I just fired up The Witcher 3 for the first time with my 1080 Ti FTW3 and ROG PG348Q ultrawide with ultra graphics settings. Boy is The Witcher 3's  graphics demanding at this res or what? (3440x1440) Using XOC's aggressive fan profile and BIOS 2 the 1080 Ti FTW3 reached 60C pretty quick and then look sustained at about 60-62C, except, that then the PWR4 temp started to suddenly rise much higher than the other G P M temps nearing 70C. This meant that the PWR fan was reaching 80%+ fan speed which does become pretty noisy. Because I'd like to play this later at night I'd like to keep a quieter fan noise level. This is the first game I've seen where the PWR temp particularly PWR 4 has reached such high temperature. I'm concerned that with the PWR 4 reaching 70C that I won't be able to reduce the fan level much for that fan. Any suggestions? 

Ah yes I thought so, I guess I was more curious as to why this particular game was running PWR 4 much higher than others. Can this be to do with a different graphic engine's demand or certain graphics technology's? Does PWR 4 inherently usually run the warmest? 

Sajin
 
Yep, all games will stress the gpu differently. Yes, PWR4 runs the hottest out of all of them.

Sounds good, no worries. 
 
Another thing I was curious about is the when the G P M fans are running at different rpm, particularly the PWR fan when increasing and decreasing in rpm appears to be the noisiest creating a more high pitched whirl. Is it common for differences in fan rotation speed to cause slightly strange noises? Never the less I'm very pleased with the 1080 Ti FTW3 cooling to an average of 60C at 3440x1440 75-90 fps! Pretty amazing, I'm just very sensitive to noise...  

The power delivery components are rated to 125°C except for the caps, those are usually rated at 105°C (although you can get ones that are rated at 135°C).  60°C is downright chilly.

Sajin

Graphite8five
Is it common for differences in fan rotation speed to cause slightly strange noises?

Yes, but they shouldn't sound strange.

I didn't really mean strange, what I meant was the changes in rpm tend to cause short bursts of increased fan noise. 

I was wondering about some of these things too. I have a FTW3 1080ti for just over a week now.
 
It's been pretty hot here in the UK for the last week or two (perhaps longer) but yesterday was stonkingly hot!
 
What I find with mine and like others have mentioned, PWR4 is reporting the hottest temps. Hitting almost 70c (on PWR4) while playing BF1 @ 1440p (165Hz) yesterday which according to the tachometer (PWR) was running at 2300rpm ish to cool it down. Memory fan was at roughly the same while the GPU fan was at a lower RPM more like 1800rpm if I remember correctly.
 
I also get a dull intermittent humming noise while back out in windows. After switching off each fan in turn, the noise seems to be coming from the power fan. This is not a constant hum. It will sound like this for 10 seconds then disappear for say 8 seconds then reappear. Normally I have noticed this at fan speed 35-40% (from memory).  
 
I do wear razor hammerhead pro V2 ear buds so don't get distracted by this during gaming much but when I do take them off, I always think how annoying it would be if I didn't wear a headset or a set of earbuds.
 
It was that hot yesterday that I took off my overclocks on both GPU and CPU (7700K set back to 4.5Ghz instead of 4.7/5 GHz). The case is ok cooling wise. Corsair ML PRO x4 140mm fans (two front, 1 rear and one bottom) and then a Kraken X62 in a Corsair AIR 740 case.
 
Temps stayed around 62c GPU , 65c Mem and 67-70c PWR during BF1. 
 
I have to say I was hammering BF1 at around 120-140FPS during some intense battles yesterday and the fan speeds (using precision x overlay) were reporting 2300 RPM (PWR), 2200RPMish (memory) , GPU was around the 1800RPM mark - showing @53% fan speeds perhaps Precision X takes the speed of the fastest fan?,  at that speed, from my case that is riddle with air holes, all you can hear is the amount of air its moving lol and certainly would cover over any dull hum.
 
BTW with my overclocks on I have seen the FPS hit 186 FPS in game for a brief moment (1-2 seconds) then go back to between 120-160 FPS - seems to change rapidly between this range - could be the polling rate in Precision X or my refresh rate. Of course it all depends on what you are looking at in game and the map you are on. If I were to plant my face into the side of a mountain and not move, I would get higher FPS I'm sure  but this is not realistically how one plays BF1 lol
 
Anyway getting off topic. 
 
So basically I find the power fan does hum a little depending on speed.
 
The fans moves so much air that I do get a loooooooot of air noise but no grinding/grunting noise from the fans below 70% I would say (if there is any, the air sound is covering it). Not had the need to go higher than 70% speed yet. I imagine I would get some harsher sounds towards the fans higher speed range. 
 
Maybe my waffling above might help in someway.
 
-Yoda.
 
 
 

@Yoda-In_Area51
 
Your experiences are similar to mine, temp wise, fan control etc, but I now have another issue and that's that the fans seem to be breaching my custom set fan profiles. One of the fans I'm not sure which is revving up and down erratically when it reaches 60C despite a cap of 50% fan speed using a custom fan profile. I don't think I'm imagining things, it is late though and I will investigate this further tomorrow. 
 
I see what you mean, your wondering what fan it is reporting fan speed on? You can click on the G P M under the sliders and it shows what that fans rpm is... 
 
The overshoot of FPS in the OSD is something I experience too but in MSI Afterburner also. Someone told me it is artificial and to not think to much of it...
 
The fans on my 1080 Ti certainly get very whiny at certain levels, but I'm more concerned about having my custom profiles work properly. 

@Yoda_In_Area51
 
No problem! What I haven't tried yet is adding fan speed to the OSD so I'm interested to see what fan speed is displayed and whether or not it displays the 3 separate fan speeds...
 
So I ran through a very basic Unigine Superposition benchmark with my custom fan profile of all 3 fans set to 50% max fan speed and they seemed to adhere to the custom profile. It was last night while playing The Witcher 3 that the fans became erratic. What I have noticed today is that the GPU fan profile keeps resetting itself under my custom fan profile. I have all 3 fan profiles set 50% max fan speed and saved to profile 2 but upon closing and reopening XOC the GPU profile keeps resetting itself...

@Graphite8five
 
Glad to hear that the issue dissappeared chap!
 
There should be an option to show each fans RPM speed on Precision X's OSD which is very handy. I had this running on my setup.
 
The % of RPM speed on the OSD however, is listed on a separate line for me, so not entirely sure which fan or fans this relates too. Perhaps there is one for each fan that I have not spotted yet.
 
I have just reinstalled windows yesterday as I wanted a clean setup before I start benchmarking etc.. Going to wait until the temps in the UK get a bit cooler though. =)
 
-Yoda

@Graphite8five
 
All I can say is that you seem to be running into the same sort of questions as me lately.
 
I was also caught out by the same thing initially. The sound of the Kraken X62 and thinking it was the new FTW3 haha!
 
Funny enough I also had the Corsair  H80GT (V2 I think it was called) originally.
 
After using a dual radiator with x2 140 fans, in my opinion I wouldn't want to go back to the H80 on a 7700K chip at least (The chip can run hot). The H80 worked but sometimes it was working very hard to keep those temps down even at 4.5 Ghz.
 
The Kraken works less harder to keep things cool and in turn there is less noise which matters to me. Before the hot weather I was seeing my 7700K clocked at 4.7Ghz hitting perhaps 57-61c in games with random spikes up to 63-65c. I really did think the Kraken X62 was the best thing since sliced bread! Better temps and performance.
 
Before this hot weather the Kraken never ramped it's fan over 50% in performance mode (using the default profile in the CAM software). The sound was really great from the PC at this setting. Cool temps. 
 
However, since the hot weather I have seen the Kraken fan speed peak to 68% with a liquid temp of 41c in games like BF1 or Benchmarking in Heaven. The sound is audible at that speed for me but I'm planning to check the mounting of the Kraken X62 over the next few days to ensure there are no silly happenings like loose screws etc. The case has moved around a fair bit over the last 4-5 months and I haven't tightened things since it was originally installed back then. I only hear the noise once the ear buds are out but I always think to myself, I wonder what the misses thinks I'm doing in my man cave. Must sound like a rocket is preparing to take off haha (air noise, slight vibrating noise (sounds like a warp engine from star trek I kid you not) and a slight diesel sound from the Kraken).
 
The thing is, normal domestic fans at my place seem to be moving just hot air around lately so I'm guessing the Kraken and it's fans are having the same trouble/issue with the air it's trying to push through the radiator (I guess).
 
 
Just waiting for it to get a bit cooler then it's game on!
 
Time to invest in an air con unit for room me thinks! I've mentioned this to the other half but shes not having any of it haha! =(
 
-Yoda
 
 

Yeah PWR4 is also warmer here, but that's likely because it resides on the back of the GPU, and indeed nearby the GPU.
Precision XOC main window will by default show the hottest sensor of G P M, this is also what the fan profiles for each fan will follow, unless you link the fans.
 
Only I've noticed some power fan curve issues which are caused by false readings on PWR5, it tends to ignore the range of about 45-52°C and jump in between.
If the card is cooling down PWR5 usually stays a little longer at 53°C stable while PWR4 and the rest are cooling down.
But this means the Power fan will follow the temperature of the sensor for PWR5 for a while, until it jumps back down to 44-45°C, causing the fan to make RPM jumps.
 
I was wondering if any of you have seen similar behaviour, it does on my friends two FTW3's also.
Since I haven't received much feedback from other FTW3 users on the topic I created about it.

@Yoda_In_Area51
 
I know what you mean about noise, different coolers have different tones. I just received a 4790K this week (very pleased with this) and an H110i. I was warned about the stock fans on the H110i and I didn't heed warning, well I did just not right away. The stock fans sound God awful! The bearings on these fans are obviously not designed to run inverted and they constantly grind. Put the fans on balanced and my table top really starts vibrating, they have a low tone. Put the fans on performance and the room starts shaking! I'm in NZ and it's winter, but the H110i has been a good upgrade from the H80i especially after getting the 1080 Ti. The Ti right under the H80i rad was heating the coolant up to 40C and the H80i fans were running at jet speed... Now the Ti is isolated form the H110i (top mount) both the cooler and GPU are running  quite a bit cooler. With a heater on in the room idle coolant temp is 26.4C and load temp looks to be about 35C, quite a difference. The Ti is running almost 5-6 cooler also, nice! I've just discovered though that the 4790K I received runs at a stock voltage of 1.260V, bad luck :(. 
 
So my initial thoughts that the 1080 Ti fans were rather loud seems to mistaken for an H80i running at full speed. In the last week I haven't really noticed the Ti fans while gaming even on the aggressive fan profile where they sometimes hit 80% fan speed, they do whine a bit when throttling though... Once I get some ML140 Pro's on the H110i sound levels should hopefully get pretty good.
 
Yeah, I brought a portable air conditioner last summer for the room and they do work. Not only did it keep me sane but kept the computer temps at least 5C cooler. If you get them set up properly they're pretty good, a little noisy and bulky but totally necessary for those unbearable summers... A split unit would be better but wasn't an option for me that summer.