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Is capacitor whine more likely with Nvidia cards?

John Doe

John Doe

John Doe

Associate
Joined
17 Apr 2009
Posts
118
I've read that ATI have made strides in attempting to eliminate this from their more recent cards, whilst Nvidia haven't, is this true? If this is true, how common is it, and do certain Gtx200 cards tend to suffer from it more than others?

If it is relatively rare than I can accept the risk? Sorry, I know it's a bit of a 'how long is a piece of string type question'.
 
I get that at different times, to be honest im not sure if it is my cards since it can be a number of things inside your computer. it can be any graphics card i dont think its particularly limited to 200 series cards

i also get another noise which i can't explain well but sounds like an old record spinning with something scratching it lightly.. maybe hard drive
 
Most of my RV770 cards have had it, although I don't know if it's the capacitors. Also the GTX 280 and 260 216 both had whining.

For some strange reason nothing makes any of the cards squeal more than the Crysis menu.
 
There is a little bit of whine from my 4870 during loading screens, under heavy load, and sometimes when scrolling down web pages etc. However it is nothing unbearable.
 
I had 1 4870x2 it whined a lot ( web pages scrolling / in games etc)
I have had 4 GTX280s none of them whine at all ( else they would have been returned as faulty)

I have spent 16 years as an electronics Engineer , if it whines something is up ( poor quality caps or bad design)
 
Thanks very much for the info. I'll just take the risk and use the DSR if it does whine. Assuming I can build my first computer in that time. :)
 
I use head phones so the only whine i hear is the wife. seriously couldn't say my 8800 has that. 2morrow i'll tell you if there is on the 4890
 
gurusan said:
Most of my RV770 cards have had it, although I don't know if it's the capacitors. Also the GTX 280 and 260 216 both had whining.

For some strange reason nothing makes any of the cards squeal more than the Crysis menu.
Click to expand...

I notice this as well, both my 4870 x2 and current gtx 260 had this.

Using fraps u will see that the crysis menu soemtimes goes upto 1500-2000 fps.
 
I've not had it on any of my recent gaming cards, but ironically I do have it on a Galaxy 7300GT DDR3 (in a family machine) I got when OcUK did the £30 try your luck budget card offer a few years back (was a really good little card for the money at the time actually, not much slower than a 7600GS, and still works fine!). Bit ironic really as it was the non gaming card, and came fitted with a Zalman fan which is rediculously quiet, but it definately has low level capacitor whine, which is really annoying as I seem to be the only one in my family who's hearing range can pick it up (and annoy senseless!). Can't say my X1900XT/2900GT/9600GSO/8800GTS/4870 have it though. I did also hear the story that ATI had put more effort into removing it from thier stock designs (reintroduced in non standard PCBs?) however it seems a bit luck of the draw, so unless it really bothers you, I'd say get whatever you like, both sides make good cards that play games well!
 
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