GPU Zotac GTX 1080 Mini
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Thanks again
The 1070 Ti has the same issue as the 1080 Ti with the fan header, it's blocked by the heatpipe.
Maybe I'll try the flash mod, already backed my bios up with GPU-Z, and before i will set the bootable usb in case i need to use the integrated graphics adapter to reflash the card.
This is fun!
I'm not sure if this is the best thread for this, but it seems appropriate given the current discussion. I ran some tests on the Zotac GTX 1080 Ti Mini. I tested both the stock fans and some Noctua NF-A9x14 fans. Here are the results:
Methodology:
For each test configuration, Unigine Heaven (Extreme Preset) was launched and the card was allowed to reach thermal equilibrium. Then data was recorded with Nvidia's command line tools (power), a thermocouple DAQ (ambient temp), and MSI Afterburner (everything else) over three cycles of Heaven. Fan speed, GPU voltage, and core clock were held constant except for the baseline test.
Lengthy discussion for crazy people:
Undervolting:
The GPU responds well to undervolting, still allowing for an increase in core clock while simultaneously reducing temperature, power consumption, fan speed, and fan noise compared to stock settings. Not bad! Undervolting this card also has the benefit of reducing inductor noise, aka coil whine. At stock it's pretty bad. The voltage/frequency curve used for testing is pictured below:
Fan Speed:
The fan curve has a limited range (44-100% or 1350-3000 RPM) and there's no zero RPM mode at low temperatures. This is similar to the 1080 Mini which means that even at idle it's a little noisy. Under load, the fans spin up loudly to about 1900 RPM and have a slight pulsing sound or beat frequency.
BIOS Modding:
I'm not the first to do this (@CubanLegend famously BIOS modded his 1080 Mini), but I wanted more fan control for the Noctua fans, so I flashed an EVGA BIOS onto the card using this guide. The EVGA BIOS was selected because it has full range fan control (0-100%) and has the same default and max power limits of 250W and 300W, respectively.
With the EVGA BIOS the fans start and stop occasionally when the card is idle, but they're inaudible when doing so. I chose to set a custom fan curve that keeps the fans spinning at 15% or ~550 RPM and is also inaudible. At 70%, the Noctua fans max out.
Noctua Fans:
As some of you may know, there are two variations of the NF-A9x14 fan. The 2500 RPM variant is only bundled with some of Noctua's coolers while the 2200 RPM variant is sold individually. I tested both types and they perform identically at matched RPM settings. However, the extra range of the "2500 RPM" NF-A9x14 is useful for keeping the card cool at the expense of noise. That said, the noise tone is smoother for either of these fans at any speed when compared to the stock Zotac fans. The fans were held securely to the GPU heatsink using zip ties, as pictured below. This works surprisingly well.
Fan Adapter:
I powered the Noctua fans off the GPU using a fan adapter. The seller made the common mistake of wiring the RPM signal twice, but this was easily fixed by removing one of the wires. You can also buy a Gelid adapter and use any fan splitter. A third option is plugging the fans into the motherboard and controlling them with SpeedFan, but I haven't tested this.
Conclusion:
The Noctua fans perform adequately and are more pleasant sounding than the stock fans, but there's no denying that they are an eyesore and expensive. This mod only makes sense if your goals are less noise and possibly fitting the card into an S4 Mini with the normal bezel (not the 3D bezel). Keep in mind that this testing was done on an open bench and this card will likely be even more difficult to cool in a case. Finally, even without modding, undervolting your GPU is a great way to reduce temps, power consumption, and fan noise. I'd recommend anyone with the patience to give it a shot.
Additional measurements and photos were posted earlier here.
Hi, mr.
Is there any chance that you upload the pics again?
Thank you!
@CubanLegend @Broxin
finally i flashed the gigabyte bios into the zotac 1070 ti mini, and now is very silent, you can even power off the smaller fan (the other remains switched on, but inaudible) Right now i have the fans set to 750 rpm in idle, while with the stock bios it was at 1200 rpm minimum (37%).
The cons is that i have lost image in one of the DP, and i suppose than audio on hdmi, but i would never use it.
I had all the ddu process recommended by Broxin, and it worked flawless.
I will add more info. Even i'm thinking in opening another thread to speak about this and stop contaminating this.
Regards!
finally i flashed the gigabyte bios into the zotac 1070 ti mini, and now is very silent, you can even power off the smaller fan (the other remains switched on, but inaudible) Right now i have the fans set to 750 rpm in idle, while with the stock bios it was at 1200 rpm minimum (37%).
The cons is that i have lost image in one of the DP, and i suppose than audio on hdmi, but i would never use it.
I had all the ddu process recommended by Broxin, and it worked flawless.
I will add more info. Even i'm thinking in opening another thread to speak about this and stop contaminating this.
Regards!
i like your adventurous side@CubanLegend @Broxin
finally i flashed the gigabyte bios into the zotac 1070 ti mini, and now is very silent, you can even power off the smaller fan (the other remains switched on, but inaudible) Right now i have the fans set to 750 rpm in idle, while with the stock bios it was at 1200 rpm minimum (37%).
The cons is that i have lost image in one of the DP, and i suppose than audio on hdmi, but i would never use it.
I had all the ddu process recommended by Broxin, and it worked flawless.
I will add more info. Even i'm thinking in opening another thread to speak about this and stop contaminating this.
Regards!
Nice it worked for you
i like your adventurous side
Nice it worked for you
Thank you all.
The weird thing is that the fans get to 3000 rpm at 71%, and with the zotac bios, that was the maximum rpm at 100%.
Maybe is something related to the fan controller of the 3 fans gigabyte card coded in its bios...
Should it be safe for the fans to raise the rpm above 71%, or will they burn or make my ncase fly?
be careful, you may wanna find out the normal "rated" max RPM for those fans, if you run them past their "rated" max, you could be essentially damaging them over time. But I'm glad you were brave enough to get it working and try!hi,
it seems that 3100rpm is the max, at 74%.
I registered just so I could post to this thread to say thanks! This is awesome!
I'd replaced the factory heat sink and fans on the Zotac 1080 Mini in my NCase build with a Raijintek Morpheus II GPU Heatsink and a Gelid GPU to PWM Fan Adapter hooked to the two Noctura NF-A12x15 120MM fans mounted in the bottom of the NCase M1. The NCase M1, NF-A12x15 fans, and Morpheus II fit together like they designed and built to do so. It's Perfect. However it still wasn't quiet enough, when just sitting at the Windows desktop there was still a pretty decent audible hum from the two bottom 120MM fans controlled by the Zotac Mini. The 37% minimum fan RPM in Zotac's bios had to go!
Found this thread and I'm glad I did. I flashed the Zotac 1080 Mini with the bios for an MSI GTX 1080 just as Panda did in his post. I now have full control over the fan speed. The card fuctions just as it did with the Zotac bios there is no loss of functionality or features as far as I am concerned, I am using DisplayPort and I can still clock my memory to 700Mhz. I haven't tested the HDMI either.
The GPU will overclock to 2000Mhz with the Memory clock at 700Mhz and voltage at 120%. I've run it that way for hours and it is stable but it is noisey. Instead I keep the GPU at 1823Mhz with the memory at 700Mhz and the voltage at 90%. With that I can run all my games maxed at 120+ FPS while the GPU never exceeds 70c and all 6 of the fans in the case are barely audible with the PC sitting on my desk 18" away. The GPU controlled fans aren't as loud while gaming as the factory Zotac fans idling at 37%. When I'm not gaming I can't hear a thing even when my ear is up agaist the case. I took the Firestorm screenshot after I'd been at my PC for a couple of hours surfing the web and reading email, 34c and the fan hasn't gone over 20%.
Why would I buy a Mini graphics card just so I could stick a full length heat sink on it you may ask? Simple answer, air flow. With a full length card in an NCase M1 the air flow from the 120MM two bottom case fans is trapped at the bottom of the case. A blower card helps but is noisy and still hot and didn't want to water cool. The short PCB of the Zotac Mini card leaves one 120MM fan completley open to blow through half of the Morpheus II into the top of the case and move air out of the bottom instead of being trapped there with awesome extra GPU cooling as a bonus.
Hello, I joined this forum and in the same situation as you. I flashed my Zotac 1080 mini to the MSI bios you and Panda used and I am now able to control the % of the fan - using Open Hardware Monitor. However, my fan's RPM remains constant (currently around 1400) and will not change. I tried Firestorm app from Zotac & MSI afterburner. I can change the % but the RPM stays the same. Anyone have any ideas as to what I may have missed? I'm using 2 Be Quiet 120mm PWM fans using a splitter into a Gelid adapter. Thanks in advance!
All, I figured out the problem. I looked over everything and the Gelid PWM fan adaptor had a broken wire at the end of the plug! It was the Blue colored cable which turns out to be...for PWM! I managed to fix the cable and now everything is working just like Ziptar and Panda said. Thanks so much to this forum. Loving the sound and performance of my Zotac 1080 mini + Accelero III in my Ncase M1. Thanks again,
be careful, you may wanna find out the normal "rated" max RPM for those fans, if you run them past their "rated" max, you could be essentially damaging them over time. But I'm glad you were brave enough to get it working and try!
hehe, living on the edge
anyway, i think i will do the fan mod and if the noise when idling at low rpms is low enough, i will reflash the original zotac bios.
please, could you post a picture of your open ncase so i can view how it fits the accelero and the fans?
regards
@ceskiI'm not sure if this is the best thread for this, but it seems appropriate given the current discussion. I ran some tests on the Zotac GTX 1080 Ti Mini. I tested both the stock fans and some Noctua NF-A9x14 fans. Here are the results:
Methodology:
For each test configuration, Unigine Heaven (Extreme Preset) was launched and the card was allowed to reach thermal equilibrium. Then data was recorded with Nvidia's command line tools (power), a thermocouple DAQ (ambient temp), and MSI Afterburner (everything else) over three cycles of Heaven. Fan speed, GPU voltage, and core clock were held constant except for the baseline test.
Lengthy discussion for crazy people:
Undervolting:
The GPU responds well to undervolting, still allowing for an increase in core clock while simultaneously reducing temperature, power consumption, fan speed, and fan noise compared to stock settings. Not bad! Undervolting this card also has the benefit of reducing inductor noise, aka coil whine. At stock it's pretty bad. The voltage/frequency curve used for testing is pictured below:
Fan Speed:
The fan curve has a limited range (44-100% or 1350-3000 RPM) and there's no zero RPM mode at low temperatures. This is similar to the 1080 Mini which means that even at idle it's a little noisy. Under load, the fans spin up loudly to about 1900 RPM and have a slight pulsing sound or beat frequency.
BIOS Modding:
I'm not the first to do this (@CubanLegend famously BIOS modded his 1080 Mini), but I wanted more fan control for the Noctua fans, so I flashed an EVGA BIOS onto the card using this guide. The EVGA BIOS was selected because it has full range fan control (0-100%) and has the same default and max power limits of 250W and 300W, respectively.
With the EVGA BIOS the fans start and stop occasionally when the card is idle, but they're inaudible when doing so. I chose to set a custom fan curve that keeps the fans spinning at 15% or ~550 RPM and is also inaudible. At 70%, the Noctua fans max out.
Noctua Fans:
As some of you may know, there are two variations of the NF-A9x14 fan. The 2500 RPM variant is only bundled with some of Noctua's coolers while the 2200 RPM variant is sold individually. I tested both types and they perform identically at matched RPM settings. However, the extra range of the "2500 RPM" NF-A9x14 is useful for keeping the card cool at the expense of noise. That said, the noise tone is smoother for either of these fans at any speed when compared to the stock Zotac fans. The fans were held securely to the GPU heatsink using zip ties, as pictured below. This works surprisingly well.
Fan Adapter:
I powered the Noctua fans off the GPU using a fan adapter. The seller made the common mistake of wiring the RPM signal twice, but this was easily fixed by removing one of the wires. You can also buy a Gelid adapter and use any fan splitter. A third option is plugging the fans into the motherboard and controlling them with SpeedFan, but I haven't tested this.
Conclusion:
The Noctua fans perform adequately and are more pleasant sounding than the stock fans, but there's no denying that they are an eyesore and expensive. This mod only makes sense if your goals are less noise and possibly fitting the card into an S4 Mini with the normal bezel (not the 3D bezel). Keep in mind that this testing was done on an open bench and this card will likely be even more difficult to cool in a case. Finally, even without modding, undervolting your GPU is a great way to reduce temps, power consumption, and fan noise. I'd recommend anyone with the patience to give it a shot.
Additional measurements and photos were posted earlier here.
Greetings!
I just recently built an SFF PC in a Kolink Rocket case, using the Zotac 1080 Ti, and I was wondering whether there were any Custom Fan configurations which would still fit in the case and would make the Noise/Thermals of the Card better, that's when I stumbled upon your post.
My question is, could you please perhaps post the Pictures again so that I can confirm? Since the Original pictures in the post seem to be gone.
Regarding the Height, I'm not sure about the exact mm, but the case itself only supports 2 slot height cards and the Zotac 1080 Ti mini just fits with the Original Fan configuration.
Even if the pictures are lost in the abyss of the internet, thanks for your post and thoughts/tests on Undervolting, as that already helped me a great deal
Best regards,
Axonite
Hi bro,@ceski
Greetings!
I just recently built an SFF PC in a Kolink Rocket case, using the Zotac 1080 Ti, and I was wondering whether there were any Custom Fan configurations which would still fit in the case and would make the Noise/Thermals of the Card better, that's when I stumbled upon your post.
My question is, could you please perhaps post the Pictures again so that I can confirm? Since the Original pictures in the post seem to be gone.
Regarding the Height, I'm not sure about the exact mm, but the case itself only supports 2 slot height cards and the Zotac 1080 Ti mini just fits with the Original Fan configuration.
Even if the pictures are lost in the abyss of the internet, thanks for your post and thoughts/tests on Undervolting, as that already helped me a great deal
Best regards,
Axonite
Sadly I think a couple days ago Ceski left SFF Forums? Look under his username.. "ceski - Deleted account per user request." (does anyone know why?) This is a real shame honestly, because I really wanted to be able to see those images as well. Ceski has helped with CPU undervolting and those images have been lost to the abyss of the internet as well... sorry!
EDIT: I found a few images that I had saved, i think they were his:
image (1)
I hope this helps.
Hi bro,
Sadly I think a couple days ago Ceski left SFF Forums? Look under his username.. "ceski - Deleted account per user request." (does anyone know why?) This is a real shame honestly, because I really wanted to be able to see those images as well. Ceski has helped with CPU undervolting and those images have been lost to the abyss of the internet as well... sorry!
EDIT: I found a few images that I had saved, i think they were his:
I hope this helps.
Ohh, I'm sorry to hear that :'(
Thanks for the Images though, I think this will be enough to go on for now. Much appreciated
I will search up the Dimensions of that case and will go from there. If I am not mistaken it's an S4 mini, will look into that as well.
Thanks for the help!
Yeah, i just realized his account is gone and i've no way to contact him.Ohh, I'm sorry to hear that :'(
Thanks for the Images though, I think this will be enough to go on for now. Much appreciated
I will search up the Dimensions of that case and will go from there. If I am not mistaken it's an S4 mini, will look into that as well.
Thanks for the help!
It was sad and sudden, but it's okay, we can still see what he said even though the images are gone..And yes that is an S4 Mini, specifically the original one, now known as the S4M-C "Skyreach 4 Mini Classic" made by NFC, we have an entire forum section for that Case found here , and it's actually my case of choice, you can see my build thread here.
The old case thread for the S4M-C is here (note this one is out of production and only a limited number exist)
the new case known as the S4M thread is here (note this one is currently still in production)
Hi bro,
Sadly I think a couple days ago Ceski left SFF Forums? Look under his username.. "ceski - Deleted account per user request." (does anyone know why?) This is a real shame honestly, because I really wanted to be able to see those images as well. Ceski has helped with CPU undervolting and those images have been lost to the abyss of the internet as well... sorry!
EDIT: I found a few images that I had saved, i think they were his:
I hope this helps.
Are those the NF-A9x14 PWM fans? Maybe 2 x 120 mm fans should be too big for zipping them to the 1070 ti, right?
Yes those are that fan, but they are actually the CPU version of that PWM fan that come with the NHL9i, they go up to 2500 RPM instead of just 2200 RPM, you can only buy them directly from Noctua via email if you ask them nicely.. but the normal NF-A9x14 should do just fine for you and most users with equal performance, just a slightly lower RPM ceiling.
This could be a coffee machine in disguise.
Seriously, the 2 coolers cool the CPU and GPU only. I wonder what is the temp of the mobo, VRM, GPU memory..etc after a longer gaming session, especially since it looks like they are fully enclosed within the box without any air exchange.
(And, for the GPU cooling, as the cooler is inverted, 20-30% (IIRC) cooling capacity is lost. But I suppose, even so, the 1080 Mini still receives enough cooling.)
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