Gigabyte RTX 2060 Gaming OC Pro White 6G - Bizarre fan behaviour

[jronnquist]

Hello. I recently bought the above card used on Facebook marketplace. The card itself is in mint condition, and it works just fine in terms of display output. I'm using it to run 4 monitors (3 x LG 4K 60Hz + 1 Dell 1280 x 1024 75Hz). I don't use this PC for gaming at all. The issue I'm having - and it's slowly driving me insane - is with the fans.

They basically appear incapable of maintain a stable speed in any scenario, but instead constantly cycle. At first I thought this was just the zero-RPM feature, as the card was hovering around the 55-degree activation temperature and would come on and then immediately turn off again repeatedly. But it's not just that. For instance, if I set the fans to run at 100% in Gigabyte Control Center, they will spin up to 3200 RPM, but then begin to repeatedly dip down to around 2800 at intervals ranging from a few seconds to as long as a minute. Sometimes it's a single dip, and sometimes it will occur in clusters of four or five consecutive dips. The same thing happens at any set speed. Once you get down to 32% (the lowest the fans will spin) the cycling becomes constant between 0RPM and around 1200RPM. So the fans behave this way even if temperature is removed entirely from the equation.

It's quite obvious that something is not right. What I don't know is where the fault lies. Is it the fans? The controller on the card? The sensors? Or could it be a software issue?

The full spec of the PC in question is:

ASRock Z390 Phantom Gaming 4S
I5 9600K + NZXT T120 cooler
2 X 8GB Corsair Vengeance DDR4 running at 2666MT/s
Windows 11 Pro 23H2 build 22631.4169

I was going to order a new set of fans for the card, but thought I had better turn first for some advice to someone who knows what they are talking about. Any help or insight anyone might be able to offer would be greatly and sincerely appreciated.

 

[eidairaman1]

Get a Picture of the card's specific model number from the card itself and post here please

Since you bought it on fb market place, you played craps with your money as unlike ebay, amazon etc there is no buyer protection

 

[jronnquist]

 

[eidairaman1]

Please review the key features.

'GeForce RTX™ 2060 GAMING OC PRO WHITE 6G｜AORUS - GIGABYTE USA'

'FeaturesPowered by GeForce RTX™ 2060Integrated with 6GB GDDR6 192-bit memory interfaceWINDFORCE 3X Cooling System with alternate spinning fansRGB Fusion 2.0 – synchronize with other AORUS devicesMetal Back PlateCore Clock1830 MHz (Reference card: 1680 MHz)'

www.aorus.com

 

[jronnquist]

I understand that the fans are set up to turn off under low load. I've had many cards with the same feature. But if you override this and set the fans to run at a fixed percentage of their top speed, they should then run at that speed. What is actually happening is that they are cycling up and down in speed in a completely random way. As if the voltage being supplied is coming through some faulty component. I will do a screen capture of this and post to make it more clear.

 

[eidairaman1]

Might be a bios setting issue which means reaching out to gigabyte or a thermal sensor is faulty, which means board repair, you might consider looking for an aftermarket heatsink and fans or an AIO cooler.

Get a GPU-Z screenshot please

I understand that the fans are set up to turn off under low load. I've had many cards with the same feature. But if you override this and set the fans to run at a fixed percentage of their top speed, they should then run at that speed. What is actually happening is that they are cycling up and down in speed in a completely random way. As if the voltage being supplied is coming through some faulty component. I will do a screen capture of this and post to make it more clear.

No need for a video, your fans are fluttering

 

[N/A]

My card does the same thing. so I guess it's the gigabyte software. Careful when uninstalling this, because leaves the card totally undefended and it will not spin under load probably killing it in the process.

 

[eidairaman1]

My card does the same thing. so I guess it's the gigabyte software.

Something in the firmware doesn't like what the software is trying to push, and puts fans into a flutter

Give a gpu-z screenshot of yours too

 

[N/A]

The null fan always remains active, deeply rooted in the lower level of the BIOS and very simple. at <50 C it briefly stops the fans, at >55 C it spins up, setting one of 2 modes 0% and 100%. There is no true static fan mode. The only solution is to make it run at 60 C where there are no such triggers.

In these two examples I've set the fan manually to 50 and 100%.

 

[jronnquist]

So this is the card set to Auto Mode in Gigabyte Control Center. As you can see, the fans do kick in when the temps goes over 55 degrees. Which is once every 20-30 seconds and enough to drive you up the wall after a few minutes.

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=1072047130933583

 

[jronnquist]

This is the fans set to a fixed RPM of 60%. Here they are spinning up at regular intervals for no apparent reason.

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=1889866778188192

 

[jronnquist]

And finally, this is the fans set to a fixed RPM of 32%, the lowest the control panel will allow. Here the card goes completely nuts. It's like watching the digital equivalent of a sever mental disorder.

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=523525500379742

 

[jronnquist]

 

[jronnquist]

Sorry, I missed the part about no need for videos.

 

[N/A]

Zero-fan is always active. If a certain trigger condition is met it tries to stop or it tries to ramp up. ~~55C. Constantly. There is no faulty circuit.

This is the fans set to a fixed RPM of 60%. Here they are spinning up at regular intervals for no apparent reason.

And finally, this is the fans set to a fixed RPM of 32%, the lowest the control panel will allow. Here the card goes completely nuts. It's like watching the digital equivalent of a sever mental disorder.

that's right. Now If you put a real load on the GPU and heat it up to 60C it won't trigger the unstable behavior. I get a steady 1300 RPM at 60C while gaming.

 

[jronnquist]

Zero-fan is always active. If a certain trigger condition is met it tries to stop or it tries to ramp up. ~~55C. Constantly. There is no faulty circuit.


that's right. Now If you put a real load on the GPU and heat it up to 60C it won't trigger the unstable behavior. I get a steady 1300 RPM at 60C while gaming.

I get what you are saying. And I'm sure the fan-stop feature isn't helping things. But there is something fundamentally broken on this card. There's just no way this behaviour is standard fare for all cards of this model. I build a dozen or so PCs a year, and my son has a Gigabyte 6600XT in his PC that boasts this same feature. It doesn't do this, and nor does any other cards I've ever used that has a zero-RPM thing going on. If I used this card for gaming, it wouldn't be a big deal. I'd be wearing noise-cancelling headphones and the fans could do whatever they liked as long as the GPU temp stayed under control. But this PC is primarily used for writing. In silence. So the fan bug is a complete deal breaker.

What I really need to establish is if the problem can be addressed in software (a BIOS flash maybe?) or with a fan replacement. Any solution beyond this would make no economic sense. I paid £100 for the card, and only because it is in pristine external condition and is white.

If the problem is something else, I will demote the card to the test bench and replace it with something that works properly. The only sure thing is that the replacement will NOT be a Gigabyte card. I've come across six of their cards now, and every one of them had issues with RGB control. This one doesn't for a miracle, but.....

 

[N/A]

If I remember correctly the older gigabyte software was capable of turning off the LEDs and the Zero fan in hardware. The new software has forgotten how to do that in favour of wider compatibility and bloat.

 

[jronnquist]

So I put this card in another system today out of curiosity and, I'm embarrassed to say, it seems to be working just fine.

 

[eidairaman1]

So I put this card in another system today out of curiosity and, I'm embarrassed to say, it seems to be working just fine.

Contact gigabyte about it