New GTX 780 ti coil whine

havok · 2 Dec 2013 at 23:44

Just installed a new GTX 780 ti Asus card and was quite surprised by very noticeable high pitch coil whine. Fortunately I have second machine so I could rule out the PSU. The sound is similar to the link below. I wasn't expecting any coil whine, but I am not sure what others have experienced?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3PMcmOxZ7_0

PSU: 750W Seasonic X-Series
2nd PSU: XFX 750

Gregster · 2 Dec 2013 at 23:49

Some have it and some don't. I would give it some hard Heaven/Valley benching for a couple of hours and this should help quieten it down.

havok · 2 Dec 2013 at 23:57

Trying Heaven, so will see how that goes. Really strange thing is its at its most noisiest at the Heaven credit screen!

spixelspixel · 2 Dec 2013 at 23:58

Does it make that noise when your pc is idle?

havok said:
Trying Heaven, so will see how that goes. Really strange thing is its at its most noisiest at the Heaven credit screen!

That's not strange.. actually the opposite. The sound of coil whine changes depending on a mix of gpu load and frame rate. It's worst with high fps + high load and quietest with low fps + low load.

My opinion is that all gpu's have coil whine and only worthwhile RMAing it if its exceptionally bad.

havok · 3 Dec 2013 at 00:17

Not at idle.

ancientmariner · 3 Dec 2013 at 00:28

I have noticed the credit screen noise before on my 580's and now on my 780's. thankfully it has never occurred outside of that screen. Weird.

darket · 3 Dec 2013 at 00:34

ancientmariner said:
I have noticed the credit screen noise before on my 580's and now on my 780's. thankfully it has never occurred outside of that screen. Weird.

Open fraps up and look at the framerate on the credit screen , on mine it hits over 4000, thats why you're cards whining

straxusii · 3 Dec 2013 at 07:36

Coil whine is most prevalent at high frame rates with vsync off so typically menus and credits screens, obviously enable vsync. And if it bugs you send it back, coil whine on a £500-£600 graphics card is unacceptable.

tommybhoy · 3 Dec 2013 at 08:40

Try splitting the PSU Pci-e cables and use two instead of one to split the power draw from your PSU:

Also if you have any fancy braided extenders, remove them.

LtMatt · 3 Dec 2013 at 08:42

tommybhoy said:
Try splitting the Pci-e cables and use two instead of one to split the power draw from your PSU:

Also if you have any fancy braided extenders, remove them.

This removed most of the coil whine on my 7990.

Silent_Scone · 3 Dec 2013 at 09:11

I have splitter cables on my Enermax 1500W and get coilwhine on my 780ti's The way the PSU works means in order to use separate rails for each card I have to use the splitter cables. Over 3 cards it's still minimal though. Here is how I've used my 3 on splitters - each card on it's own separate rail. (Although one shares other 12v+)

Some peoples must be really bad as they get so annoyed by it. It's not a fault, so unless it's intrusive don't worry about it.

Adam_101 · 3 Dec 2013 at 09:37

coil whine is annoying though. As people said, if just depends really, I've heard extremely bad to non existent (on same and different cards) inc being at idle!

fluidz · 3 Dec 2013 at 09:43

LtMatt said:
This removed most of the coil whine on my 7990.

Would this make any difference to a Psu with only one 12v rail?

I've already tried using two seperate pcie wires from my psu to no effect, will try swapping them around like in the pic, fingers crossed.

fluidz · 3 Dec 2013 at 09:45

straxusii said:
Coil whine is most prevalent at high frame rates with vsync off so typically menus and credits screens, obviously enable vsync. And if it bugs you send it back, coil whine on a £500-£600 graphics card is unacceptable.

I'm hearing it under 60fps with my 7990, its just a matter of the 3d clocks kicking in that sets it off.

David Bisset · 3 Dec 2013 at 09:54

fluidz said:
Would this make any difference to a Psu with only one 12v rail?

I've already tried using two seperate pcie wires from my psu to no effect, will try swapping them around like in the pic, fingers crossed.

Yep, can still help.

Most PSUs only have one 12V rail anyway, some have multiple ways of connecting to this rail, each with its own over-current protection which is what is normally referred to as multiple rails.

KillBoY_UK · 3 Dec 2013 at 10:30

I have to note that when I've had coil wine its in fact come from the PSU itself rather than the Card. Must be down to how different cards load different PSU's

Dicehunter · 3 Dec 2013 at 11:42

Gregster said:
Some have it and some don't. I would give it some hard Heaven/Valley benching for a couple of hours and this should help quieten it down.

How would running Heaven/Valley for a few hours lessen the coil whine ?

RetrogamerX · 3 Dec 2013 at 11:59

Dicehunter said:
How would running Heaven/Valley for a few hours lessen the coil whine ?

I do hear it does help.

Gregster · 3 Dec 2013 at 12:09

Dicehunter said:
How would running Heaven/Valley for a few hours lessen the coil whine ?

I am far from knowledgeable on this but pushing the phase capacitors hard (if they are what is causing it) seems to help 'bed them in'. It worked for me after putting water blocks on my 680 Lightnings. I noticed a bad screech when gaming but giving some big volts and benching hard for a couple of hours made it so I couldn't hear it anymore.

The difference from my understanding is, 'what is making the noise'? It seems that it can be the PSU/GPU/Mobo/Monitor cable and the hardest part is identifying it. I did read that making a cone and placing that where you think the noise is coming from and the other end at your ear can help to identify where the noise is coming from. Quite often people think it is the GPU when in fact, it is the PSU or something else. I have built 2 systems recently and both with 7950's and neither of them had the dreaded whine, so it does seem bad luck if you get it.

Ragnahex · 3 Dec 2013 at 12:23

my mrs card had bad coil whine. i left it running maxed out for a couple of days mining and it certainly reduced the noise (that or permanently damaged my ears)