nvfanctrl

nvfanctrl is a tool that regulates the fan PWM of your NVidia graphics card by software. In particular, modern NVidia cards will have a stopped fan for the most time but as soon as they hit about 55°C, they'll spin up to 60% PWM. This means that for my particular system, for example, there was a spin-up of the fan about every five minutes or so for about 30 seconds. Super annoying. With nvfanctrl, you can just give it a setpoint, a minimum fan PWM percentage and it'll happily regulate away.

Usage

Using nvfanctrl is straightforward:

$ ./nvfanctrl.py --help
usage: nvfanctrl.py [-h] [-t temp] [-i secs] [--regulation-deadzone temp]
                    [--initial-pwm %] [--min-speed %] [--max-speed %]
                    [--fan fan_id] [--gpu gpu_id] [--daemonize] [-v]

optional arguments:
  -h, --help            show this help message and exit
  -t temp, --target-temp temp
                        Specifies the GPU target temperature in °C. Defaults
                        to 55°C
  -i secs, --regulation-interval secs
                        Gives the interval in which the fan target is checked
                        and adjustments are made. Defaults to 2.5 seconds.
  --regulation-deadzone temp
                        Gives the deadzone, i.e. +- degrees C in which not to
                        change regulation parameters. Defaults to +-3.0°C.
  --initial-pwm %       When initially starting, gives the initial PWM duty
                        cycle in percent that should be given to the fan.
                        Defaults to 50%.
  --min-speed %         Defines the minimum fan target speed in percent that
                        is chosen.
  --max-speed %         Defines the maximum fan target speed in percent that
                        is chosen.
  --fan fan_id          The ID of the fan that should be regulated. Defaults
                        to fan:0.
  --gpu gpu_id          The ID of the GPU that should be regulated. Defaults
                        to gpu:0.
  --daemonize           Fork into background (but do not make init the parent
                        process, so that nvfanctrl terminates when the X
                        session terminates as well).
  -v, --verbose         Be more verbose.

So, for example, if you want your temperature to be regulated to 55°C, do:

$ ./nvfanctrl.py -t 55 

That's it, pretty much. Well, actually you'll have to need to enable software fan control in the first place, but that's covered in the next section.

Installation

To permanently install nvfanctrl, you'll first have to enable setting the fan temperature on your NVidia card. By default, this isn't possible. On a Ubuntu system, therefore create (as root) a file in /usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d that you call 99-nvidia-coolbits.conf. Use this content:

Section "Device"
	Identifier "Device0"
	Driver "nvidia"
	VendorName "NVIDIA Corporation"
	Option "Coolbits" "4"
EndSection

This will alllow fan regulation at the next restart of your X server. Then, just create a startup entry of your favorite window manager (Mate, obviously):

/home/joe/amazing_software/nvfanctrl/nvfanctrl.py -t 55 --daemonize

And you should be set.

License

GNU GPL-3.