: 1750
Merit: 904
Hello All,

Just wanted to share my funny experience with these cards I purchased around a year ago.

The cards Im talking about are the Gigabyte RX 570 Gaming 4G: https://www.gigabyte.com/Graphics-Card/GV-RX570GAMING-4GD#kf
They are pretty much the worst cards I got for mining, even though I bought them early on for 160$ each, and I got 30 of them.
At first they were great, amazing value for money and ROI, elpida memory, they do 29.5mh/850mh eth/dcr; and 900 h/s on cryptonight.

They worked great for 10 months, and then the fans started failing; these fans can not handle dust at all. They are very poor in cooling; and unless I set the fans at 80% or more, the gpu temps would easily reach 75C.

The funny thing is that half of my cards would have the rear fan failing, either completely stop working, or work at a much slower rpm; to the point that I had to only mine cryptonight due to the lower power requirement for the algorithm compare to dual mining.

So I got this idea..

A week ago, I purchased these fans: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/Brand-Original-Delta-AUB0812VH-pwm-DC12V-0-41A-80mm-computer-cpu-case-axial-cooling-fan/32541022969.html?spm=a2g0s.9042311.0.0.Fy7LDH
And these splitters: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/SATA-Port-to-10-Way-12V-3-4Pin-Computer-CPU-Cooling-Fan-Splitter-Hub-with-PWM/32842778420.html?spm=a2g0s.9042311.0.0.Fy7LDH

Removed the shroud and fans from the gpu, and stuck the new delta fans I got on the heatsink (using some metal wires, and a bit of clamping).
and this is the result
https://image.ibb.co/hSBvY7/IMG_20180213_WA0006.jpg

Currently, out of all the cards I have; Nitro+ Limited Edition, XFX GTS Edition, Nitro+ 570 8GB, and Powercolor Red Dragon golden sample; these cheap elpida cards are my favorite xD

Temps on the gpu are at around 39C under the same conditions, and they consume less power (compared to the original fans, 12v @0.5A, the new ones are 12v @0.41A).

So I lose the warranty, but I've already recovered their cost and much more, and they still run perfectly, so I am very happy Cheesy

Now im thinking to do the same for all my other cards, and probably turn one of the AC units I got off to save on electricity
Not necessarily bad, however, why didn't you just buy replacement fans matching your GPU? You could easily find on eBay or AliExpress, with the same diameter and they would have been plug and play.
legendary
Activity: 3808
Merit: 1723
All the fans on my gigabyte windforce 270's shit the bed I was going to start using them again until the gpu prices go down but I'll have to cob some fans on them so agreed gigabyte fans suck

I had a lot of these crap fans fail also.

Basically get some floss, pull the blade out and reoil the bearing. Should be good for a few more months.
jr. member
Activity: 59
Merit: 4
Given that the OP was able to replace stock fans with a more power efficient one, i'm thinking of doing the same for all my GPUs. Electricity is more expensive from where i mine so this is would boost profitability considerably while keeping my GPUs cooler. 2 birds with 1 stone.

Just wondering, can the fans be placed back and the GPU restored to its original state incase resale is needed?
Any other pros/cons of doing the same as OP?
 

It is possible, the fans are usually attached to the shroud, and depending on the card, the shroud is usually attached to the card through some screws (the gigabyte ones I had only needed 4 screws, but will require a magnetic screw driver as it isnt easy to reach screws spots).
hero member
Activity: 906
Merit: 507
All the fans on my gigabyte windforce 270's shit the bed I was going to start using them again until the gpu prices go down but I'll have to cob some fans on them so agreed gigabyte fans suck
sr. member
Activity: 784
Merit: 282
Given that the OP was able to replace stock fans with a more power efficient one, i'm thinking of doing the same for all my GPUs. Electricity is more expensive from where i mine so this is would boost profitability considerably while keeping my GPUs cooler. 2 birds with 1 stone.

Just wondering, can the fans be placed back and the GPU restored to its original state incase resale is needed?
Any other pros/cons of doing the same as OP?
 
legendary
Activity: 1848
Merit: 1166
My AR-15 ID's itself as a toaster. Want breakfast?
When ASUS begins to fully secure their coolers to the card, Ill consider them once again;  but it will be hard to sway me away from EVGA's quality.

ASUS's problem is most of the time their cooler isn't held on by much but the die's screws.    if you bump the card or PCIE cable slightly in the wrong way, you end up needing to disassemble and re-paste it.

Maybe on their most recent stuff they have begun to do this;  but last I checked, it was still the same old crap.
sr. member
Activity: 2142
Merit: 353
Xtreme Monster
The best thing is to leave only the heatsink and mainboard and put some delta 3000rpm fans and forget it.
full member
Activity: 274
Merit: 133
I was watching an old video about gpu fans and the person who was doing the video said that they need to be have oil applied to them every few months of constant use because they are rubbing against metal at one time if the oil dries out.
Which they will eventually.
hero member
Activity: 1274
Merit: 556
Asus and gigabyte probably outsource all their fans and junk together, so identical in every way, stay away from their products.
As a matter of fact, I think ASUS have upped their game.
I have 14 ASUS RX 570 Expedition OC (arguably the cheap GPU line) and they have ball bearing fans. So far none of them has failed in 11 months (touch wood). I remember my old rig back in 2014 sported Asus R9 280 DirectCU II GPUs and one fan died within 3 or 4 months of use.

On a sidenote, I wonder what would happen if one decided to RMA a GPU nowadays. If said GPU is out of stock or discontinued, what are they supposed to send you back?
sr. member
Activity: 487
Merit: 266
I will never buy Gigabyte gpu's ... I've heard that their fans are shit ever since I've been in this game.

It's not only gigabyte, asus too. EVGA and Sapphire are the best .

Metroid, I like it a lot when you post as a sane person.  I'm tried of replying to your posts with the number to the suicide hotline.

No offense to you whatsoever, but some of the stuff that you post is way out there.  If you can predict the future based on your sources, more power to you.  But most the the people who you call trolls are saying you are the troll.  1 vs 999M loses every time.

So it's not just me...
legendary
Activity: 1848
Merit: 1166
My AR-15 ID's itself as a toaster. Want breakfast?
This is what I bought.
Amazon Link

I figured ~22.50 per fan was worth it.... to get it without the ebay fuss.
full member
Activity: 394
Merit: 101
90w was most efficient for founder's edition for rog strix most efficient range appears to be around 100-120w. Yes you are correct, it does not let go lower than 90w.
legendary
Activity: 1498
Merit: 1030
As you are probably LOSING efficiency going that low, I'd not bother trying any lower - and there's a pretty good chance the cards won't let you go below 50% of their factory TDP, I've yet to see any Nvidia Pascal-based card that would (unless the factory TDP was WAY higher than "stock" for that GPU).

full member
Activity: 394
Merit: 101
I bought bunch of gtx1080 founders edition and rig strix. I am running on lowest power possible at 90w and fans are turning much slower than full 180w. How far do you think i can go with these??
hero member
Activity: 1036
Merit: 606
I don't know, but if you email them they should be able to tell you who to contact or look it up on their website.
newbie
Activity: 78
Merit: 0
The replacement black fans are available from Sapphire. Email Sapphire at [email protected]. The LED fans are for retail stores.
Thanks. This is worldwide or USA only (according to their contact form this address if for 'USA Technical Service')?
hero member
Activity: 1036
Merit: 606
Replacements are $12.50 each including shipping from Sapphire and they are super easy to replace.
Isn't sapphire only selling led versions, that slightly different (0.35 vs 0.42 current, different noise floor). Only place I've found CF1015H12D selling is single lot on ali, that not available anymore, and it was $26.5 per fan. So, can you tell where are you getting such cheap replacements from sapphire directly?

The replacement black fans are available from Sapphire. Email Sapphire at [email protected]. The LED fans are for retail stores.
newbie
Activity: 78
Merit: 0
Replacements are $12.50 each including shipping from Sapphire and they are super easy to replace.
Isn't sapphire only selling led versions, that slightly different (0.35 vs 0.42 current, different noise floor). Only place I've found CF1015H12D selling is single lot on ali, that not available anymore, and it was $26.5 per fan. So, can you tell where are you getting such cheap replacements from sapphire directly?
legendary
Activity: 1848
Merit: 1166
My AR-15 ID's itself as a toaster. Want breakfast?
I remember buying a Peltier cooler at Frys and putting in on my Pentium Pro instead of a heatsink.


PRoblem with those is if you don't temperature control them, you get condensation on the board like none-other.

Once I finish making a desiccant housing for it;  Ill be re-mounting my TEC to my WWAN adapter used for my home internet.  When I am uploading a file, or streaming;  it gets stupid hot.  The TEC kept it's whole housing at 36-38*f; but condensation buildup was insane.    The heatsync on the other side of the TEC came from an old AMD x64 machine, and was passively cooled.  I need a desiccant box to control it and run it that way any further.

I would think that using water cooling and having an internal TEC;  no radiator at all... could be an interesting product line if it can be made efficient and small enough.  IIRC the power draw from a TEC isn't near as much as lets say a typical heat pump.
jr. member
Activity: 58
Merit: 3
I remember buying a Peltier cooler at Frys and putting in on my Pentium Pro instead of a heatsink.
legendary
Activity: 1498
Merit: 1030
I mount one NMB fan to each heatsink, 2 per card.
I MIGHT be able to get away with one fan per card, but the spacing between the heatsinks would make that problematic as a lot of the airflow wouldn't go through the heatsinks at all that way.
I COULD mount one fan to the heatsink at the "end" of the card near the power connector and get acceptable cooling for the GPU itself, but I worry about the stuff UNDER the heatsinks getting enough airflow if I try to do that.

I have a ton of fans sitting around though, bought a batch of something like 20 of them at a hamfest decades ago for $1 or $2 each, so using 2 per card isn't an issue for now.
I also have quite a few other "leftover" fans from CPU heatsinks out of "retired" Athlon-era and older machines if I run out of the NMB fans.


jr. member
Activity: 59
Merit: 4
Great solution, thanks for sharing!

Surprising the temps are lower with those fans

I have some of the 1070 version of that card (and some of the 3-fan versions), ALL of which have had fans die or are starting to lose fans.
I have a bunch of NMB 92mmx25mm fans around - server-case fan design for about 40 CFM rated .35 amp at 12VDC.

I've been pulling the entire fan shroud assembly, twist-tie one NMB fan to each heatsink assembly, then wire them up to the *5 VDC* connection on a MOLEX - they toss enough air through the HS to do BETTER cooling than the original fans did at up to 80% or so, while using a LOT less power.

The original Gigabyte fans are JUNK on their current Windforce models - dunno why they moved away from ball-bearing fans a few years back except on the Aorus models, but it has cost them any chance of selling ME any more cards.
The AORUS models still have good ball bearing fans - but they tend to be high-end models with extra power connectors that make it harder to power a bunch of them for mining usage.

EVGA and Sapphire are still "all ball bearing, all of the time" and are my go-to brands - I just wish Sapphire made Nvidia cards.

Those 92mm fans have a similar CFM to the ones I got.

My Question though, you have only 1 fan attached to the card? and does it do a good job? so far I'm tying 2 fans to each card, which does an insanely good job at cooling, but I think one fan could be enough, especially that one of these fans produces a higher CFM than both stock fans added together.
legendary
Activity: 1848
Merit: 1166
My AR-15 ID's itself as a toaster. Want breakfast?
I have a mini-itx Gigabyte 1070 which has a bad fan, it only starts if I push it by hand, and at some point it stops for some reason, I've never been around when it stops.

I tried pulling the rottary part off, cleaning and oiling up the middle pin, and it didn't make a difference (it wasn't very dirty to begin with).

Right now I have another fan working on top of it, but I didn't dismantle the shroud, and it's fine, but it's winter time and I'm keeping the mining PC on the balcony.

Do you guys have any suggestion on how to fix this fan? as I will probably want to eventually sell this card.

sell the card, or replace the fan.... that's the early sign that your about to have cooling issues.


@QuintLeo;  yeah, exactly!  That's why I mentioned the heatsync removal being necessary in most instances... plus;  it gives you a chance to re-paste that GPU that has dried and worn out it's OEM compound.

I personally typically re-paste after 1 year of mining.  I tend to see a temp drop when I do.
legendary
Activity: 1498
Merit: 1030
The Gigabyte "Windforce" cooler fans are the ones I am concerned about. We have a dozen or so GPUs that use that cooler (2 fan and 3 fan models) and one of them has a fan going bad after less then 8 months. It looks like it should be possible to replace the fans without removing the cooler but I haven't tried it yet (I know it varies from model to model if it's possible to replace them sans removing the cooler). Even if the replacement fans are the same junk and die again after 6-12 months it beats an RMA that might be a couple of months or possibly never replaced due to current GPU shortages.

*We have nearly all of our GPUs set at a manual 50-70% fan speed with just a couple of "problem GPUs" running at 80% fan speed in the summer months.

 It's a pain but it's possible to replace the Gigabyte fans without removing the shroud.
 Getting to the power connector for the individual fan is the BIG issue, and getting it routed correctly for "no wires in the way" after swapping the fan are the biggest pains - the screws for the fan aren't a big deal.

newbie
Activity: 18
Merit: 0
I have a mini-itx Gigabyte 1070 which has a bad fan, it only starts if I push it by hand, and at some point it stops for some reason, I've never been around when it stops.

I tried pulling the rottary part off, cleaning and oiling up the middle pin, and it didn't make a difference (it wasn't very dirty to begin with).

Right now I have another fan working on top of it, but I didn't dismantle the shroud, and it's fine, but it's winter time and I'm keeping the mining PC on the balcony.

Do you guys have any suggestion on how to fix this fan? as I will probably want to eventually sell this card.
newbie
Activity: 32
Merit: 0
Typical sleeve bearing issues with all Gigabyte fans. To be honest, reference card single blowers are more reliable because they are all ball bearing. The only thing I can suggest if installing ball bearing fans is not an option, is to take the fans apart every 3 months and re-oil all the sleeve bearings.
member
Activity: 168
Merit: 39
Are the ROG Strix fans any good or are those included in the crap basket? They toute them as being good. Though I don't buy Asus cards because I hear their RMA service is generally the worst. Has anyone had good experiences RMA'ing cards with them?

Yeah those Gigabyte fans look exactly like the craptastic sapphire fans from years ago, just slightly redesigned.  Even the fans on Sapphire's current gen look like they've improved. Surprised gigabyte is using that inferior junk.
full member
Activity: 264
Merit: 101
I had the same problem, but I contacted the support. They told me to keep the rigs in a clean place.Then the problem was solved by lubricating and placing the pit on a perfectly flat surface
sr. member
Activity: 2142
Merit: 353
Xtreme Monster
Asus and gigabyte probably outsource all their fans and junk together, so identical in every way, stay away from their products.
newbie
Activity: 57
Merit: 0
I have found that the EVGA fans are the best. They seem to run forever and they are quiet.
legendary
Activity: 2492
Merit: 1429
Top-tier crypto casino and sportsbook
Gigabyte really has the worst fans, I had problem with less than 1 year of use.
sr. member
Activity: 1246
Merit: 274
The Gigabyte "Windforce" cooler fans are the ones I am concerned about. We have a dozen or so GPUs that use that cooler (2 fan and 3 fan models) and one of them has a fan going bad after less then 8 months. It looks like it should be possible to replace the fans without removing the cooler but I haven't tried it yet (I know it varies from model to model if it's possible to replace them sans removing the cooler). Even if the replacement fans are the same junk and die again after 6-12 months it beats an RMA that might be a couple of months or possibly never replaced due to current GPU shortages.

*We have nearly all of our GPUs set at a manual 50-70% fan speed with just a couple of "problem GPUs" running at 80% fan speed in the summer months.
legendary
Activity: 1498
Merit: 1030

As far as recommended fan speeds;  if you can keep your card's fans to under 70% fan speeds;  the fans should last for well over 2-3 years of solid operation.   I ran my GTX980 at less than 70% for 2 years.   Then when I crammed it in a box with limited cooling and more GPU's, it stayed up at ~78*c and the fan went from being at ~75% on average to 100%.... and ~2-3 months later they were starting to fail/lock up.

*ROFLMAO*

The Gigabyte 3-fan Windforce models I have recently replaced fans on were more like *1* year old and spent that time in the 60-70% range.

Like I said, JUNK fans.

legendary
Activity: 1498
Merit: 1030
Good discussion here on brands and fans, bearings, and orientation of cards.

My question... is water cooling more energy efficient or helpful to make a card overclock and work better or gain more hashrate? Or is a working air cooling system just as good as a GPU water cooling system? I have never tried water cooling and am just thinking about the summer time and proper planning.

Most water cooling setups keep the GPU noticeably cooler than air cooling manages - at a cost as the systems are expensive compared to air cooling.
They probably use a bit more power though, as they tend to use a higher-end fan on the radiator AND the pump uses some power.
Might be close or a bit less power though, as the fans they use TEND to be more efficient than the very thin fans air-cooled cards have to use.

legendary
Activity: 1498
Merit: 1030
Just to chime in I have a zotac 1070 mini with a failing fan fortunately it’s a 2 fan model and still runs cool but worries me about the other 6 I have

https://twitter.com/voskcoin/status/964252560981921793

Said rig / card / fan

Ive noticed; when one fan begins to go out;  the second isn't far behind it.....

I dont know why;  but its always the case.

Maybe it has something to do with the failing bearing adding vibrations to the other and making it follow suit.

Near identical environmental conditions and speed history.
In theory, they SHOULD fail at the same time, but there is a HAIR of difference between 2 fans on the same card + manufacturing variations cause a little difference.



legendary
Activity: 1848
Merit: 1166
My AR-15 ID's itself as a toaster. Want breakfast?
usually you have to dismount the cooler;  they ziptie the pigtails to the cooler in odd places, etc.

sometimes you can get at the fan mounting screws from the front (inlet) of the fans....

I did lay a 120mm over the top of the cooler blowing down in the gap between the GPUs (with gpu's fans removed at that point)...  They ran in the high 70's to low 80's, but they did work.   Nvidia's self-throttling for temps works extremely well.   Its pretty hard to fry the die by lack of cooling unless a cooler is 100% missing altogether.



As far as recommended fan speeds;  if you can keep your card's fans to under 70% fan speeds;  the fans should last for well over 2-3 years of solid operation.   I ran my GTX980 at less than 70% for 2 years.   Then when I crammed it in a box with limited cooling and more GPU's, it stayed up at ~78*c and the fan went from being at ~75% on average to 100%.... and ~2-3 months later they were starting to fail/lock up.
sr. member
Activity: 1246
Merit: 274
FYI;  if you pull the old fans off, and read the part numbers off the label, you can search it on ebay/amazon and find new direct-fit replacements.  Worked a charm for my Asus 980 that's been running 100% since it first hit the shelf.

I myself in between fan changes have taken 120mm case fans and just leaned them against the card that I have removed the fans from Wink  Gets you by.

Have to be careful about that, Power Logic in particular makes a ton of fans with the SAME "part number" that have different pinouts for different manufacturers and even different cards by the SAME manufacturer.
I would not buy their fans though, they're the folks that make the TOTAL JUNK fans that Gigabyte uses in their recent cards.

And yes, the cards will work with no fan connected to the GPU directly - you just don't get to monitor or set the fan speeds with my setup.
In THEORY, you could dig up some PWM fans to use instead, and splice them into the old connectors, but IMO too much hassle as long as the cards are staying cool.




Do you know of any other replacement fans that would work for the current Gigabyte Windforce cooler series?  I would prefer not to take off the entire cooler until after they are past warranty if possible. Strapping a case fan over the top of the cooler probably wouldn't work either due to not having enough space between GPUs in a 6-8 GPU rig.
member
Activity: 168
Merit: 39
Good discussion here on brands and fans, bearings, and orientation of cards.

My question... is water cooling more energy efficient or helpful to make a card overclock and work better or gain more hashrate? Or is a working air cooling system just as good as a GPU water cooling system? I have never tried water cooling and am just thinking about the summer time and proper planning.

only if you're talking about a couple/few cards on your main rig.  with many cards/rigs air is the way to go.  the best thing is to find a way to exhaust the heat to the outside.  the better and faster one can do that the cooler the cards will run while using lower fan speeds.  as for hashrate most people underpower their cards while still overclocking to get the most efficient hashrates, so watercooling won't really help unless you using them in a confined space like a main rig where they will get very hot and are running 100% power going for maximum hash.  on 1080ti's that would though be particularly helpful in that case yes since they run best hash at high power. lower model cards don't really need 100% though.
newbie
Activity: 10
Merit: 0
Good discussion here on brands and fans, bearings, and orientation of cards.

My question... is water cooling more energy efficient or helpful to make a card overclock and work better or gain more hashrate? Or is a working air cooling system just as good as a GPU water cooling system? I have never tried water cooling and am just thinking about the summer time and proper planning.
legendary
Activity: 1848
Merit: 1166
My AR-15 ID's itself as a toaster. Want breakfast?
Just to chime in I have a zotac 1070 mini with a failing fan fortunately it’s a 2 fan model and still runs cool but worries me about the other 6 I have

https://twitter.com/voskcoin/status/964252560981921793

Said rig / card / fan

Ive noticed; when one fan begins to go out;  the second isn't far behind it.....

I dont know why;  but its always the case.

Maybe it has something to do with the failing bearing adding vibrations to the other and making it follow suit.
sr. member
Activity: 2142
Merit: 353
Xtreme Monster
Friend is using 12v 3pin case fans and so far no problems, 12 asus gpus and all of the fans failed, gigabyte 2 fans, sapphire and evga, nothing at all.
member
Activity: 168
Merit: 39
When did Sapphire get good?  They were junk a few years ago.  I take it they are ball bearing now?

Just only buy ball bearing fan cards.  And try to run decent temps so they aren't spinning super fast.

They were ball bearing during the LITECOIN GPU mining craze, so years ago.
I don't remember a time they were junk, but I did spend several years ignoring discrete GPUs 'cause the on-MB video chipsets were "good enough" for anything I was doing for a long time, then the A10 iGPU took over.



Really? I had 12 sapphire 7970s DUAL X models during that time and most of them had failed fans in under a year. I was a noob so was running 70-80% speed at the time. They were also loud even at lower speed, maybe it was the motors.  

Now I run at 40-60%. I'll hand it to them though, they replaced them through RMA without hassle. Then I sold them.
legendary
Activity: 1498
Merit: 1030
When you guys replace failed fans, do you plug the new fans into the power supply or are you using the board GPU to power the fans?

The ones I use COULD plug into the GPU power (they use LESS total power than the original fans), but I find that setting them up on a MOLEX to run from 5 volts gives plenty of airflow AND very low power usage.
They're not PWM so there's no real point of trying to set them up on the GPU power connection.

legendary
Activity: 1498
Merit: 1030
When did Sapphire get good?  They were junk a few years ago.  I take it they are ball bearing now?

Just only buy ball bearing fan cards.  And try to run decent temps so they aren't spinning super fast.

They were ball bearing during the LITECOIN GPU mining craze, so years ago.
I don't remember a time they were junk, but I did spend several years ignoring discrete GPUs 'cause the on-MB video chipsets were "good enough" for anything I was doing for a long time, then the A10 iGPU took over.

sr. member
Activity: 1414
Merit: 487
YouTube.com/VoskCoin
Just to chime in I have a zotac 1070 mini with a failing fan fortunately it’s a 2 fan model and still runs cool but worries me about the other 6 I have

https://twitter.com/voskcoin/status/964252560981921793

Said rig / card / fan
jr. member
Activity: 59
Merit: 4
jr. member
Activity: 59
Merit: 4
FYI;  if you pull the old fans off, and read the part numbers off the label, you can search it on ebay/amazon and find new direct-fit replacements.  Worked a charm for my Asus 980 that's been running 100% since it first hit the shelf.

I myself in between fan changes have taken 120mm case fans and just leaned them against the card that I have removed the fans from Wink  Gets you by.

Thats what I thought of doing at first, but the stock/replacement fans were more expensive than the ones I got if I include shipping, they perform poorly, and they consume more power
legendary
Activity: 4326
Merit: 8899
'The right to privacy matters'
When you guys replace failed fans, do you plug the new fans into the power supply or are you using the board GPU to power the fans?

both  depends on what is easy on that rig
member
Activity: 168
Merit: 39
When you guys replace failed fans, do you plug the new fans into the power supply or are you using the board GPU to power the fans?

The more powerful ones require more juice than the GPU connector will give, but if they are low power it's fine.  Plus the GPU connectors are smaller.
full member
Activity: 259
Merit: 108
When you guys replace failed fans, do you plug the new fans into the power supply or are you using the board GPU to power the fans?
member
Activity: 168
Merit: 39
When did Sapphire get good?  They were junk a few years ago.  I take it they are ball bearing now?

Just only buy ball bearing fan cards.  And try to run decent temps so they aren't spinning super fast.
sr. member
Activity: 362
Merit: 250
I had 2 broken fans on my Asus R9 390x.. (yeah, that card that uses 200+W for mining). Those shit asus fans were noisy as formula 1 on the race track, so I was kinda happy that i broke them down Smiley
As a replacement i just bought 2 fans for the computer case and connect them through molex. The temperatures were OK (60-65°C) and the formula noise was gone! Smiley
legendary
Activity: 1848
Merit: 1166
My AR-15 ID's itself as a toaster. Want breakfast?
FYI;  if you pull the old fans off, and read the part numbers off the label, you can search it on ebay/amazon and find new direct-fit replacements.  Worked a charm for my Asus 980 that's been running 100% since it first hit the shelf.

I myself in between fan changes have taken 120mm case fans and just leaned them against the card that I have removed the fans from Wink  Gets you by.

Have to be careful about that, Power Logic in particular makes a ton of fans with the SAME "part number" that have different pinouts for different manufacturers and even different cards by the SAME manufacturer.
I would not buy their fans though, they're the folks that make the TOTAL JUNK fans that Gigabyte uses in their recent cards.

And yes, the cards will work with no fan connected to the GPU directly - you just don't get to monitor or set the fan speeds with my setup.
In THEORY, you could dig up some PWM fans to use instead, and splice them into the old connectors, but IMO too much hassle as long as the cards are staying cool.




This is true, but the pigtails are highly distinguishable, and pretty easy to compare in the auction photos.
Good note though.

And Ill confirm;  so far my GTX 9xx cards work perfectly fine with frozen or no fan attached.  I doubt the gtx 10xx series would act differently.  What a wicked problem that would be to troubleshoot:  "My pc wont work because my video card fans weren't spinning..."    what a nightmare....
legendary
Activity: 1498
Merit: 1030
FYI;  if you pull the old fans off, and read the part numbers off the label, you can search it on ebay/amazon and find new direct-fit replacements.  Worked a charm for my Asus 980 that's been running 100% since it first hit the shelf.

I myself in between fan changes have taken 120mm case fans and just leaned them against the card that I have removed the fans from Wink  Gets you by.

Have to be careful about that, Power Logic in particular makes a ton of fans with the SAME "part number" that have different pinouts for different manufacturers and even different cards by the SAME manufacturer.
I would not buy their fans though, they're the folks that make the TOTAL JUNK fans that Gigabyte uses in their recent cards.

And yes, the cards will work with no fan connected to the GPU directly - you just don't get to monitor or set the fan speeds with my setup.
In THEORY, you could dig up some PWM fans to use instead, and splice them into the old connectors, but IMO too much hassle as long as the cards are staying cool.


copper member
Activity: 14
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full member
Activity: 1148
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legendary
Activity: 1848
Merit: 1166
My AR-15 ID's itself as a toaster. Want breakfast?
FYI;  if you pull the old fans off, and read the part numbers off the label, you can search it on ebay/amazon and find new direct-fit replacements.  Worked a charm for my Asus 980 that's been running 100% since it first hit the shelf.

I myself in between fan changes have taken 120mm case fans and just leaned them against the card that I have removed the fans from Wink  Gets you by.
jr. member
Activity: 59
Merit: 4
Great solution, thanks for sharing!

Surprising the temps are lower with those fans

The original fans can barely generate 18 cfm at 100%,, these fans can do around 42 cfm
legendary
Activity: 1498
Merit: 1030
"Typical" computer mounting puts the fans UPSIDE DOWN, which would generate more stress on whatever retainer they are using than a "sideways" mount.

Not just the weight of the fan blades themselves but the force of the air movement they generation trying to pull it out of the mount.

On the other hand, I gave up on HIS years ago due to their JUNK fans in pretty much all of their models.

I also find it interesting that Newegg stopped carrying HIS a while back (the ONLY HIS listing right now is for a 6850 from a 3'd party vender) - guess THEY were getting too many RMAs.

hero member
Activity: 751
Merit: 517
Fail to plan, and you plan to fail.
Ive had HIS Fans literally falling off of running GPU's



This happened to 4 of my GPU's and I finally switched the orientation of the GPU's to horizontal, I guess vertical position was putting uneven shear stress on the plastic and these fans were only tested for typical Computer mounting which places them horizontal. Just a guess though, could just be shitty GPU's and I may have more fail similarly soon.
legendary
Activity: 1498
Merit: 1030
Just curious. If it’s still under warranty, why not RMA the card instead of repairing it yourself?

Because the RMA process is very slow and gives you back a card with THE SAME ISSUE.

If something OTHER THAN the fan(s) die, sure I'll RMA the card.
Otherwise it's a waste of money (1-2 MONTHS lost income + SHIPPING CHARGES) and time.
hero member
Activity: 1036
Merit: 606
Not sure if ive just got bad luck but Sapphire has been a nightmare to deal with.
First their itx model fan died with 6 months of mining use.
then the cs sends me a replacement card that has the SAME problem.

Now im waiting for a replacement gpu to ship from Hong Kong (its been 8 weeks already) wtf.
Here's how it looks and sounds.
NEVER buying sapphire again.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/gjl60zoknasdw8b/IMG_9230.MOV?dl=0

Its MSI, evga or asus for me. TAT for Asus 1-2 weeks tops for rma.


That's why I also like buying cards that run cool and never buy single fan cards. Cheaper cards always skimp on cooling and the better the passive cooling, the lower you need to keep the fan speed which makes them last much longer than fans always running the 80%+.
sr. member
Activity: 588
Merit: 335
Steady State Finance
the same case, I have Sapphire 290 triple fan. one fan is broken then I replace a fan using delta fan (12 inches, powered by 12 volts). has been running for 1 month so far so good.
full member
Activity: 434
Merit: 107
Not sure if ive just got bad luck but Sapphire has been a nightmare to deal with.
First their itx model fan died with 6 months of mining use.
then the cs sends me a replacement card that has the SAME problem.

Now im waiting for a replacement gpu to ship from Hong Kong (its been 8 weeks already) wtf.
Here's how it looks and sounds.
NEVER buying sapphire again.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/gjl60zoknasdw8b/IMG_9230.MOV?dl=0

Its MSI, evga or asus for me. TAT for Asus 1-2 weeks tops for rma.
hero member
Activity: 1036
Merit: 606
With the current GPU mining runnup already outlasting all the previous ones by far, GPU manufacturerer's should realize nobody wants to RMA a GPU for fans, which is usually the first thing that goes bad. Sapphire and XFX have stepped up their game with one screw and snap-on modular fans. I love the Sapphire dual ball bearing X-Fans on the RX series. One screw to take off the fan for maintenance and cleaning and no wires to run or deal with. Replacements are $12.50 each including shipping from Sapphire and they are super easy to replace.




full member
Activity: 259
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Just curious. If it’s still under warranty, why not RMA the card instead of repairing it yourself?
sr. member
Activity: 2142
Merit: 353
Xtreme Monster
Metroid, I like it a lot when you post as a sane person.  I'm tried of replying to your posts with the number to the suicide hotline.

No offense to you whatsoever, but some of the stuff that you post is way out there.  If you can predict the future based on your sources, more power to you.  But most the the people who you call trolls are saying you are the troll.  1 vs 999M loses every time.

Well, as far as I can tell you, I have no horns or hold clubs yet hehe, so I guess that is a good thing. Now concerning what I say, I can't change what trolls think about what I say cause reality hurts them. So I guess I have to leave at that. I'm trying to be more polite if that helps.
legendary
Activity: 1498
Merit: 1030
Great solution, thanks for sharing!

Surprising the temps are lower with those fans

I have some of the 1070 version of that card (and some of the 3-fan versions), ALL of which have had fans die or are starting to lose fans.
I have a bunch of NMB 92mmx25mm fans around - server-case fan design for about 40 CFM rated .35 amp at 12VDC.

I've been pulling the entire fan shroud assembly, twist-tie one NMB fan to each heatsink assembly, then wire them up to the *5 VDC* connection on a MOLEX - they toss enough air through the HS to do BETTER cooling than the original fans did at up to 80% or so, while using a LOT less power.

The original Gigabyte fans are JUNK on their current Windforce models - dunno why they moved away from ball-bearing fans a few years back except on the Aorus models, but it has cost them any chance of selling ME any more cards.
The AORUS models still have good ball bearing fans - but they tend to be high-end models with extra power connectors that make it harder to power a bunch of them for mining usage.

EVGA and Sapphire are still "all ball bearing, all of the time" and are my go-to brands - I just wish Sapphire made Nvidia cards.



member
Activity: 644
Merit: 24
I will never buy Gigabyte gpu's ... I've heard that their fans are shit ever since I've been in this game.

It's not only gigabyte, asus too. EVGA and Sapphire are the best .

Metroid, I like it a lot when you post as a sane person.  I'm tried of replying to your posts with the number to the suicide hotline.

No offense to you whatsoever, but some of the stuff that you post is way out there.  If you can predict the future based on your sources, more power to you.  But most the the people who you call trolls are saying you are the troll.  1 vs 999M loses every time.
sr. member
Activity: 2142
Merit: 353
Xtreme Monster
I will never buy Gigabyte gpu's ... I've heard that their fans are shit ever since I've been in this game.

It's not only gigabyte, asus too. EVGA and Sapphire are the best .
member
Activity: 644
Merit: 24
I will never buy Gigabyte gpu's ... I've heard that their fans are shit ever since I've been in this game.
member
Activity: 392
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http://radio.r41.ru
my decision is temporary, I ordered a cooler on my graphics card, but their efctivity I hope will be better than regular
full member
Activity: 259
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Great solution, thanks for sharing!

Surprising the temps are lower with those fans
sr. member
Activity: 1246
Merit: 274
Yeah, unfortunately those coolers that Gigabyte uses on that series of GPUs have downright lousy fans. You can buy replacement fans for them, but I don't know if the quality is any better or not.
newbie
Activity: 8
Merit: 0
That's crafty - I'll try that out.  I have the same problem with a gigabyte 580 gaming card. The rear fan started to wobble, then screech for a few days then seized up.

member
Activity: 392
Merit: 27
http://radio.r41.ru
I have a slightly different situation, the 1080 card for 2 coolers was heated to 90-95 degrees. one of the coolers began to fail, loosened up. I bought a 12 mm cooler at a nearby computer store for pennies, now the temperature is 70-75 degrees, in peaks up to 80 degrees it comes
power is supplied to it from the motherboard
https://drive.google.com/file/d/12yXNqWzuTTewAknbvlqFASVdgI-96oKm/view?usp=drivesdk
jr. member
Activity: 59
Merit: 4
Hello All,

Just wanted to share my funny experience with these cards I purchased around a year ago.

The cards Im talking about are the Gigabyte RX 570 Gaming 4G: https://www.gigabyte.com/Graphics-Card/GV-RX570GAMING-4GD#kf
They are pretty much the worst cards I got for mining, even though I bought them early on for 160$ each, and I got 30 of them.
At first they were great, amazing value for money and ROI, elpida memory, they do 29.5mh/850mh eth/dcr; and 900 h/s on cryptonight.

They worked great for 10 months, and then the fans started failing; these fans can not handle dust at all. They are very poor in cooling; and unless I set the fans at 80% or more, the gpu temps would easily reach 75C.

The funny thing is that half of my cards would have the rear fan failing, either completely stop working, or work at a much slower rpm; to the point that I had to only mine cryptonight due to the lower power requirement for the algorithm compare to dual mining.

So I got this idea..

A week ago, I purchased these fans: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/Brand-Original-Delta-AUB0812VH-pwm-DC12V-0-41A-80mm-computer-cpu-case-axial-cooling-fan/32541022969.html?spm=a2g0s.9042311.0.0.Fy7LDH
And these splitters: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/SATA-Port-to-10-Way-12V-3-4Pin-Computer-CPU-Cooling-Fan-Splitter-Hub-with-PWM/32842778420.html?spm=a2g0s.9042311.0.0.Fy7LDH

Removed the shroud and fans from the gpu, and stuck the new delta fans I got on the heatsink (using some metal wires, and a bit of clamping).
and this is the result
https://image.ibb.co/hSBvY7/IMG_20180213_WA0006.jpg

Currently, out of all the cards I have; Nitro+ Limited Edition, XFX GTS Edition, Nitro+ 570 8GB, and Powercolor Red Dragon golden sample; these cheap elpida cards are my favorite xD

Temps on the gpu are at around 39C under the same conditions, and they consume less power (compared to the original fans, 12v @0.5A, the new ones are 12v @0.41A).

So I lose the warranty, but I've already recovered their cost and much more, and they still run perfectly, so I am very happy Cheesy

Now im thinking to do the same for all my other cards, and probably turn one of the AC units I got off to save on electricity
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