Graphics Sitting next to a vacuum cleaner!

Is there a way of turning down the fan on a 7800GT? Mine just runs a full pelt which is okay temp wise (sits at ~38 degrees C) but sucks noise wise.

 

Try downloading RivaTuner - I'm pretty sure there's a fan control option in there. The fans on most 7800s are temperature regulated, though... rather weird that yours isn't.

 

Something wrong with yours. The 7800s should be damn quiet. I thought you were talking about the x8xx range there for a moment!

 

Indeed; check and see if the fan is working properly in and of itself, and make sure the heatsink is making proper contact with the card.

 

...and here's me thinking this thread had something to do with 'self-stimulation' gone wrong.

As others have said, doesn't sound right. Check the fan, heatsink etc. What make is the card? Some of them actually ship with fan tuning software (my Asus does anyway).

 

Well, I've had a little play with Rivatuner and that let me notch my fan down. The temp seems to rise and fall between 35 and 41 degrees. The fan still spins up occassionally so I have decided to get the new Arctic Silencer 5 Rev 3.0. Will let you know how it performs when it arrives

 

I had a similar issue with my ol' 6800gt. Turns out a stupidly placed sticker around the hub of the fan got sucked in, and acted as a baseball card stuck in the spokes of a bycicle (ie, really irritating noisemaker unless you're six years old). Just pulled the thing out and it was much quieter (though still a bit loud for my tastes, but I prefer inaudible so I have high standards).

 

My 7800 GT in my own system runs at 460/1080MHz all day in a Shuttle SN25P - it only spins up when I'm gaming and I've got my headphones on when I'm doing that. Besides, I'd say that most of the reason behind that is the fact that I'm running the card - overclocked - in a small confined space. I've never had a 7800 GT spin up in general day-to-day gaming in the bit-tech test systems.