Reduce System76 Fan Noise
Here are some tips to cut down on Systemu76 laptop fan noise.
I have yet to find a perfect solution. The System76 Oryx Pro spins up too much and too loudly for my taste. I've done a few things to try and help.
Remove High CPU Process
If you're fan spins up, it's because something's hot. CPU is a likely candidate.
To see the CPU usage of the processes using the most, run top, which will produce some output:
PID USER PR NI VIRT RES SHR S %CPU %MEM TIME+
82780 jaketre+ 26 6 2976940 374596 110388 S 18.9 0.9 5:11.70The first call is a process id, PID. Go kill it: kill 82780.
Remove Turbo
Did you know that your laptop still has a turbo button? See if it's on by displaying your current power profile:
system76-power profileIt'll output something like this:
Power Profile: Balanced
CPU: 8% - 100%, Turbo
Backlight acpi_video0: 19/19 = 100%
Keyboard Backlight system76_acpi::kbd_backlight: 0/255 = 0%(Turbo is on.)
To turn it off, set your profile to "battery", telling your little laptop to conserve energy:
system76-power profile batteryResponds:
system76-power profile
Power Profile: Battery
CPU: 8% - 50%, No Turbo
Backlight acpi_video0: 19/19 = 100%
Keyboard Backlight system76_acpi::kbd_backlight: 0/255 = 0%No turbo: brings the fan way down!
Use Integrated Graphics Only
The dedicated GPU can also be one of the biggest uses of fan.
See graphics options for your System76 wonder:
system76-power graphics --helpIt will show you your options:
Query or set the graphics mode.
- If an argument is not provided, the graphics profile will be queried
- Otherwise, that profile will be set, if it is a valid profile
A reboot is required after switching modes.
Usage: system76-power graphics [COMMAND]
Commands:
compute Like integrated, but the dGPU is available for compute
hybrid Set the graphics mode to Hybrid (PRIME)
integrated Set the graphics mode to integrated
nvidia Set the graphics mode to NVIDIA
switchable Determines if the system has switchable graphics
power Query or set the discrete graphics power state
help Print this message or the help of the given subcommand(s)integrated is your lowest-power option. Set it:
system76-power graphics integratedMonitor Your Heat
Fans come on in order to dissipate heat. To see what is producing heat, get the sensor readouts:
watch -d sensorssensorswill output the reading of all sensorswatchwill refresh it every 2 seconds-dwill highlight the diffs
You'll get something like this:
Every 2.0s: sensors thegrid: Tue Dec 5 14:56:49 2023
coretemp-isa-0000
Adapter: ISA adapter
Package id 0: +57.0°C (high = +100.0°C, crit = +100.0°C)
Core 0: +51.0°C (high = +100.0°C, crit = +100.0°C)
Core 4: +52.0°C (high = +100.0°C, crit = +100.0°C)
Core 8: +48.0°C (high = +100.0°C, crit = +100.0°C)
Core 12: +57.0°C (high = +100.0°C, crit = +100.0°C)
Core 16: +49.0°C (high = +100.0°C, crit = +100.0°C)
Core 20: +52.0°C (high = +100.0°C, crit = +100.0°C)
Core 24: +50.0°C (high = +100.0°C, crit = +100.0°C)
Core 25: +50.0°C (high = +100.0°C, crit = +100.0°C)
Core 26: +50.0°C (high = +100.0°C, crit = +100.0°C)
Core 27: +50.0°C (high = +100.0°C, crit = +100.0°C)
Core 28: +49.0°C (high = +100.0°C, crit = +100.0°C)
Core 29: +50.0°C (high = +100.0°C, crit = +100.0°C)
Core 30: +50.0°C (high = +100.0°C, crit = +100.0°C)
Core 31: +50.0°C (high = +100.0°C, crit = +100.0°C)
system76_acpi-acpi-0
Adapter: ACPI interface
CPU fan: 0 RPM
GPU fan: 0 RPM
CPU temp: +57.0°C
GPU temp: +50.0°C
iwlwifi_1-virtual-0
Adapter: Virtual device
temp1: +33.0°C
nvme-pci-0200
Adapter: PCI adapter
Composite: +32.9°C (low = -273.1°C, high = +84.8°C)
(crit = +84.8°C)
Sensor 1: +32.9°C (low = -273.1°C, high = +65261.8°C)
Sensor 2: +30.9°C (low = -273.1°C, high = +65261.8°C)
BAT0-acpi-0
Adapter: ACPI interface
in0: 17.22 V
curr1: 0.00 AHow do you get your fan noise to come down?