I have a GIGABYTE GeForce RTX 2080 (WindForce OC) GPU, and unfortunately, my fans are acting up. I've inadvertently weakened them by blowing air over them while cleaning, which led to some grinding noises, especially under load. I've been searching for replacement fans but can't find any. I've come across the idea of deshrouding my GPU where I'd remove the plastic casing and the malfunctioning fans. The plan is to zip-tie two 120mm case fans to the back of the GPU and connect them to the motherboard. I'm curious if this is a feasible solution. Do I really only need two fans even though the original setup has three? Will I need to run software to monitor the GPU temperatures to activate the fans? How many fans should I actually be using?
1 Answer
Totally doable! I deshrouded my GPU a few years back and swapped out the three fans for two 120mm ones, and it works great. You might want to check out fan control software that can adjust the speeds based on GPU temps. I've used ASUS software for mine, since my board and GPU are both ASUS, but you could go with something like Fan Control too—that should work fine for what you need.
Do I need anything **else**, hardware-wise? From what I've been seeing all I need to do is pop the shroud off and just use zip ties to fasten the fans close together, and to the GPU.