Fan behaviour on XFX 8800GT 512MB 'Alpha Dog Edition'

On Fri, 07 Mar 2008 11:34:29 +0100, Patrick Vervoorn
wrote:

Hi there,

Yesterday-evening I installed an XFX 8800GT, 512MB, 'Alpha Dog Edition'
into my brother's PC. All is working well, and he is enjoying the new
speeds immensely (he had a 7600GT/256MB before this).

However, there is one little nag: the fan on this card is making quite a
lot of noise, and, unexpected to me, also seems to be spinning at a
constant, rather high, rpm. I was expecting this fan to behave the same as
on my own 8800GTX: low rpm when doing 2D stuff, spinning up when the card
is heating up when doing 'heavy' 3D stuff. The 8800GT seems to be spinning
at a constant, somewhat high-ish, rpm though.

I did install the newest WHQL WinXP drivers, and also installed nTune,
hoping that would introduce the temperature-controlled fan-speed, but no
go. Also, setting the fan-speed to manual, and sliding the control-slider
(and applying) changed nothing in a short test I performed.

GPU Temperature looked ok though, remains at a steady ~43 deg C, even
right after quitting a graphics-intensive game.

My question: how do I get this fan to slow down when the card is not
loaded, preferably only spinning up as GPU temperatures rise ? Or is this
card supposed to run it's fan at a constant, high speed?

Good luck. I had the same card and the exact same problems. The
fan was louder than my CPU and case cooling fans *combined*. It
sounded like a little jet engine and was spinning very fast with no
easy way to control it (didn't respond to nTune fan settings).

I ended up returning that XFX card to NewEgg.com and replaced
it with an EGVA 8800GT. Much quieter, responds to the nTune
settings, and very overclockable.




- Scott Smith:
MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/choppersmith

"S. Smith" wrote in message
...
On Fri, 07 Mar 2008 11:34:29 +0100, Patrick Vervoorn
wrote:

Hi there,

Yesterday-evening I installed an XFX 8800GT, 512MB, 'Alpha Dog Edition'
into my brother's PC. All is working well, and he is enjoying the new
speeds immensely (he had a 7600GT/256MB before this).

However, there is one little nag: the fan on this card is making quite a
lot of noise, and, unexpected to me, also seems to be spinning at a
constant, rather high, rpm. I was expecting this fan to behave the same as
on my own 8800GTX: low rpm when doing 2D stuff, spinning up when the card
is heating up when doing 'heavy' 3D stuff. The 8800GT seems to be spinning
at a constant, somewhat high-ish, rpm though.

I did install the newest WHQL WinXP drivers, and also installed nTune,
hoping that would introduce the temperature-controlled fan-speed, but no
go. Also, setting the fan-speed to manual, and sliding the control-slider
(and applying) changed nothing in a short test I performed.

GPU Temperature looked ok though, remains at a steady ~43 deg C, even
right after quitting a graphics-intensive game.

My question: how do I get this fan to slow down when the card is not
loaded, preferably only spinning up as GPU temperatures rise ? Or is this
card supposed to run it's fan at a constant, high speed?

Good luck. I had the same card and the exact same problems. The
fan was louder than my CPU and case cooling fans *combined*. It
sounded like a little jet engine and was spinning very fast with no
easy way to control it (didn't respond to nTune fan settings).

I ended up returning that XFX card to NewEgg.com and replaced
it with an EGVA 8800GT. Much quieter, responds to the nTune
settings, and very overclockable.


I have the XXX edition of the XFX 8800GT which is factory OC'ed to 670. I
can't hear it at all and I have it set at 40% which is 10% faster then the
stock 30% idle speed. I have it set to run up to 60%
when the temp goes over 60c and even that is not to bad. It does run full
speed on boot, but then it slows back down. I'm wondering if XFX has changed
the BIOS on that card to run full on because of the fact that the first gen
of these cards have the BIOS fan set to only go up if the core hits 100c!
Pretty sure all the reference 8800GT's have this setting. I'm using
RivaTuner to set me fan speed.
Under full load my card never goes above 70c.
Or it could just be a defective card. JLC

In article ,
JLC jc@nospam wrote:

"S. Smith" wrote in message
.. .

Good luck. I had the same card and the exact same problems. The
fan was louder than my CPU and case cooling fans *combined*. It
sounded like a little jet engine and was spinning very fast with no
easy way to control it (didn't respond to nTune fan settings).

I ended up returning that XFX card to NewEgg.com and replaced
it with an EGVA 8800GT. Much quieter, responds to the nTune
settings, and very overclockable.

I have the XXX edition of the XFX 8800GT which is factory OC'ed to 670. I
can't hear it at all and I have it set at 40% which is 10% faster then the
stock 30% idle speed. I have it set to run up to 60%
when the temp goes over 60c and even that is not to bad. It does run full
speed on boot, but then it slows back down. I'm wondering if XFX has changed
the BIOS on that card to run full on because of the fact that the first gen
of these cards have the BIOS fan set to only go up if the core hits 100c!
Pretty sure all the reference 8800GT's have this setting. I'm using
RivaTuner to set me fan speed.
Under full load my card never goes above 70c.
Or it could just be a defective card. JLC

No, see my other responses in this thread. Apparently some cards from XFX
are provided with a two-wire, non-speed-adjustable fan from the factory.
See the link to the XFX forum upthread for the exact part-nos which have
those types of fans.

Anyway, my brother can't stand the noise any longer, so I've emailed the
shop I got it from about this, and I hope we can sort this out to
everyone's satisfaction (since I've been buying stuff from them for
several years, I'm not expecting any problems).

It seems XFX have been skimping on the quality of the fans they're
mounting. Rest assured this is the last XFX product I've ever acquired for
myself, or my brother, and I will advise everyone I know not to buy an XFX
made product.

Regards,

Patrick.

"Patrick Vervoorn" wrote in
message l...
In article ,
JLC jc@nospam wrote:

"S. Smith" wrote in message
. ..

Good luck. I had the same card and the exact same problems. The
fan was louder than my CPU and case cooling fans *combined*. It
sounded like a little jet engine and was spinning very fast with no
easy way to control it (didn't respond to nTune fan settings).

I ended up returning that XFX card to NewEgg.com and replaced
it with an EGVA 8800GT. Much quieter, responds to the nTune
settings, and very overclockable.

I have the XXX edition of the XFX 8800GT which is factory OC'ed to 670. I
can't hear it at all and I have it set at 40% which is 10% faster then the
stock 30% idle speed. I have it set to run up to 60%
when the temp goes over 60c and even that is not to bad. It does run full
speed on boot, but then it slows back down. I'm wondering if XFX has
changed
the BIOS on that card to run full on because of the fact that the first
gen
of these cards have the BIOS fan set to only go up if the core hits 100c!
Pretty sure all the reference 8800GT's have this setting. I'm using
RivaTuner to set me fan speed.
Under full load my card never goes above 70c.
Or it could just be a defective card. JLC

No, see my other responses in this thread. Apparently some cards from XFX
are provided with a two-wire, non-speed-adjustable fan from the factory.
See the link to the XFX forum upthread for the exact part-nos which have
those types of fans.

Anyway, my brother can't stand the noise any longer, so I've emailed the
shop I got it from about this, and I hope we can sort this out to
everyone's satisfaction (since I've been buying stuff from them for
several years, I'm not expecting any problems).

It seems XFX have been skimping on the quality of the fans they're
mounting. Rest assured this is the last XFX product I've ever acquired for
myself, or my brother, and I will advise everyone I know not to buy an XFX
made product.

Regards,

Patrick.

It does seem like a ridiculous cost-cutting exercise by XFX for what is a
fairly high-end card. It would have cost XFX just a few pennies to have
installed proper fans on their cards in the first place. If they cut corners
on such a fundamental but cheap component, who knows where else they may
have tried to save a penny? I don't build hundreds of systems but my one and
only card that ever died of overheating was an XFX where the heatsink was
crap. Silly move, XFX.

Regards,

Dr.White.

On Mon, 10 Mar 2008 15:45:01 -0700, "JLC" jc@nospam wrote:


"S. Smith" wrote in message
.. .
On Fri, 07 Mar 2008 11:34:29 +0100, Patrick Vervoorn
wrote:

Hi there,

Yesterday-evening I installed an XFX 8800GT, 512MB, 'Alpha Dog Edition'
into my brother's PC. All is working well, and he is enjoying the new
speeds immensely (he had a 7600GT/256MB before this).

However, there is one little nag: the fan on this card is making quite a
lot of noise, and, unexpected to me, also seems to be spinning at a
constant, rather high, rpm. I was expecting this fan to behave the same as
on my own 8800GTX: low rpm when doing 2D stuff, spinning up when the card
is heating up when doing 'heavy' 3D stuff. The 8800GT seems to be spinning
at a constant, somewhat high-ish, rpm though.

I did install the newest WHQL WinXP drivers, and also installed nTune,
hoping that would introduce the temperature-controlled fan-speed, but no
go. Also, setting the fan-speed to manual, and sliding the control-slider
(and applying) changed nothing in a short test I performed.

GPU Temperature looked ok though, remains at a steady ~43 deg C, even
right after quitting a graphics-intensive game.

My question: how do I get this fan to slow down when the card is not
loaded, preferably only spinning up as GPU temperatures rise ? Or is this
card supposed to run it's fan at a constant, high speed?

Good luck. I had the same card and the exact same problems. The
fan was louder than my CPU and case cooling fans *combined*. It
sounded like a little jet engine and was spinning very fast with no
easy way to control it (didn't respond to nTune fan settings).

I ended up returning that XFX card to NewEgg.com and replaced
it with an EGVA 8800GT. Much quieter, responds to the nTune
settings, and very overclockable.


I have the XXX edition of the XFX 8800GT which is factory OC'ed to 670. I
can't hear it at all and I have it set at 40% which is 10% faster then the
stock 30% idle speed. I have it set to run up to 60%
when the temp goes over 60c and even that is not to bad. It does run full
speed on boot, but then it slows back down. I'm wondering if XFX has changed
the BIOS on that card to run full on because of the fact that the first gen
of these cards have the BIOS fan set to only go up if the core hits 100c!
Pretty sure all the reference 8800GT's have this setting. I'm using
RivaTuner to set me fan speed.
Under full load my card never goes above 70c.
Or it could just be a defective card. JLC

No, it was just that specific XFX 8800GT card. The fan on that card
is really loud, and don't respond to fan controls (nTune, RivaTuner,
etc.).

http://www.newegg.com/product/produc...82E16814150273

I've had good luck with XFX cards in the past, but decided to go with
the EVGA card after returning the XFX card, mainly because of the
good reviews the EVGA 8800GT cards has gotten. I'm not disappointed
at all with my choice.




- Scott Smith:
MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/choppersmith