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7970 Coil Whine RMA?

Associate
Joined
7 Jan 2012
Posts
425
Location
Leeds,UK
As the title suggests, I have a new 7970 Sapphire OC and it suffers from coil whine. It happens when running 3dmark11 or playing any gpu intensive game. It is right on the edge of being tolerable, but I am not sure whether, or if I can return it for that reason.

Any thoughts?
 
I would. It's not as described. Nowhere in the feature list does it say "may squeal if the IC quality is poor"
 
You'ld be better returning it under DSR rather than RMA.

Coil whine may not be due to the card itself and may get returned to you if you RMA, as it can be a mixture of motherboard/PS and card..
 
Under DSR law you can return any item purchased online within 10 days for any reason and obtain a full refund. If you have any doubts about the product, just return it.
 
I bought it on the 17th, so I think I will return it then. It performs ok, but the noise seems a bit much IMO. I had it on my 6990 and even on one of two 6950's, but it was quieter.
 
Assuming you bought it from OcUK then this is the procedure for returning it using the DSR:

Under the Distance Selling Regulations (2000) you have the right to cancel the contract relating to your order at any time up to the end of 7 working days after the goods are delivered. To exercise your right of cancellation, you must give written notice to Overclockers UK by letter, fax or RMA WebNote giving details of the goods ordered and date received. Notification by phone is not acceptable. If you exercise your right of cancellation under the Distance Selling Regulations (2000) after the goods have been delivered to you, you will be responsible for returning the goods to Overclockers UK at your own cost. The Distance Selling Regulations (2000) places a duty on you to take reasonable care of the goods once you have exercised your right to cancel. Returned items must be packaged properly and shipped in a plain outer box. Please try to include all internal packaging, cables, manuals, drivers and protective bags, however small. Overclockers UK will refund you within 30 days for any sum that has been paid by you or debited from your credit or debit card for the goods. If after exercising your right under the Distance Selling Regulations (2000) you do not return the goods as required, Overclockers UK may charge you a sum not exceeding the direct costs of recovering the goods. When exercising your right to cancel under the Distance Selling Regulations (2000) please return goods to Overclockers UK (Esnet Ltd), 4 Axis, Millenium way, High Carr Business Park, Newcastle-under-lyme, ST5 7UF.

In addition to your statutory rights OcUK now also offer every consumer an extended 14 day satisfaction guarantee.

Edit:

14 working days satisfaction guarantee.

DSR, you have 7 working days to return the product. However we have added another 7 working days to this. So you have 14 working days in total to return the product. :)

Hope this clears it up.
 
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:S I put in an order for one of these just a couple hours ago. Read this and started googling around. There seems to be a lot of coil whining on the 7970's... I hope its either a bad batch or simply doesnt affect mine!
 
Good luck deadman. Thanks to everyone too for the input. I bought it from a competitor, but their return policy seems similar. I bought a mobo and cpu combo from ocuk a while back, but won't buy from them
again until I am eligible for free postage. (I am working on it)
I am just worried my replacement will be just the same. This one clocks half decent on stock volts too. I still think I will return it and take my chances.
 
you stated ur last card displayed similar symptons just not as severe. This would suggest to me that your PSU is the more likley suspect.

I bought my son a new 570 OC and popped it in to his othewise silent PC. It squealed like pig under 3D load. Replaced the PSU and no noise. People are now finding that the most recent gen of gfx cards are uncovering poor PSUs.
 
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:S I put in an order for one of these just a couple hours ago. Read this and started googling around. There seems to be a lot of coil whining on the 7970's... I hope its either a bad batch or simply doesnt affect mine!

Its **** PSUs
 
I have on arriving on Monday From OcUK.

What PSU do you have. I purchased a 6970 (off the MM a while back) and the seller complained of coil whine. I got it and I had none, but I had a Enermax 750W PSU.
 
you stated ur last card displayed similar symptons just not as severe. This would suggest to me that your PSU is the more likley suspect.

I bought my son a new 570 OC and popped it in to his othewise silent PC. It squealed like pig under 3D load. Replaced the PSU and no noise. People are now finding that the most recent gen of gfx cards are uncovering poor PSUs.

Only one of them. I bought one and it didn't happen at all. I then bought a second which the seller even informed me had a very minor coil whine. So with one I had literally none, so I don't believe it's the PSU. I have also disabled all the power saving modes. They did actually make my PSU make a weird noise.

I have a 6 month old (bought from new) Thermaltake Toughpower 875w PSU
 
I have on arriving on Monday From OcUK.

What PSU do you have. I purchased a 6970 (off the MM a while back) and the seller complained of coil whine. I got it and I had none, but I had a Enermax 750W PSU.

And to repeat myself a little, it is bearable. I just played Shogun 2 again to see if it was OK and it really is. Just not ideally what I expect from a £400 card/£370 in my case. 3DMARK test showed it the worst since it's silent, but gaming it's hardly noticeable.
 
Only one of them. I bought one and it didn't happen at all. I then bought a second which the seller even informed me had a very minor coil whine. So with one I had literally none, so I don't believe it's the PSU. I have also disabled all the power saving modes. They did actually make my PSU make a weird noise.

I have a 6 month old (bought from new) Thermaltake Toughpower 875w PSU

Had some severe coil whine when I bought a 580. Put a 6970 back in and the coil whine went. Assumed it was the 580 until I also swapped out the PSU and the coil whine completely went on the 580. PSU was a OCZ1000v.

I think sometimes its a combination of components that come together to make it whine.
 
Had some severe coil whine when I bought a 580. Put a 6970 back in and the coil whine went. Assumed it was the 580 until I also swapped out the PSU and the coil whine completely went on the 580. PSU was a OCZ1000v.

I think sometimes its a combination of components that come together to make it whine.

I suppose it does make sense, just like hominid said previously too. Pesky computers. I would say you don't get this trouble on consoles, but my second xbox 360 got a RROD and I have given up on that piece of ****.

Thanks for the input guys. I might just wait a day and see if it's annoying enough to get exchange for possibly the same problem.

Suppose I could just throw all the bits in the dustbin and start again. J/K
 
The MSI 7970 OC I've just picked up does this, it's quite terrible actually... if I run Heaven or the Windows Experience Index it's by far the noisiest thing in my case until the GPU fan kicks and even then it just barely drowns it out, in games it's not quite as severe.

I have a Seasonic 1000W Platinum PSU which is whisper quiet so it's definitely entirely the card, I've since seen there are quite a few videos on Youtube reporting the same problem and am contemplating whether to DSR it, the fact that Skyrim seems to stutter more than on GTX580 doesn't help matters.
 
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I have a corsair AX750, never had coil whine issues before with my current 4870, so heres to hoping I dont have the issue. Will report back on Tuesday.
 
9/10 its the PSU. If your not sure use this tip - go get a kitchen roll tube and listen when the noise is present. Get the tube right down at ur PSU and then right up to your GFX Card. Safer than trying to stick ur head in. It was this method that isolated the PSU as the problem in my case - I changed to a XFX and problem gone.
 
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