GPU making noise?

I have an EVGA GeForce GTX 1060, and honestly, the fans themselves are silent—you can't hear them at all while they're spinning. However, I have my settings configured to maintain a specific temperature, which causes the fans to constantly cycle on and off. It’s during that exact moment when they start up or stop that you hear this clicking sound—like *tk tk tk tk tk tk*—and then once they pick up speed after a few seconds, the noise disappears. This started happening about a month ago. I guess I'm wondering if this is something worth worrying about, and if there's any way to fix it so I don't have to deal with that constant, irritating noise.

Does this happen while idling or only when you're gaming?

Basically, if you have 0rpm mode enabled—meaning the fans shut off entirely—the card should be able to keep those fans off most of the time. But if your room is hot or your case has terrible airflow, you might just be hitting the threshold where they kick in.

That noise when they spin up and down isn't ideal, but honestly, if they perform fine once they're actually spinning, I wouldn't mess with them. They might just be slightly loose and scraping against something.

Moses:

- Disable 0rpm mode
- Undervolt the card to drop the temps
- Switch to Silent BIOS if it’s a dual BIOS card
- Set a custom fan curve (though this kills the 0rpm mode automatically)
- Crack a window in the room
- Pop the side panel off the case to see if temps improve
- Update your drivers

wiredotter14 said:Does this happen while idling, or does it happen during games too?

In theory, if you have 0 RPM enabled—meaning the fans shut off entirely—the card should be able to keep them off most of the time. However, if your room is warm or your case lacks decent airflow, you might just be hovering right on the edge of that trigger point.

The fact that they make a bit of noise when they kick on or off isn't ideal, but honestly, if they perform fine while spinning, I wouldn't mess with them. Maybe they're just slightly loose and scraping against something.

Moses:

- Disable the 0 RPM mode
- Undervolt the card so it runs cooler
- Switch to Silent BIOS if your card has a dual BIOS option
- Set a custom fan curve; unfortunately, this will automatically disable the 0 RPM mode
- Crack a window in your room
- Open up the case to see if things improve
- Update your drivers

My card doesn't actually get hot since I don't play anything too demanding, so I guess it keeps cycling the fans because it's constantly hitting that temperature threshold.
So, if I turn off the 0 RPM mode, will they just spin constantly?

One more thing—I tested it with that Heaven benchmark, both right when I bought it and again just now, and using GPU-Z, it always shows that the fans aren't spinning😲 even though they clearly are, so I'm a bit confused.

Wipe those drivers using DDU, then just install the new ones

It would actually be pretty helpful to know exactly which EVGA GeForce GTX 1060 we're dealing with here... and honestly, have you thought about whether it might just need a good cleaning, maybe some compressed air through the fans and the heatsink?

wanderingbison9 said:It would probably be helpful to know exactly which EVGA GeForce GTX 1060 we're dealing with... though maybe it just needs a quick blast of compressed air on the fans and heatsink?

EVGA GeForce GTX 1060

fadedsailor17 said:EVGA GeForce GTX 1060

Ah, I see. If you look at most of the reviews out there, that specific card is pretty much notorious for having some of the worst thermal management on the market, and it’s still being stocked in stores across the US... I'm not entirely sure if that's directly causing what you're going through, but isn't it possible that the fans just aren't up to par and are starting to fail? That might be why they released the iPhone 15 version, though I'm not quite sure which one you actually ended up with...

wanderingbison9 said:Right. Based on most reviews, that card probably has some of the worst thermal management out there, and I think they're still being sold here in the States... I'm not sure if that's directly linked to what you're dealing with, but it’s possible the fans just aren't great and are starting to fail. That might be why they released the iPhone 15 version, though I suppose I don't know which one you actually have...

Look, I'm at work right now so I'm not entirely sure which exact model I have, but I'll check when I get home. Regarding what you said about the fans failing—the card has been running for over six months, so surely the fans wouldn't be giving out already?? 😳
ok, let's assume you're right and the fans are the issue—so what then? Is there a fix? I saw some people on YouTube swapping out fans themselves. 🤷

fadedsailor17 said:Look, I'm actually at work right now so I'm not entirely sure which specific model I have on hand, but I'll check once I get home. Regarding what you mentioned about the fans making that rattling noise—this card has been running fine for over six months now, so is it really likely they'd fail already?? 😳
Okay, let's just assume for a second that you're right and the fans are indeed rattling—what's the next step? Is there an actual fix for this? I've seen a few videos on YouTube where people seem to swap out the fans themselves. 🤷

I think I phrased that poorly; what I meant to say was that maybe they aren't the highest quality components, so perhaps they might start making those little chirping noises a bit sooner than expected.

wanderingbison9 said:I suppose I misspoke; what I meant was that their build quality might not be the absolute best, so those "Twitter critics" might start chirping a bit earlier than usual.

this one is https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce/graphics-cards/series/gtx-10-series/geforce-gtx-1060/

Yeah, that was the first one, but check out this new version: https://www.msi.com/Graphics-card/Ra...0-ARMOR-MK2-8G

It actually comes equipped with those TORX 2.0 fans...

fadedsailor17 said:but the graphics card has been running for over six months now

If you bought it brand new, you still have two and a half years of warranty left, so there is really nothing to worry about. Time will tell.