7970 Coil Whine

uksoldierboy · 3 Mar 2013 at 19:15

Hi guys,
As some of you maybe aware i've recently put a custom waterloop in my rig for the cpu, which has obviously quieten things down a lot when it comes to noise.
Just tried playing some BF3 Single player with the setting i used for multiplayer (ultra) no V-sync.
Noticed as soon as i got halfway through the train my card started buzzing, GPU usage was at 99%, at first i thought it was the fan as whenever i'm gaming i put them at 100% to keep it all nice and cool.
Took the side off the case but i can't really pinpoint where on the card it's coming from, a quick search through google comes back that it's likely coil whine

I tried enabling V-sync and this did indeed stop it from whining, GPU usage was around 60-70%.
After reading about it, i understand that it isn't something that can damage anything, but i'm trying to quieten down my rig and unless i'm gaming with my headset on it's very noticeable unfortunately.
Where do i stand in regards to RMA with the issue?
TBH i really don't want to RMA it because it's a great clocker considering it's voltage locked and if i did send it back, i'd probably get something that isn't voltage locked.
Thanks guys,
David

Gregster · 3 Mar 2013 at 20:25

I had this after switching from the stock cooler to a waterblock. It was the phase capacitors when things were loading and in very high frame times (I assumed).

I did loads of serious benching and after a couple of hors, it had bedded in. I never heard it after that, so maybe do some hard benching for a few hours to see if that helps.

spixelspixel · 3 Mar 2013 at 20:28

Every single graphics card I've owned has had coil whine so chances are a replacement will sound the same. Some whine a bit louder than others though.

Anyone who says their card doesn't do this most likely have loud fans in their pc which drowns it out.

You could also try what gregster mentioned.

Tonester0011 · 3 Mar 2013 at 20:34

No idea about the whine, i'm more confused about you putting a custom loop on your CPU to keep the noise down, but you game with your GPU @100% fans?!!?

The old way for curbing the whine from the graphics cards is to loop Heaven all night, must still be applicable.

Diagro · 3 Mar 2013 at 20:39

This is the exact reason i got the DCII from asus, Its such a shame and i bet that 50% of RMA's are from coil whine

spixelspixel · 3 Mar 2013 at 20:41

Diagro said:
This is the exact reason i got the DCII from asus, Its such a shame and i bet that 50% of RMA's are from coil whine

My Asus DCII has coil whine

uksoldierboy · 3 Mar 2013 at 21:08

Cheers for the comments guys,
Sounds crazy i know tonester

but it was mainly while watching movies etc that the noise bothered me, for some reason my Arctic Freezer 13 was very loud regardless of fan speed.
I shall do what greg suggests and loop heaven, only problem i can see is that you need to buy the damn thing to do it

Tonester0011 · 3 Mar 2013 at 21:14

Just start Heaven, and leave it like that. It's still using your GPU, just not recording your scores (benchmarking)

uksoldierboy · 3 Mar 2013 at 21:30

Ah great cheers pal.

tommybhoy · 3 Mar 2013 at 21:31

Another thing you can try that works for some is if your psu pci-e cable has two connectors, and you have another psu pci-e cable with two connectors, use 2 cables, only using one pci-e connector from each to split power draw from your psu.

Diagro · 3 Mar 2013 at 21:45

spixelspixel said:
My Asus DCII has coil whine

As if!

they use upgraded parts that should not ever make a noise!

most likely your PSU

uksoldierboy · 3 Mar 2013 at 22:03

tommybhoy said:
Another thing you can try that works for some is if your psu pci-e cable has two connectors, and you have another psu pci-e cable with two connectors, use 2 cables, only using one pci-e connector from each to split power draw from your psu.

Cheers tommy,
Seems Heaven did the trick

, or is at least, Put it on max settings and just let it run, coil whine was very evident to begin with after a while it slowly died down to nothing

I'll run it while i sleep tonight if you guys think it's safe to do so?
Just to be certain.

The Asgard · 3 Mar 2013 at 22:37

spixelspixel said:
Every single graphics card I've owned has had coil whine so chances are a replacement will sound the same. Some whine a bit louder than others though.

Anyone who says their card doesn't do this most likely have loud fans in their pc which drowns it out.

You could also try what gregster mentioned.

In my experience Nvidia cards are less prone to it. My 580 makes no noise and that is under water. However

PSU's, motherboards and combinations can induce this. My 5870 did it with one PSU but was quiet with another. Sometimes its difficult to locate the source.

Tonester0011 · 3 Mar 2013 at 23:19

The Asgard said:
In my experience Nvidia cards are less prone to it. My 580 makes no noise and that is under water. However

PSU's, motherboards and combinations can induce this. My 5870 did it with one PSU but was quiet with another. Sometimes its difficult to locate the source.

I've had a 7970 (VTX3D) that had very slight whine, but nothing annoying - that's since died, and even when it was alive it was my second card and never went under any load so never bothered me.

I've got a spare PSU that when it was my *main* PSU wouldn't have any whine, but since storing it for about 6 months (and now re using due to a blown PSU) it seems to have got coil whine very bad :confused:

Other than that, no other component i've had has ever made a noticeable whine

^ Sounds like a kettle

spixelspixel · 3 Mar 2013 at 23:27

Diagro said:
As if!

they use upgraded parts that should not ever make a noise!

most likely your PSU

No.. its definitely the card. I think its just a load of advertising crap by Asus tbh. It's not bad coil whine, but like I said every card I've used recently has had it. These are 7770, 650 ti, 660(asus direct cu II) 660 ti and gtx 670.

I've tried different psu's and no difference so its definitely coming from the card in every case ( it sounds like its from the card anyway, its easy to pin point once you stick your head inside the case

). It depends how how loud the rest of your fans are, I have really slow spinning ones so I can hear it easily.

tommybhoy · 3 Mar 2013 at 23:34

It's a combination of parts and high power draw/delivery imo.

Iv'e had 4 79's and one of them had coil whine, it's the only card out of every gpu I've used that's ever done it.

@Diagro,

Don't fall for the marketing spin, it can happen with any gpu, regardless of brand.

BluD · 3 Mar 2013 at 23:47

The first test on 3d mark is great for testing coil wine, mine gets so loud there its hard to tell if its the spaceships or the coils making the noise, vsync cures it in all my games though.

uksoldierboy · 29 Mar 2013 at 13:21

Seems i may have been mistaken with the issue being coil whine, after some testing today it appears to be the fan/s making the noise.
I normally run my fans at 100% while gaming to keep the temps as low as possible, after testing today i can create the noise by increasing the fan speed at anything over 70%, but the only confusing part for me is that it only occurs while gaming, doing it on my Desktop results in me being unable to create the noise.
I realize that if it only happens while gaming, it would make sense for it to be coil whine, but the part that makes me at believe it has at least something to do with the fans is that if while gaming i drop the fans from 100% to 50%, the noise disappears instantly.
Anyone had anything similar?
The noise is really beginning to bug the hell out of me if i'm gaming without my headset on, and tempted to return the card if i can't fix it.

flopper · 29 Mar 2013 at 13:29

desktop use 2D mode so might explain it.
if you use afterburner or such program to limit fps while gaming is one option to test.
seems unlikely to be fan issue only.

uksoldierboy · 29 Mar 2013 at 13:40

Cheers,
Just tried BF3 with v-sync enabled and didn't get any noise at all, seems it is coil whine than, but why would it disappear if i reduce fan speed below 70%? :confused: