VGA fan runs constantly with dual head

[arch0njw]

I have a dream... a dream of two monitors and a VGA fan that doesn't run all the time.

This is my GPU from an "lspci" output:

06:00.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation G71 [GeForce 7900 GS] (rev a1)

I have (1) a 21" SyncMaster 204B and (2) a 23" HP 2509m. When I connect one-or-the-other, my VGA is fine. When I dual-head them through either TwinView or directly editing the xorg.conf the VGA fan starts running and doesn't stop.

I first connected these such that one monitor was hooked up by DSUB/VGA and the other by DVI. I plan to try both being hooked up by DSUB to see if it makes a difference. I don't know why it would, but I'll try.


Is the fan running normal behavior? Would a more powerful card not have the fan run? I'd love some help here to sort this out.

[arch0njw]

I posted something over in the EVGA forums -- they're the manufacturer of this card.
http://www.evga.com/forums/tm.aspx?high=&m=40959

As clarification, on a normal day the fan runs. However, if I run both monitors, the fan seems to run at max RPM. That's what's bugging me. Right now, with one monitor, the fan is running normally and is not loud. If I start something with intense graphics, the fan will kick up to max RPM -- I kind of expect that. But I don't expect that with dual head. Is dual head really that intensive?

[arch0njw]

I finally got around to trying this with two dsub/vga adapters on the DVI ports. For whatever reason, it is not causing my fan to run. I finally found "nvclock" and am using that to monitor performance. The changes are not much, and the GPU fan has not yet kicked up to run any harder.

< startup (with one monitor)
> after running for 15 minutes with two monitors

< GPU clock: 468.000 MHz
---
> GPU clock: 518.400 MHz
17c17
< Clock: 661.500 MHz
---
> Clock: 688.500 MHz
25c25
< GPU temperature: 43C
---
> GPU temperature: 55C

Unless things change radically, I think this solved my issue.