Expansion Slot Fan running at high speed after installing NVIDIA Quadro 4000

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Expansion Slot Fan running at high speed after installing NVIDIA Quadro 4000

I've noticed that after installing the new NVIDIA Quadro 4000 for Mac on my Mac Pro with Mac OS X 10.6.7 with the newly released NVIDIA drivers (03/22/2011) the Expansion Slot Fan is running at a VERY HIGH speed (between 1,200rpm and 2,100rpm), if I go back the the NVIDIA GT120 everything will be normal with the Fan speed (around 800rpm), does enybody have experienced the same issue ?, thanks

Mac Pro, Mac OS X (10.6.7), 24GB + SSD RAID 0 + Nvidia Quadro 4000

Posted on Apr 17, 2011 6:18 PM

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Answer 1

Apr 17, 2011 8:25 PM in response to logicito

As far as I know, the fans are controlled by the “System Management Controller” (SMC).

Not sure if it helps, but have you tried and reset the SMC...?

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3964?viewlocale=en_US

I replaced the GT 120 with the GTX 285 and have experienced only occasionally

an increase (double as usual) in fan speed...

Regards

Nolan

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Answer 2

logicito Author

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Apr 17, 2011 8:25 PM in response to nolanscott

Hi, thanks for the prompt answer, yes I've tried resetting the SMC multiple times but nothing have changed. I've reinstalled the whole Mac OS X multiple times, starting from scratch, I've tried with 10.6.6 and 10.6.7 with the latest NVIDIA Drives and CUDA but nothing, always the same problem. I think there is an incompatibility between the Card and the Computer.

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Answer 3

Apr 17, 2011 8:29 PM in response to logicito

Hmmm... which version (build) of Mac Pro are you using...?

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Answer 4

logicito Author

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Apr 17, 2011 8:31 PM in response to nolanscott

4.1 = 2009, I've tried PCI Express slots 1 and 2, both are x16, please help !!!!

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Answer 5

logicito Author

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Apr 17, 2011 8:37 PM in response to nolanscott

Something else I can add, is that randomly the fan speed will go down, but after a reboot will start again the problem, If I keep the computer on just using Sleep, there will be no problem. The other day I noticed that after running OpenGL Extensions Viewer program it started going down the fan speed and the problem got fixed, it's super weird. I spent 2 hours today with Apple support and the only conclusion was change the card, but it is working fine, I've used in PS CS5 and Premiere CS5 with no problems, as a matter of fact in Premiere is using all the CUDA processing power with no problem at all, so the card should be fine.

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Answer 6

Apr 17, 2011 9:32 PM in response to logicito

Sorry, that I can’t really offer much help...

Did you install the latest “standalone” driver update...?

Should be currently: GPU “256.01.00f03v7”... CUDA “4.0.14".

The driver has to be present before the card is installed...

Check your latest Mac Pro EFI Firmware update... should be version 1.4.

Run a general maintenance utility like, OnyX, Cocktail, TechTool Pro, Disk Warrior etc.

Restart your system...

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Answer 7

ryan42

Level 3

859 points

Apr 18, 2011 7:49 AM in response to logicito

Just in the interest of verifying the problem, can you switch back to your previous card and make sure it behaves normally?

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Answer 8

logicito Author

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Apr 18, 2011 1:24 PM in response to ryan42

Yes, I've done it multiple times, and it will work fine with the GT120. As a matter of fact today I installed an ATI 5870 and it has been working flawlesly for the last 4 hours, with no Fan acceleration, so clearly there is something wrong between the Nvidia card and Mac Pro, I think I am going to return the Quadro 4000 and keep the ATI 5870. The only tradeoff will be no GPU acceleration within Premiere.

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Answer 9

ryan42

Level 3

859 points

Apr 18, 2011 5:11 PM in response to logicito

If you're still willing to mess with it, try a PRAM reset.

I haven't heard of anyone else having this problem.

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Answer 10

logicito Author

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Apr 18, 2011 8:02 PM in response to ryan42

Is PRAM reset equivalent to Reboot and then Option + Command + P + Q ?, if th answer is yes, yes we did it like 5 times when I was troubleshooting with Apple. Did not solve the problem. After 10 hours with the ATI 5870 everything is fine. Clearly Apple support with ATI this time is much better. There seems to be a gap with NVIDIA, those drivers should have been embeded and fully tested withing Mac OS X 10.6.7. It's a shame because I really like the Quadro 4000 card, especially for the use with Adobe Premiere CS5.

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Answer 11

Aug 10, 2011 3:59 PM in response to logicito

I know it's quite late but I bought the card a couple of weeks ago and ran into the same problems. The only fix is to fire up Adobe Premiere after startup and let it play an RED R3D file in the timeline. After that the fan is decreasing back to 800 RPM and it stays there for the whole time.

It seems as the card need to be used. How did you fix the problem?

Mac Pro 12 Core 2.93 / Slot 1: ATI 5870 / Slot 2: Quadro 4000

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Answer 12

The hatter

Level 9

60,980 points

Aug 11, 2011 2:26 AM in response to logicito

PRAM reset is from a cold reboot.

Command-Option-P-R

Only need to rehear the reboot chime on the 2nd boot cycle - should be loud.

After, reset sound, default boot volume, etc.

After 10.6.8 there is a driver from Nvidia that needs to be installed.

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Answer 13

Jul 31, 2012 10:59 AM in response to The hatter

I just purchased a 12 Core Mac pro 2.93 which had the stock ATI card in it. It is replacing a Mac Pro 2008 and I took out the Nvidia Quadro 4000 from my 2008 Mac and replaced the ATI card. Everything works fine but I notice that there is a lot more fan noise with the Quadro 4000 than the stock ATI card. The Quadro in my 2008 mac pro didn't make excessive fan sound, it was pretty quiet. I haven't determined if it is the fan on the Quadro card or something else in the Mac Pro. The stock ATI card didn't generate this noise so the Nvidia Quadro 4000 is the trigger.

I tried the Open GL utilities to stress the Quadro but didn't work.

I did a SMC reset, no change.

Any clues anybody else? I have not yet done a NVRAM reset.

Thanks much for any advice.

-Keith

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Answer 14

The hatter

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60,980 points

Jul 31, 2012 11:44 AM in response to Keith Moreau

I just read on MacRumors about Q4 fan noise under 10.8, and could be CS6 3D and being stressed or even "immature drivers" in 10.8 too.

"tried OpenGL stress test didn't work" - expand; that means _____ ?

GTX cards are not hugely beneficial for OpenCL, but they have the luxury of being both OpenCL and CUDA - whereas the AMD 7xxx numbers are huge in OpenGL but at the cost of any CUDA support.

GTX 680 Performance thread: (goes off in other directions too)

http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?p=15371811

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Answer 15

Jul 31, 2012 12:53 PM in response to The hatter

"tried OpenGL stress test didn't work" - expand; that means _____ ?

Earlier in this thread and I think somewhere else I saw that if you put the Quadro under some GPU stress it after that it will get quieter, strange but this is what people have reported. That is what I meant.

I am using 10.7.3 and CS5.5 but the fan noise occurs without CS running, it's just on all the time starting from boot.

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