GPU Fan spinning up and down after latest upgrade

Question

tomish Author

Level 1

4 points

GPU Fan spinning up and down after latest upgrade

Hi,

I have 2009 Mac Pro 4.1, flashed to 5.1, with following spec:

3.33GHz 6-core Xeon X5680

64GB RAM

MSI Radeon RX580 8GB Armor

macOS Mojave

I had version 10.14.3 and everything was running fine, silent machine. After upgrade to 10.14.4, GPU fan started spinning up every 20 seconds for 5 seconds and then down again. GPU temperature is about 55C, just two 2560x1440 screens connected, Safari and office apps running.

Also, I was using iStat Menus and with 10.14.2 I was able to control fans. I uninstalled it and installed it again after these problems with GPU has been found, however, I can't control any fan now.

It's very annoying as the fans get noisy. I have also other machine with exact same setup (but GPU bios might be different) and I don't have any problem with that machine.

Do you have any idea what to do with that?

Mac Pro, macOS 10.14

Posted on Apr 11, 2019 2:19 PM

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Answer 1

jaonos

Level 1

9 points

Apr 15, 2019 10:50 PM in response to tomish

I´ve encountered a similar issue: since the upgrade to 10.14.4 my GPU Fan starts about every 2 Minutes a boost and calms down after that. Very annoying as a constant flow would be ok, but not the short waves...

Also on MacPro but Mid-2010 (6 Core 3,33) with an Radeon RX 580.

Before that the fan was never noticeable. Thinking about a Backup Restore...

SMC/PR Reset already done. Nothing else was changed in hard- or software

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Answer 2

tomish Author

Level 1

4 points

Apr 17, 2019 4:50 AM in response to jaonos

Jaonos, that sounds great! This is very helpful. Well, let's hope they will release this update very soon.

I still wonder why this is happening only with one PC. Maybe different environment (the one which is quiet is in the office with lower temperature and just one screen connected).

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Answer 3

Apr 17, 2019 7:46 AM in response to tomish

If fan speed profiles have been changed, you may be able to work-around by using a fan speed control software to speed up the base speed of the fans, so that they make fewer excursions into high-speed territory.

SMC fan control is the name that comes to mind, but I have not used it personally. It and similar utilities allow you to put a higher "floor" under the fan speeds, which has the potential to smooth out those wild spikes in the fan speed.

Also, make sure the graphics card is not full of dust, impacting its ability to move air and unload that heat as designed. A few blasts of compressed air (in an" I don't care if its dusty" environment) is the usual solution. Do not be unrelenting in spinning the fans, or bearing damage could result.

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