Yes, this is normal behavior with new nVidia cards. In the old days (FX5800
era), they just had two distinct fan speeds for 2D and 3D. Now it ramps up
progressively according to temperature. With Rivatuner you can adjust
several parameters like the idle fan speed, ramp schedule, etc.

The ramping action requires the fan controller to be capable of sending a
PWM signal. Not all cards can do this, obviously. Furthermore, some cards
have the hardware, but the BIOS doesn't expose it to the drivers. Which
category your GTO belongs to is anybody's guess.

--
"War is the continuation of politics by other means.
It can therefore be said that politics is war without
bloodshed while war is politics with bloodshed."

"johns" wrote in message
oups.com...
Just got in a Dell Dimension 9150 to setup and test.
I had to reinstall everything ( for lab reasons ), and
after deleting all the partitions, I started reinstalling
XP from the Dell cd. I noticed that the video card
.. 7900GS 256 .. was making a lot of fan noise. It
was so loud that I called Dell Tech Support about it.
They did not know why either, and started to send
me a replacement. In the meantime, I downloaded
all the drivers from Dell, and as soon as I loaded
the video driver for the 7900GS, the fan went quiet,
and now runs under the control of the driver. If I
really push the 7900 in a 3d app or game, I can
hear the fan come up somewhat, and I can see
the temp at about 50C. After a while the fan quietens
as the temp cools. My question: is this true of
the standard 7900 driver for all machines.