I recently received a gaming PC from my brother, and everything worked well until about a week ago when my GeForce 2080 Ti's fans started blasting at maximum speed (around 5300 RPM) as soon as I power it on and don't slow down. The temperatures seem perfectly fine, and the fans only turn off briefly during long gaming sessions, only to kick back into full speed. I've tried a bunch of troubleshooting steps: I rolled back the drivers, tried adjusting fan speeds in Afterburner (which didn't help), visually checked the GPU for dust, reset the Nvidia settings, reviewed Windows updates, and made sure the fan speed curve is normal. I formatted a second SSD and enabled Secure Boot in BIOS around the same time this started, but I'm not sure if those changes are related. I've also noticed that Afterburner isn't showing any voltage readings, could that be part of the problem? Any insights on what might be causing this?
2 Answers
You might want to consider reapplying thermal paste on the GPU. Sometimes an old card could misread temperatures due to dried-out thermal paste; it can lead to the fans going into overdrive. Assuming temps are reported accurately, it could fix that weird fan behavior. It's a bit of work, but many users have found that helps restore proper fan function. Just make sure to do it carefully, and if you're not comfortable, maybe look for a tutorial or get a pro to do it.
It sounds like you're dealing with a glitch in the fan control. Underrated cards like the 2080 Ti can sometimes act up, especially if there's been a driver update. Since temps are normal, the problem might not be physical. Have you tried reinstalling the graphics drivers cleanly? Sometimes a simple reinstall after using DDU can solve weird issues like this. Also, check if there's an update for Afterburner itself; it might not be interacting well with your card's firmware right now. Good luck!
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