Hello,
I have driver version 565.57.01. Running on an alienware with a 4090. Fans never come on. nvidia-settings don’t show any fan information. Currently using wayland. Any idea or help would be appreciated.
Thanks
Do they start spinning if you run a game? Or something else that would put a load on the GPU? If “yes”, that’s the new “normal” for the fans.
IDK what you know about the drivers and “Zero RPM”, so I’ll tell you everything I know and have done to make the GPU’s life easier.
Personally, I hate this “Zero RPM” mode, so at every system boot I open nvidia-settings and enable fan control (with a desktop shortcut, instead of typing “sudo nvidia-settings” every time). The result is that even at the lowest fan speed the GPU is 20°C cooler even when gaming, let alone when idle (idle = 33-35°C, gaming = 50-55°C). With “Zero RPM” the GPU starts at 55°C (facepalm) in indle mode.
[Desktop Entry]
Name=Nvidia Fans
Exec=sudo nvidia-settings
Comment=
Terminal=true
PrefersNonDefaultGPU=false
Icon=/path/to/any/icon.png
Type=Application
But for that to work, first you need to enable fan control. Run
sudo nvidia-settings
click “X Server Display Configuration” and then click “Save to X Configuration file”. This will create an xorg.conf file in /etc/X11 which you can edit with any text editor you like. For example:
sudo gedit /etc/X11/xorg.conf
When you open that file as sudo, find “Section Device” and add to it the coolbits line: Imgur: The magic of the Internet then save and reboot. If you’re like me and prefer to have your GPU run cool when idle, you’re gonna need these settings. If you create the desktop file as I showed you, you’ll have to click it at every system boot to enable the fan control. That desktop file makes things a lot easier, cuz all you have to is enter your root password and then click the “enable fans” option in “Thermal Mizer”.
I realize it sounds complicated but really it isn’t and at present date this is the only way to avoid “Zero RPM”. It’s a small price to pay for the longer life the GPU will have because it’s constantly cooled compared to no cooling at all.
Hello rado84,
Thanks for the detailed response. I haven’t noticed my fans spin at all. I seen temps reached 65 which the fans spinning.
I seem to remember that I had a problem with wayland in the past when I set up a xorg.conf file (it wouldn’t start on boot).
I don’t see the “Save to X configuration file” in the nvidia-settings gui.
Here is what I should for thermal settings:
There are no fans listed.
I also seem to remember there being a nvidia-xconfig script, but again, this broke my installation last time I used it.
Thanks again
Oh, this is a laptop! That’s your answer right there. I thought you were talking about a desktop. Laptops have passive cooling, not fans. Only desktops do. That’s why you don’t have the “Enable fan controls” option. As for the Wayland thing - IDK. My desktop is Cinnamon (no Wayland yet, fortunately).
All you can do to cool the entire laptop (but not by much) is to buy a pad with a large fan which you put under the laptop and hope for the best. Or you could just put it in the freezer, I think that will have a better effect.
And finally, judging by the GPU temperature without a fan, I’d say you don’t need it.
This is what a GPU for laptop looks like. As you can see: no fans on top of the GPU. These two fans on the side - I doubt they cool any hardware, more like cooling the entire tiny space when the laptop is closed (put together). And I doubt that you can control these fans in any way.
