GPU fan header functionality

smitty2k1

King of Cable Management
Original poster
Dec 3, 2016
967
492
Hey everyone - I bought a 1050ti low profile graphics card a while back and immediately cut off the 50mm fan and added a pair of 80mm fans on a bracket to cool the card. However, I've been unable to get the expected fan behavior running off the GPU's fan header.

My Gigabyte 1050 ti low profile card has a 3 pin fan header. I purchased two sets of 80mm fans trying to sort this out. The first set is a 3-pin fan design by Cooler Master, and the second set is a 4 pin design by Noiseblocker. Both types are low profile.

No matter what I do, the fans seem to spin at a constant ~2000 RPM. It actually fluctuates from about 1900 RPM to 2200 RPM, but fan control through Afterburner seems to be wonky at best, and non-existent at worst. Sometimes I can ramp fan speed up but then I can't bring it back down, sometimes it just sits at about 2000 RPM. This card is hardware limited to a minimum of 40% fan speed, but I feel that I should still be able to adjust the 40-100% range manually.

Just using a standard Noctua Y cable (tried both 3 pin and 4 pin versions) to hook the two fans up. I initially made my own mini 3-pin to standard size 3-pin adapter using the cabling that came with the GPU, but that didn't work so I bought a mini 3-pin to 3-pin off Moddiy. That also resulted in the unintended functionality.

I finally acquired a multimeter, and it seems like the GPU is pushing out a minimum of 10V and maximum of 12V, but it doesn't seem tied to what I set in Afterburner for fan speed, which maybe explains why I can't seem to get fan control working.

So question:
1) Should a 12V fan header output between 0V and 12V? (or in this case at a minimum of 40% something around 5V-12V?)
1) Does anyone have the Gigabyte 1050ti low profile card that can confirm the fan speed is adjustable using the stock fan?
2) Could it be that the tachometer (RPM sensor) is tied into the fan speed algorithm? Like instead of varying voltage it is specifically looking for a certain RPM and then varies voltage based on that?

For now, I'm just using the fans on motherboard headers, but unfortunately that means I can't control fan speed based on GPU temperature as there is no program I know of that can do this (Speedfan is no longer working properly with new hardware as it is not maintained).
 

robbee

King of Cable Management
n3rdware
Bronze Supporter
Sep 24, 2016
855
1,335
Perhaps the original fans had a working voltage between 10V and 12V? You might also want to give speedfan at least a try. It isn't being maintained anymore but does still work on most motherboards. It has some weird twitches in the settings, but I managed to do pretty much the same with my MSI 1050ti LP.
 

smitty2k1

King of Cable Management
Original poster
Dec 3, 2016
967
492
Perhaps the original fans had a working voltage between 10V and 12V? You might also want to give speedfan at least a try. It isn't being maintained anymore but does still work on most motherboards. It has some weird twitches in the settings, but I managed to do pretty much the same with my MSI 1050ti LP.

I have already, it's how I adjust the fans now that they are plugged into the motherboard. However, it does not recognize my GPU so I can't control the motherboard fan headers based on GPU temperature.