No, that's not the issue. I hear the fan noise go up and down in pitch corresponding to the graphs (RPM and %). The default minimum speed is 40%, which is pretty quiet, and gets buried in the noise from the case fans. But when it increases, it gets obvious. By default ("auto" mode), the fan speed doesn't go up unless the temperature gets fairly toasty. I didn't like that, so I used Firestorm to use a profile that steps up the speed in increments of 10% every 10 degrees. That works fine, as long as Firestorm is active, which I don't always bother with unless I'm gaming. With me so far?
When I installed Afterburner, I was not running Firestorm. I figured out how to turn on user fan control in AB, and created a smooth curve similar in intended effect to the stair-stepped FS profile. After running the game for testing, the result was my last post: no fan-speed effect from AB. The GPU temp was still over 50 degrees, so I launched FS, and voila: the fan speed went up to 50%, visibly (on the AB graphs) and audibly (in pitch).
Yeah, these 2 programs seem to get along fine if I run them together. It wasn't my intention to do that. I wanted AB to replace FS entirely. But it looks like that's not happening, at least not until I figure out why the 1060 is ignoring AB's attempts to control it. Hence: FS to control, AB to monitor.