Convert ASUS DIRECTCU II to ASUS STRIX 0dB

They make noise, too.

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skydive31
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Convert ASUS DIRECTCU II to ASUS STRIX 0dB

Post by skydive31 » Fri Jul 04, 2014 11:22 pm

Done in Windows 8.1 64bit Pro. Tweak works fine in Fedora Linux 20 64bit Nvidia driver 331.79.

Thought i would share my silent freak tweak turning an already quite silent ASUS DIRECTCU II cooling system into its STRIX 0db equivalent.
My graphics card is an ASUS GTX 680 DIRECTCU II OC, installed in a sound insulated Antex P280 case, running 6 120mm APACHE Blacks.
Very quiet system, but the DCUII cooler tends to have a slight high pitch whining sound even at minimum fan speed (about 1020rpms x 2 fans).
Just enough to irritate me and undergo the below:

This should work on any ASUS DIRECTCU II branded GTX Kepler GPU.

- Get the latest available BIOS from http://www.techpowerup.com/vgabios/inde ... mSize=2048
- Make sure you have the latest version of ASUS GPU Tweak.
Launch it, you'll notice that the DIRECTCU II minimum fan speed is 20% in ASUS GPU Tweak. Close it when done.
- From your GPU Teak folder, usually C:\Program Files (x86)\ASUS\GPU Tweak locate the provided nvflash.exe.
You can get the latest edition from http://www.techpowerup.com/downloads/23 ... r-windows/ but that edition did not work for me.
Better to stick with the one provided by ASUS.
- From your command prompt, save your current BIOS to a separate file, using nvflash.exe --save BACKUP_BIOS.rom (will save in current folder).
- Download Kepler BIOS Tweaker v1.25 from http://www.trickmasterpc.com/kepler-bio ... -v125.html, and launch it.
- Open the downloaded BIOS file, and in the common tab, Fan Control Range section, modify the Minimum Percentage to 0.
- Save the BIOS file, or use Save As function, to NEW_BIOS.rom
- Copy the saved file to the nvflash.exe folder.
- Remove the BIOS write protection with nvflash.exe --protectoff
- Then simply flash the new BIOS file using the following command: nvflash.exe NEW_BIOS.rom
Follow on screen instructions.
- When done, write protect the BIOS again with nvflash.exe --protecton

If successful, that's all there is to it.
If you launch GPU Tweak again, you will see the fan minimum is now 0%.
Go to the Fan1 user defined settings, and tweak the fan curve.
On my PC it was automatically set to 0% from idle (30deg celcius) to 65 degrees. Then 25% sets in, gradually increasing up to 100% at 95 deg celcius.

I tested the reliability on CoD Black Ops max graphics @ 1080p locked 60fps as well as X-Plane 9 max graphics locked 60 fps.
Could hear the Fans spinning at about 40% speed for 3 seconds only, twice, in an hour's time. Max temp 51 deg.
My Card is OC to 1204 Mhz, idles at 31 deg celcius.
I think the fans behave in multiple ways. They can be Off, or spin at ultra low RPM when in idle. Either way Idle whining noise is now gone.

Enjoy and Comment.

skydive31
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Re: Convert ASUS DIRECTCU II to ASUS STRIX 0dB

Post by skydive31 » Sat Jul 05, 2014 4:46 am

See attached ASUS GPU Tweak and Kepler BIOS Editor screens.
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quest_for_silence
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Re: Convert ASUS DIRECTCU II to ASUS STRIX 0dB

Post by quest_for_silence » Sat Jul 05, 2014 5:18 am

skydive31 wrote:This should work on any ASUS DIRECTCU II branded GTX Kepler GPU.
...snipped out...
If successful, that's all there is to it.
...snipped out...
Enjoy and Comment.

On an ASUS GTX-650Ti DC-II 1Gb didn't work (probably I will try on another 660 next week).

skydive31
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Re: Convert ASUS DIRECTCU II to ASUS STRIX 0dB

Post by skydive31 » Sat Jul 05, 2014 11:54 am

Hi Luca, what happened exactly?

The only trouble i ran into was that the BIOS wouldn't flash on my first attempts, but that was due to latest nvflash.exe version i downloaded. Went fine when i used the version provided with ASUS UEFI Tool.
Nothing more to do other than modify the fan min setting to 0%, save, and flash that same saved Bios.

Have you tried saving your current BIOS and modding that, then flash it back again? (instead of using a downloaded BIOS file?)

Oh and make sure you run Kepler BIOS Tweaker with elevated privileges.
nvflash.exe shall be executed from and admin command shell.

vishcompany
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Re: Convert ASUS DIRECTCU II to ASUS STRIX 0dB

Post by vishcompany » Sat Jul 05, 2014 4:29 pm

Does not work with my ASUS GTX-760. Appearently ASUS (or nvidia?) changed something in the way the fans are controlled in 2013 (700 line).
When reading out the BIOS, Kepler BIOS Tweaker shows a minimum Percentage of 10%, however, ASUS GPU tweak runs a min. of 29%. Flashing the card with a 0% version does not change this situation.
See also here. Thanks for your set of instructions, I had not done the flashing yet and was hoping to regain control over the GPU fan header, but alas, there still seems to be no way. So my GPU fans keep running off the second mobo fan header, controlled by SpeedFan.

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Re: Convert ASUS DIRECTCU II to ASUS STRIX 0dB

Post by quest_for_silence » Sat Jul 05, 2014 5:03 pm

skydive31 wrote:Hi Luca, what happened exactly?
I beg your pardon, I wasn't enough clear.

My card is the ASUS GTX650TI-DC2T-1GD5.
Apparently I didn't run into any problem while modding and flashing the BIOS, but the new modded BIOS has no effect on actual min fan speed. I would also add that there's no difference between the stock BIOS and the downloadable one.

With the stock BIOS, that min fan speed is 10%, for about 940rpm: with the modded BIOS, the min fan speed can even be lowered to 0%, but nonetheless the fans will still spin around 940rpm (so no real change).

skydive31
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Re: Convert ASUS DIRECTCU II to ASUS STRIX 0dB

Post by skydive31 » Sun Jul 06, 2014 2:07 am

Here is my GPU-Z info and Kepler Tweaker, noticed my original screenshot was showing a different file.
As you said, I guess i have an early edition of the card. It's second hand, so i don't know when it was originally purchased.
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skydive31
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Re: Convert ASUS DIRECTCU II to ASUS STRIX 0dB

Post by skydive31 » Sun Jul 06, 2014 11:04 pm

The Kepler BIOS Tweaking part is really universal, i guess this can be done on any branded card, as long as it's running a Kepler GPU.

The fan curve adjustment part is really limited to what your OEM tweaking and OC software allows.

I think this is all ASUS did when creating the STRIX product line BIOS, aware that 65 deg was a safe passive cooling limit.

Can anyone test it out with MSI or Gigabyte (or any other for that matter)?

lodestar
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Re: Convert ASUS DIRECTCU II to ASUS STRIX 0dB

Post by lodestar » Mon Jul 07, 2014 3:56 am

skydive31 wrote:The Kepler BIOS Tweaking part is really universal, i guess this can be done on any branded card, as long as it's running a Kepler GPU.)
The later version 1.2.6 and 1.2.7 will also work with the two Maxwell cards, the GTX 750 and GTX 750 TI. KBT 1.2.7 has a specific addition for Maxwell cards, a Power Tables tab.
skydive31 wrote:The fan curve adjustment part is really limited to what your OEM tweaking and OC software allows.
It's primarily an issue of what PWM profile the graphics card fans have. Most PWM profiles provide the same minimum rpm for typically the 0 to 30% duty cycle range; fans where 0% duty cycle=0 rpm are less common. So editing the BIOS to a lower or 0% duty cycle setting may have no impact whatever on the fan speed at idle. Even the ability to edit the BIOS fan settings is absent from the GTX750/GTX 750 TI cards, which is particularly annoying as in some cases the minimum fan duty cycle is set as high at 42%.

skydive31
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Re: Convert ASUS DIRECTCU II to ASUS STRIX 0dB

Post by skydive31 » Mon Jul 07, 2014 6:09 am

lodestar wrote:
skydive31 wrote: So editing the BIOS to a lower or 0% duty cycle setting may have no impact whatever on the fan speed at idle. Even the ability to edit the BIOS fan settings is absent from the GTX750/GTX 750 TI cards, which is particularly annoying as in some cases the minimum fan duty cycle is set as high at 42%.
Confirmed. I noticed the idle fan speed before the tweak was 1020rpm. The fan monitor now alternates between zero rpms or 900rpm.
I guess the tweak slightly dropped the voltage below the admissible threshold.

Believe me, these missing 100rpms are AMAZING for hearing comfort. Getting rid of a high pitched sound is priceless. Can't imagine what 42% idle sounds like on these 750s.

quest_for_silence
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Re: Convert ASUS DIRECTCU II to ASUS STRIX 0dB

Post by quest_for_silence » Mon Jul 07, 2014 6:31 am

skydive31 wrote:Can't imagine what 42% idle sounds like on these 750s.

Buy an eVGA and you'll know...

Das_Saunamies
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Re: Convert ASUS DIRECTCU II to ASUS STRIX 0dB

Post by Das_Saunamies » Sat Jul 19, 2014 10:21 am

Thanks for the tip - once I pick out a 750 Ti, I think I'll give this a try with the 650 Ti, as bricking it won't be an issue then.

sleepysonic
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Re: Convert ASUS DIRECTCU II to ASUS STRIX 0dB

Post by sleepysonic » Wed Jul 23, 2014 3:46 am

I just bought an asus r9 270 directcu ii. Is there a way of doing something like this for it?

quest_for_silence
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Re: Convert ASUS DIRECTCU II to ASUS STRIX 0dB

Post by quest_for_silence » Wed Jul 23, 2014 6:23 am

sleepysonic wrote:I just bought an asus r9 270 directcu ii. Is there a way of doing something like this for it?
Use SpeedFan.

sleepysonic
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Re: Convert ASUS DIRECTCU II to ASUS STRIX 0dB

Post by sleepysonic » Sat Jul 26, 2014 12:38 pm

quest_for_silence are you saying that speedfan can turn my graphics card fan off entirely?
I don't think that's correct.

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Re: Convert ASUS DIRECTCU II to ASUS STRIX 0dB

Post by quest_for_silence » Sun Jul 27, 2014 5:06 am

sleepysonic wrote:quest_for_silence are you saying that speedfan can turn my graphics card fan off entirely?
I don't think that's correct.

Differently from GeForce graphics, usually AMD cards don't need a vbios-mod to lower the fan speed.
I already used SpeedFan with several Radeons (7770, 7850) and it was able to turn off the fans: so I guess it could be able to cook a custom fan curve even for your R9 (which is definitely a rebadged HD7000), so that you have just to properly configure SpeedFan and give it a try.
Also Afterburner often worked well to work out a fan curve which stops Radeon's fans under a given temperature.

sleepysonic
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Re: Convert ASUS DIRECTCU II to ASUS STRIX 0dB

Post by sleepysonic » Sun Jul 27, 2014 12:35 pm

wow that's interesting! I hope so.

I did try to turn the fan down in speedfan but it didn't seem to do anything. But maybe I was doing something wrong.
If my card is an hd 7000 series, does that mean I get the zerocore feature as well? viewtopic.php?f=19&t=64033

i.e. fans turn off when monitor is off. AND power gets reduced to next to nothing when monitor is off. Because that would be wonderful and pretty much negates most of the things I was worried about.

I can't test anything with the card right now as I'm returning it for warranty (plastic clip broke off during transport -_-), but when I get a replacement I'll give it another go.

Das_Saunamies
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Re: Convert ASUS DIRECTCU II to ASUS STRIX 0dB

Post by Das_Saunamies » Sun Jul 27, 2014 1:11 pm

Probably can't manipulate a card's power circuitry that much via 3rd party software, especially if said card and circuitry haven't been built to have such a feature. AMD advertsises ZeroCore for all 7000 series but has a footnote saying it's just 'specific products', so buyer beware. Fan speed adjustment is baby frolicks compared to power manipulation.

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Re: Convert ASUS DIRECTCU II to ASUS STRIX 0dB

Post by quest_for_silence » Mon Jul 28, 2014 1:46 am

sleepysonic wrote:I did try to turn the fan down in speedfan but it didn't seem to do anything. But maybe I was doing something wrong.

Have you set SpeedFan to control the fan?
As already said, you may use alternatively Afterburner (or eVGA Precision, or other Rivatuner-derivatives).

sleepysonic wrote:I can't test anything with the card right now as I'm returning it for warranty (plastic clip broke off during transport -_-), but when I get a replacement I'll give it another go.
God luck for your further testings.

sleepysonic
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Re: Convert ASUS DIRECTCU II to ASUS STRIX 0dB

Post by sleepysonic » Sat Aug 09, 2014 1:20 am

I can control the speed in speedfan, but no less than 20%, it still stays just above 1000RPM.

Same goes for msi afterburner, it stays above 1000RPM.

:(

For modifying the bios of my r9 270, should I use VBE7?

Originally in VBE7 my fan curve was set to 10% all the way until 40C, and then going up. But it seems I can modify it to this:
http://i.imgur.com/Y1c6eql.png

What are the dangers of trying this if I juuust modify the fan curve and nothing else? It supposedly disables UEFI part of the bios or something, will that actually result in any difference to me?

Is it possible I'll flash the new fan curve and the card will treat 0% the same as 10% and still run at 1000rpm?

My computer goes entirely passive except for this god damn graphics card lol. I wish they had released a strix r9 270. They have a 280 coming out but the price is basically double what I paid for this, uggh..

lodestar
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Re: Convert ASUS DIRECTCU II to ASUS STRIX 0dB

Post by lodestar » Sat Aug 09, 2014 4:56 am

sleepysonic wrote:...Is it possible I'll flash the new fan curve and the card will treat 0% the same as 10% and still run at 1000rpm?
There would almost certainly be no difference in fan speed between 0 and 10%, probably none between 0 and 15% and either none or very little between 0 and 20%. But it does depend on the particular card and manufacturer, and even the version of the card. Part of the issue here is that most graphics card reviewers do not profile the card's PWM fans so it can be hard to get any detailed information about how a particular graphics card's PWM fans are likely to perform. At least one reviewer - Stefan of Mad Shrimps (madshrimps.be) - does publish detailed graphics card PWM duty cycle and fan speed information, and he has in fact reviewed your particular card. This review can be found here.

If we look at the fan profile from this review (see below) the numbers along the bottom are PWM duty cycle %, and fan speeds such as 11.26 mean 1126 rpm. Otherwise this is the classic elongated S shape PWM profile with fans held at relatively constant speeds for a couple of steps at each end of the profile. So going from 90 to 100% duty cycle only increases fan speed by 20 rpm to 3567, and at the other end going from 30 to 20% duty cycle results in a decrease of 98 rpm to 1126. This implies that dropping below 20% may not yield much if any further decrease in fan speeds. So if you getting down to around 1000 rpm it is highly unlikely that a BIOS mod would result in any further speed reduction. The other point about PWM fan control is that it is a closed loop process, where there is feedback from the fan speed sensor cable to the graphics chipset and driver. So it is quite possible for a card manufacturer to set a minimum fan speed of say 1000 rpm in hardware, and again modding the BIOS will have no effect.

Image

kater
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Re: Convert ASUS DIRECTCU II to ASUS STRIX 0dB

Post by kater » Mon Oct 27, 2014 10:50 pm

up @ this x 5!

I've been battling this same thing with the last 3-4 VGAs. I now have a GB 660 Ti where the default profile is 40% min duty. Translating into irritating 1230 RPM. I managed to mod and flash the bios to go at 26-27% (it changes), but the problem is that GPU-Z now reads 500.000 RPM. Granted, the card is now a little quieter, I suspect about 1000-1050 RPM (and somehowe warmer, in idle it is 36 deg, instead of 31 at first), but I still would like to go slower.

No such luck tho. It seems the fans are hardwired to never go below 26%, even if I put 0% and flash the bios.

It was quite similar with my previous GB 650 Ti Boost. The fans worked at 30% by default, 1100 RPM. They also had a better sound profile and were not as obtrusive as those on 660 Ti. AFAIR they could go down to 20% I guess and also gave stupid readings.

boucherjeanfra
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Re: Convert ASUS DIRECTCU II to ASUS STRIX 0dB

Post by boucherjeanfra » Fri Jan 15, 2016 1:27 pm

I've tried your procedure on two GTX 670 by ASUS.
Now only one fan is spinning. When playing a game or using Fluidmark the second one starts spinning.
Better one fan then two.

Thank you!

doyll
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Re: Convert ASUS DIRECTCU II to ASUS STRIX 0dB

Post by doyll » Tue Jan 26, 2016 5:11 am

Sorry for reviving the dead, but is it possible to do this on the older ENGTX580 DCII/2DIS/1536MD5?

lodestar
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Re: Convert ASUS DIRECTCU II to ASUS STRIX 0dB

Post by lodestar » Tue Jan 26, 2016 8:13 am

GPU-Z has a facility to save the current BIOS to file. For a GTX 580 I would recommend NiBiTor as a BIOS editor.

doyll
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Re: Convert ASUS DIRECTCU II to ASUS STRIX 0dB

Post by doyll » Tue Jan 26, 2016 8:26 am

Thanks for that.

I'm looking at a used 680 from myself and moving my 580 to wife's machine. My only complaint with it has been not being able to idle it down slower. It's not terrible, just seems a waste to have such a good cooling system and not be able to lower fan speed to take advantage of it when doing things like right now. :D

Kinda hi-jacking, but do you think the 680 is at a good used value point right now? Or is there something better in same price range? Here in UK asking price is £120 on 680.

lodestar
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Re: Convert ASUS DIRECTCU II to ASUS STRIX 0dB

Post by lodestar » Tue Jan 26, 2016 8:45 am

Some overclocked models of the GTX 680 can approach GTX 770 performance. Cooling and fan noise can be an issue. You will probably want to avoid the Gigabyte Windforce 5X GTX 680. The web page does not quite explain the cooling system or where the 5X came from. It was in fact 5 40mm fans fitted to the top edge of the cooler that idled at 2,500 rpm and could reach 7,500 rpm under load.

doyll
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Re: Convert ASUS DIRECTCU II to ASUS STRIX 0dB

Post by doyll » Tue Jan 26, 2016 10:25 am

Yeah, nice idea to move air out from motherboard, but those 5x 40mm fans did a lousy job in the noise department. Would love to see 3x or 4x width coolers moving front to back or bottom to top, but the don't seem to exist.
Dreamed up this cooler design with 2x fans on end.
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edh
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Re: Convert ASUS DIRECTCU II to ASUS STRIX 0dB

Post by edh » Tue Jan 26, 2016 11:44 am

Well you could mod a CPU cooler to fit a graphics card. If you absolutely don't care about having spare expansion slots then this is possible. There are a lot of examples that will come up if you Google. I'm sure you could come up with something like your quadruple slot twin fan example. A top down CPU cooler of around 75mm in height would suffice for this if it can be fed from the front with air. Something like the Scythe Zipang 2 on my last computer would have been good for this.

doyll
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Re: Convert ASUS DIRECTCU II to ASUS STRIX 0dB

Post by doyll » Tue Jan 26, 2016 12:07 pm

I think it would be easier to use something like a Raijintek Morpheis, Alpenfohn Peter, or Prolimatech MK-25 with a PCIe extension. Make some sort of mount for the GPU to be aligned with motherboard and with fans drawing air from cooler and exhausting into a duct to vents in side of case.

This would solve the problem of GPU heat contaminating cool airflow inside the case.

CPU cooler heated exhaust to rear exhaust is easy to do with a duct like Thermalright uses on their HR-22, Macho Zero and new Le Grand Macho.

Combining the two concepts would solve most cooling problems we users have.

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