A module to control Nvidia Graphic Cards' fan in your python script.
My deep learning rig contains 2 GTX 1080ti graphic cards with no liquid cooling. It takes only a few minutes for the GPUs to hit the thermal threshold of 86°C after I start a training process. Yet, it only uses fans at 50% rate.
There is an option to control fan speed manually using Nvidia Preferences GUI. But it annoys me run a desktop to control fans!
There are scripts around that use nvidia-settings to control fan right in the command line. Actually, I used them a lot and I am not satisfied. So I built mine.
It integrates with my python scripts. The immediate benefit is that it gives control back to the driver after the work is finished. So I don't hear the noise more than necessary!
It can be used as a standalone script with enough options to control GPUs indiviually.
Controlling nvidia gpu fan requires an X server to be running. To run X without having a monitor attached to the system requires special config.
Setup x config in a shell like below. You may need to use sudo.
$ nvidia-xconfig --enable-all-gpus --cool-bits=7 --connected-monitor=Monitor0 --allow-empty-initial-configuration --force-generate
Warning: we used --force-generate flag. A backup of your previous config is saved and is reported as the result of running this function.
I think the best way is to use xinit:
$ xinit &
$ pip install gpufan
You can use command line script:
$ gpufan constant -g 0 -s 60
Or in your python script:
import gpufan
first_gpu = 0
gpufan.constant(first_gpu, 60)The above script, puts GPU 0 in constant mode with 60% speed. You can use aggressive or driver modes too:
second_gpu = 1
# In aggressive mode, a small increase in temperature causes a large increase in fan speed.
gpufan.aggressive(second_gpu)
# Give control back to the driver manually. Please note that after execution is finished, this line is automatically called so you don't have to.
gpufan.driver(first_gpu)
gpufan.driver(second_gpu)Use this module at your own risk. The author takes no responsibility and the scripts come with no warranty.