MSI 4870 stock fan problems

[Strelok]

Me having a temporal distortion of wits I had been running my graphic card at 73% (3000RPM) fan speed 24/7 (I kept it running 24/7 for multiple reasons) for like a couple of months now. Now settings it to 73% makes it make very disturbing noises. Although the fan makes a grinding noise for a while after starting up and in general is fairly noisy, it still worries me. I checked the fan and it looks visually fine, I even checked the bearings. I might try putting a drop of oil in it but I don't know.

The temperatures are fine. 40-50C idle and 60-70C load, same temperature as when I first got it. It was always a little noisy but now I'm concerned.

I don't care about the noise itself, it just worries me. I've had a dying 9600XT fan and it still works to this day, but...

[Freddie]

I think these fans work on ball bearings and it might be the bearing is failing, the temps look fine so no worry there but if you concerned about the noise you might want to get a new 3rd party cooler for it and have a quieter and cooler card.