Adjust the Fan Speed on Your NVidia Graphics Card
October 22nd, 2008 by Mitch Frazier in
If you've got an NVidia graphics card and it has a fan that sounds like a jet engine, or, if as in my case your fan starts at full speed when the computer boots but then turns off after 20 seconds or so, you need nvclock.
After installing a new XFX GeForce 9800 GT video card last week I was met with a rather loud and annoying fan, but shortly there after the fan noise stopped, which is to say the fan stopped. After a cursory examination of the video card itself and a bit of head scratching I came to the conclusion that the fan was working fine and this had to be a software problem.
After a bit of web searching I stumbled upon nvclock, a utility that allows you to overclock your NVidia graphics cards (if you're into that sort of stuff) and also allows you to adjust the fan speed.
I'd suggest you get the version from CVS, particularily if you have a newer NVidia card (the release version didn't recognize my card but the CVS version did):
$ cvs -d:pserver:anonymous@nvclock.cvs.sourceforge.net:/cvsroot/nvclock login $ cvs -z3 -d:pserver:anonymous@nvclock.cvs.sourceforge.net:/cvsroot/nvclock co -P nvclock
Then do the standard dance:
$ cd nvclock $ ./configure $ make $ make install
Now check to see if nvclock recognizes your card:
$ nvclock --info
My card produces this output:
-- General info -- Card: nVidia Geforce 9800GT Architecture: G92 A2 PCI id: 0x614 GPU clock: 601.712 MHz Bustype: PCI-Express -- Shader info -- Clock: 1512.000 MHz Stream units: 112 (1b) ROP units: 16 (1b) -- Memory info -- Amount: 512 MB Type: 128 bit DDR3 Clock: 899.996 MHz -- PCI-Express info -- Current Rate: 16X Maximum rate: 16X -- Sensor info -- Sensor: Analog Devices ADT7473 Board temperature: 46C GPU temperature: 55C Fanspeed: 1195 RPM Fanspeed mode: auto PWM duty cycle: 40.0% -- VideoBios information -- Version: 62.92.52.00.07 Signon message: GeForce 9800 GT VGA BIOS Performance level 0: gpu 600MHz/shader 1500MHz/memory 900MHz/0.00V/100% VID mask: 3 Voltage level 0: 0.95V, VID: 0 Voltage level 1: 1.00V, VID: 1 Voltage level 2: 1.05V, VID: 2 Voltage level 3: 1.10V, VID: 3
Now you can adjust the fan speed:
$ nvclock --fanspeed 40
Note: The argument to --fanspeed is the PWM percentage which is not the same as the percent of fanspeed. Adjust the fan speed to a noise level you can live with that also doesn't let your video card get too hot.
If nvclock doesn't recognize your video card you can try the --force option. Use this option at your own risk.
__________________________Mitch Frazier is an Associate Editor for Linux Journal and the Web Editor for linuxjournal.com.
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I use this.
On October 30th, 2008 Ted D (not verified) says:
I have used this for a couple of months, and I love it. I have a Script where I got from here...
http://www.category5.tv/content/blogcategory/15/77/
Called NVFANNER And it works great for me. Works on Intrepid also. This script is great for me. It regulates the fan speed. Don't set it too low or your card might Overheat. I use the NVIDIA-SETTINGS Program to watch the Temp.... or go into terminal and use NVCLOCK to check the temp. I keep the fan at 15% unless I am doing something with graphics... Then I turn the script off.
nice tips
On October 26th, 2008 felipe alvarez (not verified) says:
I will have to try this on my 8600GT. The fan's too noisy when not in use.
a little script
On October 23rd, 2008 anon (not verified) says:
The best way is using a script that change the fan speed according to the card temperature, then we can add that script at boot with a "nice".
never had this problem
On October 23rd, 2008 MarkS (not verified) says:
never had this problem before but read it carefully because I never know when it can happen to me!
Thanks for the tips
Mark
In case this didn't work for anybody else.
On October 22nd, 2008 Anonymous (not verified) says:
I run i686 Arch Linux on one of the Inspirons that originally came from Dell with Ubuntu, and had the same problem. This model has a Nvidia GE8400GS, which does not allow fan speed adjustment. The way I got around this was to just use the nvidia-173xx driver. I hope there will be a better way, since I don't know how much longer it will be supported.
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