Graphics cards can sometimes have rather noisy fans, especially when they start up. It’s true that with the cards’ semi-passive modes, you can hear them less, but some entry-level models can be (very) audible… And if you like silence, you’ve got no choice but to change that. To that end, via Reddit, two users are turning to 3D printing to remedy their cards’ noise levels!
Graphics cards: new fairings thanks to 3D printing!
3D printing can be the perfect solution for anyone wishing to change their card’s ventilation. Often, the radiator remains efficient, but when you consider the number of heat pipes that run through it, the new materials used to replace thermal paste and sometimes even the use of a vapor chamber, there’s not much to worry about.
For kicks, we have two examples on Reddit of people who have replaced the ventilation on their boards. The first has taken on his original Gigabyte model and changed its fairing. He printed a new bracket that will have allowed the mounting of two NF-A12x25s as well as a third 92 mm fan between the two larger ones. The result is an overclocked RTX 5080 that draws up to 400W, but stabilizes at 74°C on Steel Nomad with the fan blocked at 1250 rpm.
Next, we have a second user who has modded his MSI RTX 5090 Ventus 3X to install a very unusual fairing. The latter incorporates a total of four fans, two T30s from Phanteks and two smaller NF-A6x25s from Noctua. Now, the first thing that’s hard to imagine is the thickness of the card. By default, a 5090 Ventus takes up more than three slots, but add two 30 mm thick fans, plus a shell on top, and the card becomes a real brick! And despite these numerous fans, the card remains quieter than the base configuration: 42 dB vs. 51 dB!