dnavas, how will you check the fan if the chip still isn't running? The startup sequence of the PC does not turn on the gfx chip first, that's just the gfx BIOS sensing power-on at first and spinning the fan per default I suppose.
Sure. And the shuttle engines run at 109% normal, too
I thought Geo's point was that "normal" fan speed should cover "normal" cooling. So, if you turn the fan "on", absent an "afterburner" signal from the gfx chip, the fan runs in half-speed mode. Of course, that's absent a lot of knowledge on my part as to how fan speeds are controlled in a PC. I assume there's a PWM controller somewhere, and that you could default said controller to 50% for power-on.
I don't think you worry about checking the fan without the chip up, you just bring the chip up in 2D/Mhz-constrained mode, then check everything is good. [That's to control for the case where you restarted a "hot" video card, which I would think would be the only worrisome case on startup.]
Well, it *sounds* reasonable, anyway
Some of the articles I've read notice that the chip gets a wee bit hot, so the startup of a hot video card may be a noticeable issue which prevents this sort of noise abatement. Of course, that's a guess layered on top of a series of unfounded suppositions, so you should take it for granted that I grew up in NY where they mined salt by the truckload....