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Can a gold rated PSU really reduce coil whine?

I went from a Bronze to a Gold on the advice in this forum to help with the coil whine from a 970. It made no difference what so ever. There made be some situations where it works but in mine it did not. However when I switched I went for full modular just in case it didn't work it would still feel like an upgrade and not a complete waste of cash :D
 
Sencha said:
I went from a Bronze to a Gold on the advice in this forum to help with the coil whine from a 970. It made no difference what so ever. There made be some situations where it works but in mine it did not. However when I switched I went for full modular just in case it didn't work it would still feel like an upgrade and not a complete waste of cash :D
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Thanks,
I guess I will contact a member of staff and see what they say after I've double checked that the whine is the graphics card
 
TBH unless your significantly pushing the PSU (where something better rated is under a lot less stress) then its pretty much random - you probably have just as much chance of getting something that doesn't whine with an identical replacement or a titanium rated PSU and vice versa you might replace it with a much better PSU and get more noticeable whine.
 
In my experience it's almost complete bull!

Palit 970 - WHINED like a ***
G1 - Never whined
KFA2 - AWFUL for whining
EVGA - Perfect

I'd push towards naff cards with cheap components tbh
 
Hmm.

Firstly you need to realise what's making the noise. It's basically tiny little coils that are receiving power and buzzing. Due to a lack of adhesive in the coil they get to buzz a bit too freely and thus create that high pitched whining sound. That's why they're doing it. Simply put it's manufacturers making poor components.

So if it's the GPU whining then changing the PSU doesn't have much bearing on that.
 
It did for me......honestly bud......I am THE pessimist....but it did.

I jumped from a Corsair to an EVGA and it made a really noisy card, absolutely silent.

BIZARRE I KNOW!

J
 
OCZ ModXstream 700 watt psu + GTX 280 = Overwhelmingly bad coil whine.

Changed to Seasonic M12 700 watt psu, coil whine disappeared completely.
 
Neil79 said:
In my experience it's almost complete bull!

Palit 970 - WHINED like a ***
G1 - Never whined
KFA2 - AWFUL for whining
EVGA - Perfect

I'd push towards naff cards with cheap components tbh
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ALXAndy said:
Hmm.

Firstly you need to realise what's making the noise. It's basically tiny little coils that are receiving power and buzzing. Due to a lack of adhesive in the coil they get to buzz a bit too freely and thus create that high pitched whining sound. That's why they're doing it. Simply put it's manufacturers making poor components.

So if it's the GPU whining then changing the PSU doesn't have much bearing on that.
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Unfortunately its much more variable than that (though those can be big factors). I've fixed it before by applying hot glue to the right part of a toroid but easier said than done as well :S especially on a PSU where components aren't exposed without opening them up (which isn't advised unless you know what your doing).

EDIT: But I've seen systems before where 100% the whine was coming from the GPU (under normal load conditions - not 200+fps) and changing PSUs could make it come and go.

EDIT2: Also not something a lot of people would want to risk but another thing I've seen is that in a lot of cases the whine not uncommonly reduces or goes away after a couple of weeks of use or so but its not always the case.
 
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SaintJimmy said:
Gold relates to the efficiency not the quality, have a read here.

Although if it's making a lot of noise, it might just be the card and need to be returned/replaced.
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Yeah I know, it's just how OcUK write the clause "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."
Neil79 said:
In my experience it's almost complete bull!

Palit 970 - WHINED like a ***
G1 - Never whined
KFA2 - AWFUL for whining
EVGA - Perfect

I'd push towards naff cards with cheap components tbh
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It sorta had OcUKs seal of approval, expected zero/little whine from it

ALXAndy said:
Hmm.

Firstly you need to realise what's making the noise. It's basically tiny little coils that are receiving power and buzzing. Due to a lack of adhesive in the coil they get to buzz a bit too freely and thus create that high pitched whining sound. That's why they're doing it. Simply put it's manufacturers making poor components.

So if it's the GPU whining then changing the PSU doesn't have much bearing on that.
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Yeah I thought that would be the case, the buzzing is coming from the 6pin and 6+2pin area, my PSU did make a minor amount of whine (hardly audiable) with my R9 270 so I'm going to cover it up briefly with a towel to confirm that its the 970
snips86x said:
oh man, can relate to this :)
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The grin on her face if she finds out I would have to return it
 
coupe69 said:
Exactly, I think a lot of people are blaming the graphics card rather than looking at their psu. The ocz psu was fine under less load with a 7600GT that didn't require as much power.
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I've spent more hours on this than I care to think and while it is quite commonly the case its not 100% the case 100% of the time (or my life would have been much easier).

EDIT: Strangely over dozens of systems (other than at ultra high framerates) I've never had any noticeable levels of coil whine with any system I've built for myself :S
 
I had bad whine on a 770 and switched to a Seasonic PSU on OCUK recommendations in the big coil whine/psu thread in News and it stopped the whine fully.

Not had it since and gone through 3 x 970's and 3 x 980's.
 
Rroff said:
I've spent more hours on this than I care to think and while it is quite commonly the case its not 100% the case 100% of the time (or my life would have been much easier).

EDIT: Strangely over dozens of systems (other than at ultra high framerates) I've never had any noticeable levels of coil whine with any system I've built for myself :S
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This is the first in a what must be 100ish PCs built that I've had bad coil whine but its my PC so I've spent more time with it than most and I'm super paranoid when it comes to my machine.
 
I bought a 295X2 and got horrific coil whine (to the point i returned the card for a replacement) the replacement did the same thing.

I upgraded to a SuperFlower Gold and it is ultra quiet now with no whine. So it can be a massive help :D
 
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