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Resolved What are normal fan speeds for a 2009 Mac Pro?

PowerMac G4 MDD

PowerMac G4 MDD

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Jul 13, 2014
1,900
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I have an 8-core, 2.26Ghz Mac Pro 4,1. I booted it from a clean installation of El Cap, and it was running nice and quiet.

The HDD was just a test, though; my SSD from my 2006 Mac Pro (which still has my previous contents on it) just went into the 2009 Mac Pro. Upon boot-up, the fans revved up high and then slowly settled back down... but not as low as before - still a bit loud.

So what ARE normal fan speeds for this?

Mine:

PCI: 1431
PS: 889
EXHAUST: 499
INTAKE: 599
BOOSTA: 928
BOOSTB: 927
 
It's the PCIe fan, run Luxmark once will fix it (no need to run the whole test, just stress the GPU a bit is enough. Any other software that will stress the GPU also work). Or you can use MacsFanControl to force it back to 800RPM.

This is a known bug. No fix yet. A SMC reset may fix it, or may make the PCIe fan spin even faster.
 
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h9826790 said:
It's the PCIe fan, run Luxmark once will fix it (no need to run the whole test, just stress the GPU a bit is enough. Any other software that will stress the GPU also work). Or you can use MacsFanControl to force it back to 800RPM.

This is a known bug. No fix yet. A SMC reset may fix it, or may make the PCIe fan spin even faster.
Click to expand...

I'll try it, but how would a benchmark fix it? (BTW, I put a hotter GPU in, but it seems like it just got way louder than it should be. It's louder than my 1,1 Mac Pro, and it had the same GPU in it. I wonder if it has to do with this SSD I put in. Everything was fine with a clean install, but this SSD has the old user on it from my 1,1. Northbridge chip is also 10F hotter.
 
h9826790 said:
It's the PCIe fan, run Luxmark once will fix it (no need to run the whole test, just stress the GPU a bit is enough. Any other software that will stress the GPU also work). Or you can use MacsFanControl to force it back to 800RPM.

This is a known bug. No fix yet. A SMC reset may fix it, or may make the PCIe fan spin even faster.
Click to expand...

BTW, do you think a fresh installation of Mac OSX will help?
 
h9826790 said:
It's the PCIe fan, run Luxmark once will fix it (no need to run the whole test, just stress the GPU a bit is enough. Any other software that will stress the GPU also work). Or you can use MacsFanControl to force it back to 800RPM.

This is a known bug. No fix yet. A SMC reset may fix it, or may make the PCIe fan spin even faster.
Click to expand...


UPDATE: I ran the test and it went back down to 799!! Thank you so much - I appreciate your advice! You just saved me hours of worry and distraction from my work. Now we'll see if it remains this low for good. It's odd that it immediately fixed it; I wonder why that is. Also, is this a generally permanent fix, or do you think I'll have to run this the next time I boot my machine up from a cold standstill?
 
It depends. For me, it only happen few times, but I seldom shut down my Mac.

For some users, they encounter this on every single cold boot. So, some of them actually let the OS auto run a benchmark after login.

Clean install won't permanent fix it. None of any reset can permanent fix it as well.

A virtual permanent fix is use MacsFanControl to manually tune the fan profile, you can keep it at 800RPM, or spin up at certain temperature. It will override the system setting, so override the bug as well.
 
h9826790 said:
It depends. For me, it only happen few times, but I seldom shut down my Mac.

For some users, they encounter this on every single cold boot. So, some of them actually let the OS auto run a benchmark after login.

Clean install won't permanent fix it. None of any reset can permanent fix it as well.

A virtual permanent fix is use MacsFanControl to manually tune the fan profile, you can keep it at 800RPM, or spin up at certain temperature. It will override the system setting, so override the bug as well.
Click to expand...

Cool - thanks for that advice; you saved me so much trouble. I'll be monitoring my Mac from now on.
 
h9826790 said:
It depends. For me, it only happen few times, but I seldom shut down my Mac.

For some users, they encounter this on every single cold boot. So, some of them actually let the OS auto run a benchmark after login.

Clean install won't permanent fix it. None of any reset can permanent fix it as well.

A virtual permanent fix is use MacsFanControl to manually tune the fan profile, you can keep it at 800RPM, or spin up at certain temperature. It will override the system setting, so override the bug as well.
Click to expand...

Cool - thanks for that advice; you saved me so much trouble. I'll be monitoring my Mac from now on.
 
I highly recommend Temperature Gauge Pro (the non App Store version).

You can manually fine tune fan speeds based on presets. Alert you when triggered. Etc. there is a demo available and creator very fast to respond to questions.
 
adam9c1 said:
I highly recommend Temperature Gauge Pro (the non App Store version).

You can manually fine tune fan speeds based on presets. Alert you when triggered. Etc. there is a demo available and creator very fast to respond to questions.
Click to expand...

Okay, I'll check it out if I have any other issues. That benchmark, though, fixed everything.
 
Update: So I re-installed my OS today (which had NOTHING to do with my fans - I was just doing a clean install), and my PCI fan revs up as usual and is fixed with Luxmark... however, now my BOOSTA and BOOSTB fans are at 1113 RPM (from their normal 928 RPM), and Luxmark is not fixing them! Do you know what the issue could be?
 
My guess would be some background operation (e.g. indexing) after the OSX re-installation cause some CPU usage which eventually cause the fan to spin up.

Just leave it, and it should back to normal later.
 
Normally, when idling, my fans are:

Booster 1: 1113
Booster 2: 1113
Exhaust: 600
Expansion Slots: 800
Intake: 600
Power Supply: 600
 
Last edited:
h9826790 said:
My guess would be some background operation (e.g. indexing) after the OSX re-installation cause some CPU usage which eventually cause the fan to spin up.

Just leave it, and it should back to normal later.
Click to expand...

That's what I was thinking, but my Activity Monitor showed no signs of indexing anything. Maybe Mac OSX does this in the background these days.
 
h9826790 said:
It's the PCIe fan, run Luxmark once will fix it (no need to run the whole test, just stress the GPU a bit is enough. Any other software that will stress the GPU also work). Or you can use MacsFanControl to force it back to 800RPM.

This is a known bug. No fix yet. A SMC reset may fix it, or may make the PCIe fan spin even faster.
Click to expand...

Tried this tweak, worked like charme!

Cheers
 
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