PC fan noise help

Hey all,

I was just wondering if anyone could help me. My PC's fan is kicking on even when I'm not playing very graphically intensive games. Things like Call of Cthulhu or Hammerwatch kick on the loud fan noise. I do have the resolution at 1080, but don't think that should be a problem. It isn't a weird noise, just a loud fan noise. I have a gtx 660, and i5, 8 gbs of ram and am almost always running 2 monitors with Giant Bomb videos or netflix running on the other. Any advice to keep the fan quieter while playing less intensive games?

Thanks

Silly question first: Is it just one fan or multiple? If not all, is it your GPU, CPU or case fans?

Some specifics: If it's your GPU or CPU, have you overclocked? Have you messed with the fan curve? Which power setting is your PC set to? (performance, balanced, power saving?) Have you monitored your temperatures?

@hypnotoadbrwowrowrow: I'm fairly sure it's my gpu. It's not overclocked, and I haven't messed with the fan. My power setting is on Balanced, and I haven't checked on the temp.

@hypnotoadbrwowrowrow: just monitored temp playing hammerwatch and my gpu temp went up to 82 degrees C

@wattsiey: What is the idle temperature? That sure seems very high for a game like that with a GTX 660. I have no experience with that specific card, though.

@hypnotoadbrwowrowrow: idle is 43

@wattsiey said:

That's really hot for such a low load, even running at 100% my 970 with a slight overclock doesn't push past 65 degrees.

How old is the card? It sounds like maybe your thermal paste has dried up and the fans are kicking in overdrive trying to cool it down.

@ohnooh: About 2.5 years old

@wattsiey: 43 degrees is not bad, but a fair bit higher than I'd expect for idle unless it's a very hot day. If you can you should try and take the plastic shroud off your graphics card and make sure the heat-sink isn't clogged with dust. If that doesn't do the trick it's probably your old stock thermal paste that's had a bad life.

@ohnooh: Damn, my card has seemingly been running especially hot recently and has been hitting 80C on games it really shouldn't, even ones it used to have no issues with. I made sure it was all clean, but the thermal paste thing is an interesting idea.

GTX 770.

My 280X is running at 33C idle and 70-75 in games and that is slightly overclocked. Have you cleaned it lately? Could be dust in the fan. You should clean the fans at least every 6 months or the dust buildup can get really bad.

I shall be checking the fan tomorrow night. If it's not that fan am I going to be in the market for a new card?

Not necessarily, you could just open it up and reapply some thermal paste to see if that was the problem.

@hypnotoadbrwowrowrow: Cool! Thanks everyone!!

Agree with dagas. Check for dust build up. Blow that sucker out with some canned air and while you're at it, blow out the rest of the fans as well. If you don't have canned air, disconnect all power and run a vacuum over the fans. Make sure you have airflow coming in the case and exiting. This goes a long way in in keeping hardware temps down.

If it's not dust, the fan might be stalling in the bearing, causing vibrations. You can easily peel back the fan's sticker and re-lubricate the shaft from there. WD-40 works in a pinch, but it's not exactly the longest-lasting lubricant. I'd recommend 3-in-1 household oil. It's also great for your door hinges!

it's hard to compare cards like that anymore because in some cases, the big advantage of the new chip is simply power efficiency.

For the OP: Blowing out the card's heatsink with compressed air would be the first thing I'd do for sure. Also blow out the case in general and get your case fans and cpu fan as well. A higher ambient temp will of course lead to higher temps under any type of load (even one that isn't super taxing, it's also possible if your cpu heatsink is grungy, the gpu is working extra to make up the performance). I did some quick googlefu and checked the original GTX 660 review on Tom's Hardware. Their temps average for the card was 30 idle and 58 under load. Obviously there are a lot of factors that go into that, so it's not apples to apples, but % wise, their card does about double the temp between idle and load, so if you're idling in the 40's, the 80's may be around what you're going to see. Some of the big leaps after the 600 series for Nvidia came down to power efficiency and management though, so a newer card (even one in the same theoretical performance space) would likely run cooler and with lower wattage regardless.

You may also want to download something like msi afterburner or evga percision or some other software like that. it allows you to manually mess with the fan speeds, it may just be a matter of setting threshholds differently for when it kicks the fan into high gear. Though definitely clean first, you'd be surprised how shitty your system starts to run over time without you really noticing until something like this starts happening.

No reason a 660 should reach that temp, especially playing Hammerwatch. Sounds like the paste has dried out and you aren't getting proper die contact with the cooler, easy to fix though taking a GPU heat sink off is a little more fiddly than a CPU.

UPDATE

Thanks to all who responded. I opened up my pc and removed my video card. Dust didn't seem to be caked on but there was a bit in there. I cleared it out and reinstalled. I've ran some games and have yet to have the fan kick on. Hope that was the fix. You are all super cool duders.