Can video card drive two 120 mm case fans?

KingFatty

Diamond Member
Dec 29, 2010
3,034
1
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Hi all,

Can a video card safely drive two 120 mm case fans? Anyone else do this successfully?

Alternatively, how do I find out the rated current available on the video card's fan header?

My plan is to wire 2x 120 mm PWM case fans directly to the video card (disabling the speed sensor pin for one of the fans so the video card gets an RPM signal from one of the fans and won't get confused) and I'm hoping not to burn out the current supply for the fan header on the card.

Otherwise, I'll resort to using an auxiliary power supply to provide power, and use the pins on the video card fan header to provide speed control/monitoring. It's an AMD MSI HD 5850.
 

Fallengod

Diamond Member
Jul 2, 2001
5,908
19
81
Umm, im not really sure, id guess not? I dont know. Something happen to the stock cooling?
 
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chimaxi83

Diamond Member
May 18, 2003
5,457
63
101
Do the stock cooler fans have labels with electrical specs on them? That'd be a good gauge as to what the header can support.
 

KingFatty

Diamond Member
Dec 29, 2010
3,034
1
81
Yeah basically I guess I'm desiring to, at worst, double the existing fan specs, so I'm wondering if the video card's fan header can support double the typical load?

My issue is that I'm constrained by the puny fans on the original Accelero twin turbo, which aren't as powerful as the fans from the twin turbo 2. So, I can reach a point where even with 100% fan speed, it's not enough airflow. But the heat pipes and fins etc. are great so I'm wanting to re-use those and amp up the airflow by using twin 120 mm case fans, that are PWM so the video card can spin them up as needed based on GPU load.
 

blastingcap

Diamond Member
Sep 16, 2010
6,654
5
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The headers can be nonstandard in pins as well as wattage. I would avoid the risk and connect to PSU/mobo for the power supply.