Ant wrote:
Hello!

I noticed most of the times my old NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT video card's
fan is quiet in KDE v3.5.10 with Compiz. When I exit out of X (used
startx to start X.org) to text mode console, my fan will spin up louder
and according to my old APC UPS, more power is used:


snip

The video card fan speed, is software controlled. Depending on the
situation, you may not have the necessary software path to make
that happen. As a result, if you're lucky, the fan defaults to 100%.

This was such an annoyance for me (I boot a lot of LiveCDs, which
lack the necessary driver component), that I butchered the fan
control with a hardware method, so Linux would no longer
"spool up" the fan on me. Now, I enjoy blissful silence.

That is only practical, because I characterized the video card
behavior, and determined that 20% was plenty of cooling, even in
3D games. I set up an external voltage supply to the fan, to
achieve 20% fan speed. I checked in Windows, to verify temps
with GPUZ. So I was careful to design it, so it achieved the
same result as the software method.

My method is inferior, in the sense that it isn't speed
controlled. The fan can't drop back in speed, when the card
is cool. The fan runs fast enough, so it is cooled properly
under any load.

For a big-assed video card, the above is not a valid approach.
I could do this, because my card is gutless :-) For an 8800 GT,
I'd need a lot more than a 20% static setting. And that would be
too loud.

There should never have been software control of fan speed
in the first place! This could all have been done in hardware,
with no unnecessary roaring fans or anything. It's just
stupid, that the hardware was designed this way. It has
even allowed video cards to be damaged, when Nvidia
released drivers with improper fan speed setting software.
If there was hardware closed loop control, that would never
have happened. Doing this in software, is *so* unnecessary.

If you want control in Text Mode, you'd going to need to
research how the driver code works, and whether there is
a separate utility for adjusting it. I tried researching
this in the past, but don't remember the details. I
don't have to, because mine is "fixed" (like neutering
your dog...) :-) No loud fan for me.

HTH,
Paul