NVIDIA GeForce 570 Fan Dying

[Maxwell]

Come to think of it, I have the exact same issue on an AMD 6950.

Basically, the fans on these two cards are dying. When the fans spin at any reasonable speed, they sound like a cat being uncomfortably stretched. If they are put under load, the temps skyrocket and the computers shut down. They have high idle temps, and clearly something needs to be done. Neither have RMA as a possibility.

1. Is it worth trying to replace the fans on these cards?
2. Should I just replace them?
3. If the answer to option 2 is "Yes", is there any merit to passing them off to anyone, or would it be better to just recycle them?

[Al]

The 6950 is an okay card and certainly worth $10 bucks for a fan. If you're looking for an excuse to upgrade, do it, but pass the 6950 along to a team member willing to fix it.

Edit: The 570 is worth passing along or repairing too. I've replaced fans on both those cards and never had any further problems.

[Ron Shurtz]

I have replaced the fans on a MSI GTX570 Twin Frozr II without issue.

I had broken a blade off of one of the original fans by moving some case fan wires with the case open and the PC running. The wire got into the spinning fan and "ping" a blade went flying. I was able to order and install an exact pair of replacement fans. :)

[FourOh]

If you plan on running Moo or MilkyWay, I would keep/repair the 6950. Otherwise I'd pass it along. I had one (with the same fan issue, btw) and it performed poorly on any other project, especially for a 200 watt card.

The GTX 570 on the other hand... I would sell it on the open market. I suppose if a team member needed it and doesn't pay for their electricity, it might make sense. But for anyone who pays for their electricity - at any rate - in my mind it would be better to immediately sell the 570 for whatever you can get for it (60-70 likely on ebay, more if repaired) and replace it with a 750 Ti. This swap would pay for itself in 4 to 6 months depending on sale price of 570 and purchase price of 750 Ti. Then if you want some more horsepower (GTX 970/980 or newer AMD card) pass the 750 Ti along to a team member and step up. This way, we get an inefficient older card out of the team's rotation without a reduction in overall GPU capability, and get some value for the 570 while the market will still bear it.

Anyway, this is only what I would do in this situation. Oh, and if I had received the 570 from a team mate originally I might take a different approach... although I think mine satisfies the spirit of team hardware swapping. Good luck!

[John P. Myers]

Only issue there is the 570 is 2x faster than a 750ti and almost 5x faster at fp64

[FourOh]

Only issue there is the 570 is 2x faster than a 750ti and almost 5x faster at fp64

I was looking at GFLOPS and a couple of projects I have run like GPUGrid and POEM - where the 750 Ti is actually faster than the 570. But you're right, on many projects (Collatz, Primegrid, Einstein) the 570 is faster. But it uses 3.5+ times the power to do it. As far as DP, yes the 570 has much better capability but what project other than MilkyWay utilizes fp64? I can't imagine MW is the good place to put either of these cards. So, I guess it depends on your project preferences and tolerance for utility bills :D

[John P. Myers]

but what project other than MilkyWay utilizes fp64?Primegrid, Einstein, Asteroids... :p

But yeah, the 570 is very inefficient with power usage in comparison to the new stuff, but i'm keeping my 580 until it falls apart! (Thank you EVGA for the lifetime warranty) :D

[Al]

Out of all the cards I passed long to team members, I miss the 570s the most. Maxwell, I'll take it if you decide to shed it from your stable.

[Maxwell]

Hrmmm... 6950 on Poem? That's the next thing up...

Still undecided on these, as there's lots of life circumstances going around that all need to be balanced. Should I decide to repair these, where would I find fans? I don't even know where to look...

Thanks all for the info!

[John P. Myers]

6950 (http://www.ebay.com/itm/like/271314418841?lpid=82&chn=ps)
Fans for the 570 are a little trickier based on the brand and model you have.

[MindCrime]

Quote Originally Posted by FourOh View Post
but what project other than MilkyWay utilizes fp64?


Primegrid, Einstein, Asteroids... :p

But yeah, the 570 is very inefficient with power usage in comparison to the new stuff, but i'm keeping my 580 until it falls apart! (Thank you EVGA for the lifetime warranty) :D

Which subprojects require fp64 on primegrid,einstein and asteroids? I've looked many times which projects required double precision and only milkyway came up, but i guess the better question is "which projects benefit from double precision?"

Edit: I have a 7970, that i'm pretty sure is dead, but with a healthy fan, that looks exactly like the fan JPM linked for the 6950.

[Al]

Most of those fans were the same, on some, one of the 3 mounting tabs was smaller. It can be modded to fit in 2 minutes using the old one as a guide. You just need to make sure the fan is the same diameter.

[FourOh]

Quote Originally Posted by FourOh View Post
but what project other than MilkyWay utilizes fp64?



Which subprojects require fp64 on primegrid,einstein and asteroids? I've looked many times which projects required double precision and only milkyway came up, but i guess the better question is "which projects benefit from double precision?"


Primegrid: Genefer apps GFN-Short and GFN-WR. PPS Sieve is single precision.
None of the current Einstein GPU apps require DP, though some of the retired OpenCL apps utilized it (such as S6CasA).