Sapphire HD 7970 Vapor X Fan 'Issue'?

Hockz · Jan 4, 2016

Hi guys, recently I've been having some problem with my graphics card (flashed it with a 280x bios, went really well, that was 2 years ago)

Two weeks ago I noticed that one fan wasn't spinning at all when playing, temps were actually fine, around 70ish, but I noticed by looking at the graphics card itself. So my only thought was "oh man, it served me well while it lasted" but the next day I noticed that when I booted up the system, the fan did actually spin for around 3 secs and then stopped which seemed really odd to me, but ignored it thinking the fan was dying.

Now, last night when I was playing and the fan speed reached around 75% the fan started spinning flawlessly.
Later I started testing with Afterburner and ended up discovering that the fan starts spinning really slow at around 73% and at 75% it reaches the same speed as the other fan.
So to sum up, is it probably that the fan IS dying? or what could actually be the issue?
Thanks in advance!

flmatter · Jan 4, 2016

It depends, it could be the way the software is written that the second fan does not need to kick in until a set temperature is met then it spins up accordingly. Could be software or bios bound with the 280x you flashed it to or a by-product of flashing it over. As long as it operates fine and does thermal shut down on you, just live with it as it is. Do you know if the 280x bios had 2 or more the card or if it was a reference design card that has one fan?

Ferrum Master · Jan 4, 2016

Gpu-z, take the bios dump.

Open VBE7 and see the FAN Curve. If it looks fine, I guess the FAN is dead.

Kanan · Jan 4, 2016

It started doing that after 280X bios or before too? Did you just notice it 2 weeks before, or was it so, that it was always that way? Me myself wouldn't care much about it, unless the card gets too hot, which doesn't seem to be the case here. Also I would use the Vapor-X bios fited for the card, not something else, to rule out any problems this could cause. Fan could be partly broken, maybe because it needs too much voltage to run regularly.

Hockz · Jan 4, 2016

@flmatter
I flashed it with the bios of the 280X Vapor X, but the first version (see this: http://www.sapphiretech.com/productdetial.asp?pid=5A4A61A0-149A-4AC9-8F49-1407F20C1E7E&lang=eng) not the one with the 3 fans. That wasn't the problem, as I said I flashed it two years ago and this problem began around two weeks ago and I'm sure of this because I check on the fans almost daily. Also, the fan doesn't kick in due to temperature, I manually set the fan speed to %75 and it starts spinning.

@Kanan
See above

@Ferrum Master
Yup, I modified the fan curve two years ago and it was fine.

Ferrum Master · Jan 4, 2016

Hockz said:
@Ferrum Master
Yup, I modified the fan curve two years ago and it was fine.

Did the same for my 7970. But also few months ago one of the fans for WF3 started to rattle badly... The only place I could find such 75mm Everflow fan was on fleabay. Ordered... the "new" one started to emit grinding noise after two weeks... ordered another one, despite being same number, it has a different startup voltage

Soo... well... brace yourself

Jack1n · Jan 4, 2016

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Sapphire-Ra...936946?hash=item3aba31ebb2:g:CMYAAOSwNyFWhBJL

thebluebumblebee · Jan 4, 2016

Hockz said:
Hi guys, recently I've been having some problem with my graphics card (flashed it with a 280x bios, went really well, that was 2 years ago)

Two weeks ago I noticed that one fan wasn't spinning at all when playing, temps were actually fine, around 70ish, but I noticed by looking at the graphics card itself. So my only thought was "oh man, it served me well while it lasted" but the next day I noticed that when I booted up the system, the fan did actually spin for around 3 secs and then stopped which seemed really odd to me, but ignored it thinking the fan was dying.

Now, last night when I was playing and the fan speed reached around 75% the fan started spinning flawlessly.
Later I started testing with Afterburner and ended up discovering that the fan starts spinning really slow at around 73% and at 75% it reaches the same speed as the other fan.
So to sum up, is it probably that the fan IS dying? or what could actually be the issue?
Thanks in advance!

Did the weather change around that time? Did it get colder?

Hockz · Jan 4, 2016

@Jack1n
That would be perfect...But I live in Colombia and the tech I can find here is quite... limited. Actually I got my rig when I was in the UK (2012, I was 13 years old) and brought it here.

@thebluebumblebee
It got rainier, that's the only thing I can say. I don't get massive temperature changes since, where I live, we haven't got seasons.

Jack1n · Jan 4, 2016

http://www.ebay.com/itm/85mm-Sapphi...643203?hash=item2a5344c8c3:g:Yl8AAOSwgQ9VtzbU
Looks like the original fans, international shipping.

Kanan · Jan 4, 2016

Hockz said:
@flmatter
I flashed it with the bios of the 280X Vapor X, but the first version (see this: http://www.sapphiretech.com/productdetial.asp?pid=5A4A61A0-149A-4AC9-8F49-1407F20C1E7E&lang=eng) not the one with the 3 fans. That wasn't the problem, as I said I flashed it two years ago and this problem began around two weeks ago and I'm sure of this because I check on the fans almost daily. Also, the fan doesn't kick in due to temperature, I manually set the fan speed to %75 and it starts spinning.

@Kanan
See above

@Ferrum Master
Yup, I modified the fan curve two years ago and it was fine.

Then it's damaged. Aside from eBay you could also ask Sapphire to send you new ones, maybe they do it, maybe even for free. Good luck

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Sapphire HD 7970 Vapor X Fan 'Issue'?

Hockz

flmatter

Ferrum Master

Kanan

Tech Enthusiast & Gamer

Hockz

Ferrum Master

Jack1n

thebluebumblebee

Hockz

Jack1n

Kanan

Tech Enthusiast & Gamer

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