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The Mac Pro First Generation is an Intel Xeon-based workstation computer manufactured by Apple Inc. The first generation model includes the machines from 2006 through 2008.

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Graphics Card fan speed

I have a 2006 Mac Pro. It is a 2.66 quad core, with 2gb of ram and a ATI Radeon HD 3870. It runs fine but the fan on the graphics card runs at full speed and is really loud. Is there any way to slow it down?

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The card is almost new. No dust. Would you recommend any fan control software for ATI graphics cards. I already have SMC fan control but it does not have the option to control the Graphics card fan.

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Heat isnt an issue. From cold, as soon as I hit the power button, the GPU fan starts running at full power.

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I'm not a lover of forcefully controlling fan's when they are doing what they are designed to do. SMC fan control make sense on the '11 iMac's because of the incomplete SMART standard on how systems access internal HD heat sensors. Many newer drives now follow Apple's method so this is less of an issue.

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Why are you using SMC on your Mac Pro? You shouldn't need it, and using it may cause your system to over heat. Again, get some temperature monitoring software like Temperature Gauge which you can access via the Apps Store.

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Then, clearly the ATI card has a problem. What did you have in the system before. What does it do?

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For starters I would first try cleaning off the dust build up on the graphics card heat sink and also think about replacing the thermo grease between the heat sink & GPU chip/s with a good quality one, and don't forget to clean fan blades as well.

If the rest of the system is dusty I would also clean it out as well.

Use a soft brush and can'ed air and use proper ESD practices with a good mat & wrist strap.

You may have a bad sensor if the problem persists. Slowing down the fan forcefully may not be a good idea as your graphics card could be over heating.

You could try getting some software to monitor the system temperature sensors to see whats happening.

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I would recommend you get the graphics card serviced by ATI as it then clearly has a defect and should be under there warranty.

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Jake will be eternally grateful.
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