MP 1,1-5,1 Fans of idle RX 5700 XT with passive cooling kicking in every now and then

[star-affinity]

This is on a MacPro5,1 with a Gigabyte RX 5700 XT Gaming OC graphics card.

In Windows 10 the fans stay still if the computer is idle but in MacOS (10.15.4 currently) the fans spins up (not much but noticeably since it kind of kicks in suddenly) every 10 minutes or so and then after a minute they go back to full stop, only to do the same thing again in 10 minutes.

I'm wondering if I'm alone with this behaviour or if it's something that all RX 5700 XT cards supporting passive cooling does in MacOS? Maybe it's just in a MacPro5,1 and not in a eGPU enclosure connected via Thunderbolt 3?

Would be good to know if there's a way around it since it's quite irritating to have the fans spin up like that for (seemingly) no good reason.

 

[Matthew92007]

I've noticed the same behavior with my Sapphire Pulse RX 590. Even with the computer idling at the desktop in macOS the fans will occasionally spin up.

My guess for the reason is possible background tasks, the idle temperature being above the threshold for the fans to spin, or possibly (but unlikely) the power needed to display to your screen(s) generates enough heat that it needs to be cooled.

Regardless this behavior doesn't seem to happen nearly as often in Windows.

 

[star-affinity]

@Matthew92007

Thanks for sharing! This didn't happen when I was using a GTX 1070 from Nvidia, but that card also ran cooler and used less power, so… But at the same time interesting that behavior is different in Windows – wonder what would need to change for it to behave similar in MacOS – graphics drivers perhaps.

Also curious if it also happens with the card in a eGPU encluse via Thunderbolt 3 – if that's the case maybe Apple would listen to a report. The probably don't care much about the MacPro5,1 nowadays.

 

[Bklyn629]

This is on a MacPro5,1 with a Gigabyte RX 5700 XT Gaming OC graphics card.

In Windows 10 the fans stay still if the computer is idle but in MacOS (10.15.4 currently) the fans spins up (not much but noticeably since it kind of kicks in suddenly) every 10 minutes or so and then after a minute they go back to full stop, only to do the same thing again in 10 minutes.

I'm wondering if I'm alone with this behaviour or if it's something that all RX 5700 XT cards supporting passive cooling does in MacOS? Maybe it's just in a MacPro5,1 and not in a eGPU enclosure connected via Thunderbolt 3?

Would be good to know if there's a way around it since it's quite irritating to have the fans spin up like that for (seemingly) no good reason.

how did you get you 5700 xt to work in Catalina? I still haven’t gotten my red Devil 5709 xt to work. I did tsialex terminal command to install Catalina and thought it was supposed to just work afterwards. Still I get nothing when I swap with my rx 580. Any help will be appreciated

 

[AlumaMac]

@Matthew92007
Also curious if it also happens with the card in a eGPU encluse via Thunderbolt 3 – if that's the case maybe Apple would listen to a report. The probably don't care much about the MacPro5,1 nowadays.

I have a Razer Core X TB3 eGPU enclosure connected to a Mini and my Sapphire 5700XT fans are running constantly, even when the monitor is asleep (system doesn't sleep). This just started about a week ago without any changes to my system.

 

[star-affinity]

how did you get you 5700 xt to work in Catalina? I still haven’t gotten my red Devil 5709 xt to work. I did tsialex terminal command to install Catalina and thought it was supposed to just work afterwards. Still I get nothing when I swap with my rx 580. Any help will be appreciated

Sorry, I missed your question.
Well, I didn't do anything – the drivers for RX 5700 cards has been there since Catalina 10.15.2 (I think).

I have a Razer Core X TB3 eGPU enclosure connected to a Mini and my Sapphire 5700XT fans are running constantly, even when the monitor is asleep (system doesn't sleep). This just started about a week ago without any changes to my system.

Ouch, that seems bad. It's not really happening too often for me that the fans spin up.

 

[flowrider]

I am using an Aorus RX5700XT in my 7,1 NcMP and notice no abnormal fan behavior. I have run the card in Catalina and Big Sur. The card is whisper quiet?

Lou

 

[star-affinity]

I am using an Aorus RX5700XT in my 7,1 NcMP and notice no abnormal fan behavior. I have run the card in Catalina and Big Sur. The card is whisper quiet?

Lou

No problems with a dark screen followed by a ”watchdog timeout” related Kernel Panic when waking the computer from sleep?

Constant Kernel Panics – userspace watchdog timeout: no successful checkins from com.apple.WindowServer

I'm in the club. Yesterday I was opening a large .OBJ file from my external Thunderbolt2 raid (tb3->tb2 adapter) and the system freezed after aroun 40% importing. After that a kernel panic appeared. After machine restart the log talk about watchdog/window server related (I have done a copy of...

forums.macrumors.com

 

[Matthew92007]

To come back to the original question, I have not noticed the same behavior in Windows 10. Under Windows, the card's fans stay still almost the entire time at idle, whereas in macOS the fans occasionally spin up just sitting on the desktop. I put an acrylic side panel on my Mac Pro, so it's easy to observe the behavior.

My guess is it's just a driver thing, or some task is utilizing the GPU for whatever reason (Photos agent maybe?).

 

[bsbeamer]

The METAL driven UI of MacOS is a major factor in this.

 

[star-affinity]

The METAL driven UI of MacOS is a major factor in this.

I guess you're right. The fans seem to kick in more seldom for me now on Big Sur, at least.