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

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?

Regards,

Patrick.

I believe you need to flash the bios to the latest version and you will get
spin down in 2d
"Patrick Vervoorn" wrote in
message l...

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?

Regards,

Patrick.

In article ,
biff wrote:

[Top-posting fixed]

"Patrick Vervoorn" wrote in
message l...

[snip]

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?

I believe you need to flash the bios to the latest version and you will get
spin down in 2d

I've searched the XFX site, but I don't see any graphics card BIOS updates
listed. Could you elaborate a bit?

Regards, Patrick.

Patrick Vervoorn wrote:

I've searched the XFX site, but I don't see any graphics card BIOS updates
listed. Could you elaborate a bit?

If you have to having Video BIOS flashing elaborated upon for you, stop
and find someone local who has done it before to assist you.

If all goes well, no problems. But flashing your video card bios is the
single quickest way to ruin it, even if you think you are doing it
correctly.

For self-education, start here, but do not flash your card unless you
are prepared to have it broken:

http://www.mvktech.net/content/view/2069/37/

(NiBiTor guide)

If you have to having Video BIOS flashing elaborated upon for you, stop
and find someone local who has done it before to assist you.

If all goes well, no problems. But flashing your video card bios is the
single quickest way to ruin it, even if you think you are doing it
correctly.

For self-education, start here, but do not flash your card unless you are
prepared to have it broken:

http://www.mvktech.net/content/view/2069/37/

(NiBiTor guide)

I'd have to agree. Rather than looking for a different BIOS version to
change the behavior you find objectionable, you can pull the original BIOS
with NVFlash 5.50 (won't work with older versions) back it up to a secure
location ( very heavy emphasis here) and then use NiBiTor to modify the
fan settings (amongst others) in your existing BIOS. Save the modded file
with a different and descriptive file name than the backup (like XFXmod.rom
or XFXnew.rom) and the use NVFlash to replace the existing BIOS with your
modded original. Don't even think about about doing it without having a PCI
video card on hand. I keep and old Cirrus and Trident one handy. If your
box can boot from a USB key it's better. None of mine can so getting a
demonstrably reliable and functional 1.44Mb floppy and drive is needed.
Test the floppy first. Do extensive file transfers to and from it in the
system you will be booting from. More than once.

In article ,
Mr.E Solved! wrote:
Patrick Vervoorn wrote:

I've searched the XFX site, but I don't see any graphics card BIOS updates
listed. Could you elaborate a bit?

If you have to having Video BIOS flashing elaborated upon for you, stop
and find someone local who has done it before to assist you.

I didn't ask about the flashing, I asked about where he thought I could
get a BIOS from.

[snip, thanks]

Well, before trying this, I first want to check for sure if the fan is
even able to be controlled. It seems several XFX 8800GT cards do not have
a speed-adjustable fan, and this card could be one of them.

Another complication is that the card is currently in my brother's gaming
PC, and he is about 150kms away from me, and not too computer-savvy (one
of the reasons I installed it).

_If_ the fan has only two wires to the PCB, there's no way it's going to
be speed-controllable. This is also confirmed on XFX's forums, where a
support-tech even listed the 8800-series cards which do and do not have an
adjustable fan...

Regards, Patrick.

_If_ the fan has only two wires to the PCB, there's no way it's going to
be speed-controllable. This is also confirmed on XFX's forums, where a
support-tech even listed the 8800-series cards which do and do not have an
adjustable fan...

Regards, Patrick.

One of you should open a ticket with XFX. RMA the card. Many others are who
have the 2-wire XFX 8800GT Alpha Dog are doing so. They are being replaced
with a new variable speed unit. Looks like they just replace the entire
card.
http://www.bjorn3d.com/forum/showthr...t=20984&page=4

In article fphAj.69026$FO1.61779@edtnps82,
Augustus wrote:
_If_ the fan has only two wires to the PCB, there's no way it's going to
be speed-controllable. This is also confirmed on XFX's forums, where a
support-tech even listed the 8800-series cards which do and do not have an
adjustable fan...

One of you should open a ticket with XFX. RMA the card. Many others are who
have the 2-wire XFX 8800GT Alpha Dog are doing so. They are being replaced
with a new variable speed unit. Looks like they just replace the entire
card.
http://www.bjorn3d.com/forum/showthr...t=20984&page=4

I also found that, and that's even the thread I was alluding to.

However, your conclusion is not what I read into it; apparently if the
card doesn't have fanspeed-control, they'll just say: tough luck.

And I checked it with him, the cardboard-box in any case claimed his card
is a: PV-T88P-YHF4. I don't think he dares to open the computer to
double-check it.

This is one of the cards which confirmed does not have fan-speed control
(see a few pages back in the link above).

Regards,

Patrick.

Patrick Vervoorn wrote:

I didn't ask about the flashing, I asked about where he thought I could
get a BIOS from.

What else are you going to do with a BIOS, sing to it?

I don't have a simple fix for you. I'm just replying to
state that I'm glad to see that XFX is still the pack
of crooked scumbags I always thought they were.
Now maybe I'll get some support on declaring them
to be a non-company, and gamers will stop buying
their junk. Why in blazes did they put a 2-wire
fan in their stinking product ? Knowing XFX like I
do, you are lucky the card is not a re-furb ... and
it just might be if you did not pay the bribe to
guarantee it "new out of the box".

You can voltage control the speed of that fan
with a 3-wire to Molex cable from NewEgg. There's
a resistor in-line with the +12v , that drops it to
about 9 volts ... just pull the plug and solder reds
and blacks together. That will drop it to about 1200
rpm. I'm guessing you could do the same thing
with a manual control like the one used on the
VF900 fans. The cable costs about $2, and S&H
costs about $182,398,012.00

johns