Well I'm disappointed yesterday I received my GALAX GeForce GTX 970 OC Silent "Infinity Black Edition" didn't get much change to test it out as i was busy, well this morning i got up early to have a quick gaming session on F1 2014 only to find I'm confronted with Coil Whine.

Now the coil whine isn't in the menu screen, but actually in the game itself I also tested Grid Autosport to find the exact same problem at the start of both games this card hisses and whines before it actually quiet down, when the fans start to speed up.

I also find coil whine is present in 3Dmark firestrike both demo and benchmark where the coil whine this time is constant.

Now i bought this card on the guarantee that it wouldn't suffer any coil whine, but it's actually pretty terrible.

Someone guaranteed no coil whine? Pretty big statement to make from a manufacturer.

Send it back to whomever you purchased it from as defective.

We guarantee if you have coil whine we will take it back and if it emits any even low we will swap it or refund it.

The coil whine reduction is that it helps reduce coil whine and in some cases eliminate it, but it's impossible to prevent coil whine in every possible case as it's an inherent feature in electronics.

The coil whine reduction just helps reduce the chances of you experiencing it, so send it back and we will test it and if any whine is present will replace or refund for you.

I bought the card from OCuK, the main reason i went with this card because the guarantee of no coil whine.

OcUK Zero Coil Whine guarantee*

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but it actually turned out to be the worst card i've had for coil whine, both my 7950 and R290 didn't do it at all unless frame rates where a crazy levels this card does it at 60fps.

This is so subjective. One person's "loud coilwhine" is another's non-issue. Just send it back and get it swapped if it bothers you.

Gibbo said:

We guarantee if you have coil whine we will take it back and if it emits any even low we will swap it or refund it.

The coil whine reduction is that it helps reduce coil whine and in some cases eliminate it, but it's impossible to prevent coil whine in every possible case as it's an inherent feature in electronics.

The coil whine reduction just helps reduce the chances of you experiencing it, so send it back and we will test it and if any whine is present will replace or refund for you.

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Its still bound to happen nothing is fool proof but as gibbo says you can send it back.

OLDPHART said:

Its still bound to happen nothing is fool proof but as gibbo says you can send it back.

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This as its completely impossible to prevent something that is a natural occurrence, its not a fault its just electronics for you.

We've done everything we can to reduce it, but there are going to be still cards which whine, the percentages are just reduced but not eliminated.

We sold just shy of 2000 units now of this particular SKU and the return rate is our lowest yet with 18 RMA's.

The reason the newer generation of cards seem to have more of an issue is simply because of the clock speeds, these cards are running over 1400MHz and upto 1600MHz if overclocked and as frequencies increase so do the chances of coil whine.

If they were like previous generations or AMD cards and running around 1000MHz then chances of whine is reduced. So if cards keep going faster and faster MHz wise then coil whine could become more of an issue. For example cards at 2000MHz are very noisy unfortunately.

I'm getting this as well and not sure if it's my PSU (700 watt PSU supplied as part of a PC Bundle from OCUK in 2009 - Gibbo might know the brand?) or an actual problem with the graphics card.

I am also only using 2 x 6 pin connectors currently if that could effect it?

Check its not the PSU that has the coil whine. I've found (even with a high quality Seasonic) that the PSU is the source of the whine and not the graphics.

The sounds definitely coming from the graphics card and it goes up and down in volume ingame depending on graphics demand - for example in Farcry 4 when you come round a corner and have a wide shot of the entire mountain and hills the sound increases significantly.

Shoza said:

The sounds definitely coming from the graphics card and it goes up and down in volume ingame depending on graphics demand - for example in Farcry 4 when you come round a corner and have a wide shot of the entire mountain and hills the sound increases significantly.

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To be honest what your doing on screen is not a good test, you need to have your ear to the card or psu. A more demanding scene will ofc demand more power to be fed from the PSU to the card.

I though like your self when i had coil whine back in the 8800 ultra days until I happen to put my ear to the PSU when there was coil whine and realised it was coming from the PSU and not the graphics card.

I will have a look and listen further tonight! Do you think the 2 x 6 pin connectors are causing any issues. Looking at the power requirements and no overclocking I would be surprised as it needing that much power.

I'm on my second one of these cards and I've been experiencing loud whine/buzzing in actual games (not menus). I was told to run Heaven at 720p using low setting and same rails on my PSU (Superflower 1000w Plat) to help run it in and also see if the the buzzing/whining went, unfortunately it remained. My first card was RMA'd back and it was tested by Gibbo and Bailey themselves and Gibbo agreed the card was a whiner at over 6ft away..

Hi there

Got your card here, it whines for sure, its not particular loud but the frequency makes it rather noticeable even at 6ft distance, so a whiner for sure!

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For me the whine was loud and the frequency but the frequency of the whine was irritating (even at a distance).

I'm not particular happy as the card is as bad as others that I've had coil whine with in the past, even with this "Coil Whine Technology". I was refunded for the first card fully. I'm now on my second card and it's exactly the same, loud whine/buzzing exactly the same as the first, this is in a handful of games including WoW, Grid, Hitman Absolution, Dead Space 1,2, L4D2, Grid 2, Tombraider. I've requested an RMA and will be returning this one also.

I still hate all this it's not a fault crap and it's inherent with electronics, I've owned dozens of graphics cards over the years and the 970's that I have are the first cards to have coil whine.

So for me to considering coil wine as being a 'normal' thing from electronics it would have to be a common thing among graphics cards.

Which it isn't.

KillBoY_UK said:

Check its not the PSU that has the coil whine. I've found (even with a high quality Seasonic) that the PSU is the source of the whine and not the graphics.

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Double check it using the bog roll method. Get an empty toilet roll use it as an ear trumpet, in game first point it to the GPU and listen then point it at the PSU and listen.

I too thought once it was my GTX 770 till I used the above method turned out it was my PSU.

Also make sure you have a clean power supply ie not using cheap/nasty or overloaded power extensions. Try plugging PC direct into wall.

Been testing a few games today by far the worst culprit is Farcry 4 & Crysis, as soon as you put all setting on maximum then the whine really starts to kick in, it looks like anything that really pushes the card the whining get worst, such as benchmarks & graphic intense games no matter if Vsync is on or off.

This 970 replaced my R290 that had annoying coil whine when moving the mouse on the desktop with 1000mhz polling on my mouse, in games it was perfectly silent.

Lol now i have the opposite silent on desktop, yet terrible in games.

Most people will probably not hear coilwhine due to having an a loud pc to begin with or are half deaf or both or just not bothered by it, I have very good hearing and a very quiet rig & one of my biggest hates is coil whine no matter how quiet it is i can hear it.

Shoza said:

I will have a look and listen further tonight! Do you think the 2 x 6 pin connectors are causing any issues. Looking at the power requirements and no overclocking I would be surprised as it needing that much power.

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So your not powering it with an 8 plus 6? If so that could cause issues.

Ixon said:

I bought the card from OCuK, the main reason i went with this card because the guarantee of no coil whine.

OcUK Zero Coil Whine guarantee*

Click to expand...

but it actually turned out to be the worst card i've had for coil whine, both my 7950 and R290 didn't do it at all unless frame rates where a crazy levels this card does it at 60fps.

Click to expand...

I love that, lol.
You even quoted the asterisk!

*If your card emits any coilwhine when used on a decent power supply that is 80+ Gold rated or higher then OcUK will refund or exchange the card. These cards incorporate our exclusive Coil Whine Reduction technology to help reduce and eliminate any whine.

Click to expand...

I've had more than a dozen graphics cards in my life, both AMD and Nvidia, stretching back about 15 years, maybe even 20. Not once have any of them had any amount of coil whine, not even the slightest of sound. This is no fault of OCUK or any other retailer, but I hate the stand of "all graphics cards have coil whine to a certain extent" Before the 9x series cards, you hardly ever heard of stories regarding said coil whine in these forums or discussions amongst friends. These 9x series cards just seem rife with it. At least Gibbo and OCUK will refund or replace, can't argue with that. I just really hate the defence of coil whine, it shouldn't be there, end of.