Asus FanConnect - control case fans with gfx card

They make noise, too.

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wundi
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Asus FanConnect - control case fans with gfx card

Post by wundi » Sun Jul 17, 2016 1:31 pm

Hi all,

I didn't see this discussed anywhere, so I figured I'd start a thread about it since we are definitely within "SPCR domain" here. I'm talking about Asus' 2016 graphics card feature which is about controlling case fans based on the GPU temperature, found so far on their STRIX GTX 1070/1080 cards and apparently also on the upcoming STRIX RX 480. Here's Asus' own explanation of the feature.

I don't have an Asus gfx card with this feature but I find this exciting all the same. Being able to control case fans based on GPU temp is pretty essential for a quiet air-cooled gaming rig and it was also a topic in last December's podcast featuring Asus and MikeC (IIRC they were talking about MB fan controls though).

Asus have (if I've got this right) implemented this so that the connected case fans spin at the same duty cycle as the fans aboard the STRIX cooler. This has some ramifications:
- The case fans also spin down completely when the gfx card fans do;
- The case fans must have an rpm range that acoustically matches the GPU fan duty cycle - e.g. if the GPU fans max out at 50% then the connected case fans must have such an rpm range that they should also max out at 50%.

Obviously, it would be ideal to be able to control the connected case fans independently of the GPU fans' duty cycle, like you can with MB fan controls according to CPU temp. But it's a great first step.

Is there a forum member with a new STRIX card who could report on the feature?

Shobai
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Location: Toowoomba, Queensland, Australia

Re: Asus FanConnect - control case fans with gfx card

Post by Shobai » Sun Jul 17, 2016 3:12 pm

I also do not have one of these cards. From reading the Asus article you linked, though, it looks like the additional fans aren't tied to the same control as the GPU fans [because they show setting up custom fan curves for the additional fans].

I think that another interesting question is whether you might be able to select which temperature to use to engage your custom fan curve. In my case, for instance, I've got the GPU itself under a waterblock and my fan control keeps the GPU temp under 40 deg. C. At the moment, I have a fan that I manually have to turn on/off to help keep the VRM temps down [it's much too noisy to leave on, but when I game I use headphones]. So, if Asus would let you set up the additional fans to turn on based on the VRM temp, or any temp that you chose, that could make this a much more useful feature.

Arbutus
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Re: Asus FanConnect - control case fans with gfx card

Post by Arbutus » Sun Jul 17, 2016 10:48 pm

Generally, when gaming, the CPU heats up as the GPU heats up and I have used one or two Y-adapters connected to the CPU PWM fan header to control PWM type chassis fans.

wundi
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Re: Asus FanConnect - control case fans with gfx card

Post by wundi » Sun Jul 17, 2016 11:59 pm

Shobai wrote:I also do not have one of these cards. From reading the Asus article you linked, though, it looks like the additional fans aren't tied to the same control as the GPU fans [because they show setting up custom fan curves for the additional fans].
Hmm. The way I'm reading the article is that they're setting up "the one and only" fan curve. If not, well, that's awesome, but I don't think they're implying that.
Arbutus wrote:Generally, when gaming, the CPU heats up as the GPU heats up and I have used one or two Y-adapters connected to the CPU PWM fan header to control PWM type chassis fans.
Fair enough, that's true for a typical gaming rig. Cases differ though and the GPU and the CPU may be thermally isolated to some degree. Also outside of gaming, it doesn't make sense to run case fans directed at the GPU faster if only the CPU is taxed. I still think there's a lot of value in this feature as it enables generally smarter fan control and thermal design.

vishcompany
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Re: Asus FanConnect - control case fans with gfx card

Post by vishcompany » Mon Jul 18, 2016 2:49 am

wundi wrote:Obviously, it would be ideal to be able to control the connected case fans independently of the GPU fans' duty cycle, like you can with MB fan controls according to CPU temp. But it's a great first step.
You can do this already by using SpeedFan (as long as you are running Windows).
Don't get me wrong, it sure is nice that Asus implemented that feature, but controlling fans insdependently based on different temp sensors has been possible for a long time already with SpeedFan.

lodestar
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Re: Asus FanConnect - control case fans with gfx card

Post by lodestar » Mon Jul 18, 2016 10:47 am

To me this seems to be an extension of Asus' Fan Stop technology which has been applied to its most recent motherboards both at BIOS level and through the Fan Xpert software since version 2. Which is fine if you have an Asus motherboard. Just plugging fans into these particular Strix cards will keep them off until the GPU temperature reaches the point where the graphics cooler fans are triggered. There are restrictions, PWM fans only it seems. However it does means that you can implement Fan Stop regardless of your brand of motherboard. So given a semi-passive PSU the only fan(s) running in a gaming system under idle/low system stress conditions using these cards would be for the CPU cooler. And with Asus boards that support the CPU Extreme Quiet Mode potentially not even that, a gaming system with no fans running at all except when gaming.

Ashun
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Re: Asus FanConnect - control case fans with gfx card

Post by Ashun » Mon Jul 18, 2016 1:14 pm

I have a 1070 Strix, so I can give a cursory overview of the two fan headers on the card.

When you first run GPU Tweak II, any fans connected to the card are momentarily pulsed. The good news first: they're controllable independently from the three main fans, but not independently from each other, i.e. you should choose similar fans because you only have one percentage slider for both fan headers. Both 4-pin PWM and 3-pin fans work, although I'm not sure whether the card has real PWM control or just voltage control. This is hard to check because, and here's the bad news with these headers, Asus's GPU Tweak II doesn't allow you to go below 50% fan speed. That's not especially useful for us quiet computing folks.

GPU Tweak II also has an odd limitation for the main fan control; you can't drop below 38%, which corresponds to around 1390 RPM. The newest game I have to test is the Doom 2016 demo, and at 1920x1080 with everything maxed, the default profile kept the GPU at 62 C. That leaves plenty of room to lower the fan speeds. Using the newest MSI Afterburner instead, the fans will start up at around 20%, which is 730 RPM, and I found the card wouldn't thermally throttle with Doom until about 70 C, for which 1000 RPM was sufficient.

For those of us who are used to AI Suite or more robust fan controls, this is pretty disappointing. There's obvious potential, but GPU Tweak II is pretty lousy right now.

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