GeForce GTX 1080 Founders Edition owners complain about fan issues

Users of the new GTX 1080 complain about the Founders Edition’s fan. The fan would run at a very high speed at random times in games and make a lot of noise. The problem cannot be solved with a fan profile.

The complaints appear on the GeForce forum of Nvidia, among others. According to several users, the increase in fan speed takes place during gaming, but it does not happen because the video card gets too hot. A user shows a screenshot that shows that the temperature of his gpu remains constant, while the fan speed shows noticeable peaks and dips.

At peak times, the fan speed increases to nearly 3000 rpm. At that speed, the blower produces a lot of noise, according to the users. Because the speed varies from high to low, it sounds “like an undulating ocean,” complains one of the GTX 1080 owners. Setting a custom profile for the fan offers no solution, the complainants report. A user who says that he has exchanged his card for another one, indicates that this also did not help.

Since the problem does not appear to be temperature related, it is likely fixable with a driver and or bios update. Nvidia has now released its first GTX 1080 driver, but it does not solve the problem. Nvidia has not yet responded to the fan issues.

The GeForce GTX 1080 has been on sale since last Friday. Numerous manufacturers have released a Founders Edition, these are all equipped with the exact same fan. The Founders Edition has taken the place of what Nvidia used to call a reference design. It is striking that the video cards have a higher suggested retail price, while they do not seem to offer any advantages over custom video cards from manufacturers.