Reply to thread

Message

You're thinking about it a bit backwards. GPU fans aren't controlled through how much airflow they deliver after all, but GPU thermals. So if there's a bigger, external fan already feeding air into the GPU heatsink, the GPU fan controller is less likely to ramp up the smaller, louder GPU fans. There's simply less work for them to do. So while you're probably right that the GPU fans do less work per rotation with fans blowing directly into them, the cooling effect is still better as the overall volume of air moving through the heatsink is much higher. You could probably achieve similar results by deshrouding the GPU and making a fan duct from the case fans and onto the heatsink, though it's likely that the GPU fans help a bit in forcing air through dense fin stacks (smaller fans typically have better static pressure specs, and pressure adds up with more fans even if flow doesn't).

<blockquote data-quote="Valantar" data-source="post: 241707" data-attributes="member: 5738"><p>You're thinking about it a bit backwards. GPU fans aren't controlled through how much airflow they deliver after all, but GPU thermals. So if there's a bigger, external fan already feeding air into the GPU heatsink, the GPU fan controller is less likely to ramp up the smaller, louder GPU fans. There's simply less work for them to do. So while you're probably right that the GPU fans do less work per rotation with fans blowing directly into them, the cooling effect is still better as the overall volume of air moving through the heatsink is much higher. You could probably achieve similar results by deshrouding the GPU and making a fan duct from the case fans and onto the heatsink, though it's likely that the GPU fans help a bit in forcing air through dense fin stacks (smaller fans typically have better static pressure specs, and pressure adds up with more fans even if flow doesn't).</p></blockquote><p></p>

[QUOTE="Valantar, post: 241707, member: 5738"] You're thinking about it a bit backwards. GPU fans aren't controlled through how much airflow they deliver after all, but GPU thermals. So if there's a bigger, external fan already feeding air into the GPU heatsink, the GPU fan controller is less likely to ramp up the smaller, louder GPU fans. There's simply less work for them to do. So while you're probably right that the GPU fans do less work per rotation with fans blowing directly into them, the cooling effect is still better as the overall volume of air moving through the heatsink is much higher. You could probably achieve similar results by deshrouding the GPU and making a fan duct from the case fans and onto the heatsink, though it's likely that the GPU fans help a bit in forcing air through dense fin stacks (smaller fans typically have better static pressure specs, and pressure adds up with more fans even if flow doesn't). [/QUOTE]

Verification