How many fans can a GPU support!?

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geant90

Limp Gawd
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Aug 6, 2011
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As the title says how many fans can be daisy chain to a GPU 12v fan?
Lets say i have a GTX 580 and i remove the original fan to connect 2 120mm led fans, im sure thats within the safe limit, but what about 6!?
Heres the given scenario:
3 GTX 580 water cooled by 2 stacked dual 120mm radiators with total of 6 120mm fans.
This loop is a dedicated gpu loop, so i want the fans to be controlled by the gpu.
To have less wires running i would probly like to have all 6 fans to one card just so there all the same amount of speed and brightness but this can be dangerous and dumb.
The best way i think to do it would be:
1 580GTX= 2 120mm fans diasey chained with only one fan reporting RPM

Of course, each GPU is going to be at a different temperature having eat set of fans at different speeds and brightness. I can also set them manually within NV control panel and itll be fine.

If your curious why i choose this method is because i like have the fans performing when there needed to, automatically. Just like any CPU/GPU that uses powermanagement features theyll run low and cool until they are engaged in a difficult task. That way the pc is quiet but when performance is cranked, so will there speeds!
 
no fan controllers are no good. Takes up unnecesarry space and too much manual work. Why pay for a fancontroller when my motherboard and gpu can regulate the voltage supplied to its cooling fans?
 
if you really think a fan controller is "too much work" how on earth are you trying to justify jerry rigging a six fan setup run by your gpu?
 
I had a Palit GTX 260 Sonic with a non-reference twin fan cooler, but it was super noisy so I rigged up 2 Nexus Real Silent PWM 80mm fans using the PWM header on the video card. It worked, but I got a lot more instability, I'm guessing because the fans are heavier than the stock ones and maybe needed more juice to run them?
 
Guys, don't you read? It will be water cooled and will be doing a gpu to one set of fans on the radiator. 3 set of fan making a sandwich of two dual 120 mm radiators:

Fan1>radiator1>fan3>radiator2>fan5
Fan2>radiator1>fan4>radiator2>fan6

Gpu1=fan 1&2
Gpu2=fan 3&4
Gpu3=fan 5&6

Now I'm just not sure if I'm going to wire them in that order, most likely the hottest gpu which might be the middle or last one will be fans 1 and 2 so there's nit the coolest gpu restricting airflow.
 
How many fans can a GPU run? That's kinda like asking how long is a piece of string.

It isn't a case of how many fans can they run, it's how much power can they supply. Maybe you should pull a few stock fans off gpus and test their power draw with a multimeter? I'm sure many gpus would fry trying to run just a single high pressure 38mm fan.
 
ANd no im sure there more then capable therte 12v fans but idk how manny watts they pull and im wondering if its drawn through the 12v pcie and regulated or not. i have put 2 92mm fans on a HD6870 no problem and runs like a champ att 100 percent! nice, loud and cool!
 
FYI, most cards use 4 pin PWM fans...

Some of those squirrel cage fans can pull up to 20w, so I suppose a bank of 6 fans, each pulling less than 300ma could work just fine... Aka 1000rpm fans at the absolute limit.. I wouldn't do that though... 3 per card max IMHO.
 
Thanks Arcygenical, thats why im going with 2 fans per gpu. Works out great and its safer! With 2 120mm led fans should be perfect. And yeah i know about the 4 pin fans, i will buy PWM fans and just remove the rpm wire from one fan.
 
geant90 said:
no fan controllers are no good. Takes up unnecesarry space and too much manual work. Why pay for a fancontroller when my motherboard and gpu can regulate the voltage supplied to its cooling fans?
Click to expand...

Because we're [H]ard and that's how we role. :D
 
Arcygenical said:
FYI, most cards use 4 pin PWM fans...

Some of those squirrel cage fans can pull up to 20w, so I suppose a bank of 6 fans, each pulling less than 300ma could work just fine... Aka 1000rpm fans at the absolute limit.. I wouldn't do that though... 3 per card max IMHO.
Click to expand...

20W? I just had a look at my 8800GTS which has a centrifigul fan, it is rated at 0.15A and 12V. That's 1.8W.

I'm sure cards can deal with 2 of most types of fans, just personally I'd actually check the power usage of the fans and keep them close to the value of the stock fan. You dont want to try and draw too much power and a few days/weeks/months later the fan circuitry dies.
 
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Red Falcon said:
Because we're [H]ard and that's how we role. :D
Click to expand...

I disagree. That dosent make you a hardcore modder. Whats more bad ass: a water cooling system that hard several knobs you must turn up everytime you game or a fully automated one that you cna configure to increase fan speed when more cooling is necesarry or manually set it your self to whatever you desire!
 
Different people, different tastes.
Some people want complete control over their systems and don't want automation.

btw, your example makes little sense.
The first option is just manual. The second option is automatic/manual. Not a very good analogy imo.

I get what you are saying, but that is your choice and your opinion, not fact.
Depending on the circumstances, one option may be better than the other.
On a server, automation is better most of the time, but on a desktop manual may be the better option.

Also, I never said it makes you a "hardcore modder", not sure where you came up with that. :confused:

I personally do a lot of GPU folding with my GTX260. I don't care for the automated fan that kicks up/down in speed, so I set it manually depending on the work unit being processed.
Perhaps you do a lot of gaming and don't want to forget to turn up your fans when you game, and thus use the automated fan sensors.

It really depends on what the user is doing and what their preference is. Neither is the correct choice for all scenarios.
 
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