z840 as small server, OK to use fanless GPU?

[Tribernetes]

Hi,

z840 with 2x E5-2678v3. Western Digital NVMe in an aftermarket PCIe adapter on slot 6. Bios 2.56 (2020-11-04). There is no hard disk nor SATA SSD.

This machine is used as server, most of the time, the monitor is turned off. For now there is a low end graphic card. I try to reduce the noise as much as possible. Would this be OK to use a fanless GPU card?

My concern is the machine may have some hardware monitoring. If it detects no fan on the GPU, it may think there is something wrong in the inside and will spins all the machine fans to max speed.

Thanks in advance for any help

[DGroves · Accepted solution]

the fans on GPU's and fanless GPU's communicate their fan speed chip temp and gpu/men clock speeds via the computers ic2 bus usually

a fanless gpu will have a bios on it that throttles the gpu/mem speeds (IE- clocks down) if the video card starts getting to hot

as long as the z840's fans are properly, they will be able to move sufficient airflow to allow just about any fanless card to operate as long as the case is not filled with other high heat generating cards next to the video card

[Tribernetes]

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@DGroves wrote:

a fanless gpu will have a bios on it that throttles the gpu/mem speeds (IE- clocks down) if the video card starts getting to hot

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Then this is perfect. For the usage this z840 is destined to be used (as a headless server) there is absolutely no chance for the GPU to get any stress.

[savvy2]

THE ANSWER IS SIMPLE IN ALL CASES. (NO PUN)

The gpu card has spec (real) and if read you see it tells minimum air flows across its zero fan heat sink, and max inside case temperatures.

what you PC does inside how knows?

in real servers the fans have sea of thermal sensors, and fans are wildly dynamic via BIOS.

my real servers all have air baffle guide to get air to place air can not reach naturally. for sure on BLADE servers

yours now is box server.

my box PCs huge have smart fans in the PC  and even the PSU.

in your case use large case fan so it can run slow. and quite and still make the GPU cool

but gee the GPU is not even being used, so is only using say 5 watts in not used mode. as dead head server.

your GPU fan is no  BIOS monitors, never in my life seen that but you can. using software.

on my blade server yes in fact if add in all PCE-e extender and cards the BIOS goes to stage 2 fans speed, just by card counts only, and also sea of sensors.

I have Z600 and none of that is true, GPU BIOS monitors,

and any GPU I want works here. for sure $10 10watt cards endless, or 8000GS card, no fan. works , slug slow at 5FPS (furmark speed)

I say yes,  a 10 watt cheap card will work, and heat super low any air flow in the case is good.

but why not just try costs you $10 for old 8000GS card. runs w10 is that. no linux so any card old works, with most linux.

there are vast old cards, but 8000GS is w10 64 support so if you need it for something else it's  go.

see?