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Problem Fans on Video Cards?

Posted by Cliff on from the more-airflow-needed dept.

MobyDisk asks: "Both myself and my roommate have experienced problems with unreliable fans on video cards, leading to fried video chips. Most cards don't have full-size 12V fans, even though they put out a lot of heat. I've resorted to replacing the fans with cheap upgrades. A search for '"video card fan' on Google reveals lots examples of this problem as well as fan upgrade kits. I want to know how common this problem is. Have other readers experienced problems with video card fans? Should video card manufacturers start using better fans for reliability? Or do they just want us to upgrade next year when the fan dies?"

5 of 49 comments (clear)

  1. Considering how fast new chipsets come out by questionlp · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Taking a look at the video chipset development cycle... new chips (be it a brand new architecture or an extension to an existing high-end chip) come out every 8-12 months (although nVidia used to be a lot more aggressive with a 6-8 month cycle). With such a fast dev cycle, they think that gamers that like to hot-rod their machines and have the latest and greatest will always upgrade soon after the temporary king of the hill is released. Now, it's the ATI 9700 Pro... in a couple of months, it will be the nVidia NV30, etc.

    With that... they probably don't really care of the fans fail after a year since they probably want you to upgrade by then anyway.

    But for those without a budget to upgrade every 8-12 months... we may be out of luck since new cards usually mean different cooling solutions (due to die size, heat production, the heatsink mount hole positions, etc.) and some of the aftermarket stuff don't quite cut it.

    One solution might be to get one of those large coolers that attach to where the PCI/AGP cards screw holes are and blow right at the video card (and other cards). That way, even if the fan dies, there is still some airflow getting through the heatsink. It's not a pretty solution, but it's more like a cast than a band-aid :)

  2. nVidia 4600 by Zelet · · Score: 5, Interesting

    My roomie had a fan's bearings get noisy after only a month of use. I am assuming that the fan will fail within the year.

    Maybe a new cooling solution for computers needs to be implemented. Having a fan for the power supply, processor, GPU, hard drives, southbridge, and basic system fans can get very noisy. Especially if two (or more) of the fans resonate. I think it is time for a standard cooling system. Maybe each piece of hardware that needs cooling should come with a universal bracket that hooks to industry standard water cooling solutions or something.

    Just random thoughts.

    --
    ...And when they came for me, there was no one left to speak out for me." - Martin Niemoeller (1892-1984)
    1. Re:nVidia 4600 by Kevin+Stevens · · Score: 2, Interesting

      This is where watercooling can reap benefits, and could also save money. With a watercooling system the only moving part would be a waterpump. This pump would be the only mechanical point of failure. This would lead to quieter, cooler systems. Waterpumps do not need to spin at high rpm's in high heat environments which also make them more reliable. Instead of adding more fans, all you need to add are more waterblocks over your system. If Oem's or large manufacturers started to develop products based on watercooling, I bet waterblock and radiator prices would drop to the point where they are only marginally more expensive than fan systems, especially as components such as disk drives, north and south bridge chips, graphics cards, and power supplies are requiring more cooling power. When you also consider that most watercooling solutions on the market today are designed for hardcore overclocking, and you could use much smaller (and cheaper) radiators and pumps, watercooling could become integrated into mainstream PC's. I think most of the resistance stems from a vision of water leaks ruining all of your hardware. But a properly sealed system should have a much smaller rate of failure than a five fan system whirring at 4,000 rpm's each whose noise drives you crazy... I guess that giant circular copper finned heatsink with the fan on top does look like something out of a sci-fi movie, but I would much rather have piece of mind(somewhat) and glow in the dark cooling tubes running through my system...

    2. Re:nVidia 4600 by delus10n0 · · Score: 3, Interesting

      If the wterpump dies in a water-cooled setup - Everything Dies.

      That's only if you're a moron and don't have some sort of auto shutdown present on your system. Either through software, such as motherboard monitor, or through hardware.. though I haven't seen too many hardware devices for this task. I just rely on Motherboard Monitor. If my CPU or GPU gets too hot, it just shuts down immediately.

      Also, if you're extremely paranoid, no one's stopping you from running two smaller watercooling pumps. I've seen a professional watercooling kit sold that had two pumps inside of a tank, and one would take over should the other fail. Pretty slick.

      --
      Not All Who Wander Are Lost
  3. how about no fans? by nocent · · Score: 3, Interesting

    For your next video card, how about considering getting one without fans that is built to function with the heatsink only. Unless you plan to overclock it, you won't need a fan which reduces the overall noise level of your box and eliminates a potential point of failure. There are definitely some Geforce 2 MXs and Geforce 4s(not sure if they are MX) out there that come fanless.