gtx 1080 ti weird electrical sound

[Bumblebox]

I got a new 1080 ti strix OC today, and when first put under load I experienced a weird electrical type sound coming from the dual 8 pin socket on the gpu, i have a video of it, its hard to hear over the fans but you can hear it. Is this coil whine? how do i fix this?
https://sendvid.com/uhe2a1eu
it sounds like some kind of alien on video, its not exactly like that but its similar irl

 

[Reality|Bites]

yes that's coil whine, which PSU as you using?

 

[Pulseammo]

Yes, that sounds like it could be coil whine (coil whine doesn't have one specific sound, but I'd say this is one of them).

As for fixes, lower FPS sometimes lessens the effect, so for instance if your monitor is 60hz use a framerate cap. AMD has FRTC in their drivers, I can't recall what nVidia has - I seem to recall using it on a GTX 460 though so I think nVidia does have it.

Some PSUs can cause it when in combination with some GPUs, ones with lower ripple tend to lessen the likelihood of the effect I think.

Some people say that if you find a program that has 1000s of FPS (such as the menu of a game, etc) and leave that running overnight it can cause it to stop once the card burns in a bit. Sometimes just normal use will cause it to stop.

I've had 2 GPUs in the past where it was just a fact of life though, nothing fixed it. Both luckily weren't too bad when the side of the case was on - yours on the other hand seems like it is pretty loud given the distance you had the camera at in one section of the video. If it is indeed extremely loud I've heard of getting a replacement card, I certainly wouldn't be happy if it was noticeable on a high value card.

 

[Bumblebox]

Yes, that sounds like it could be coil whine (coil whine doesn't have one specific sound, but I'd say this is one of them).

As for fixes, lower FPS sometimes lessens the effect, so for instance if your monitor is 60hz use a framerate cap. AMD has FRTC in their drivers, I can't recall what nVidia has - I seem to recall using it on a GTX 460 though so I think nVidia does have it.

Some PSUs can cause it when in combination with some GPUs, ones with lower ripple tend to lessen the likelihood of the effect I think.

Some people say that if you find a program that has 1000s of FPS (such as the menu of a game, etc) and leave that running overnight it can cause it to stop once the card burns in a bit. Sometimes just normal use will cause it to stop.

I've had 2 GPUs in the past where it was just a fact of life though, nothing fixed it. Both luckily weren't too bad when the side of the case was on - yours on the other hand seems like it is pretty loud given the distance you had the camera at in one section of the video. If it is indeed extremely loud I've heard of getting a replacement card, I certainly wouldn't be happy if it was noticeable on a high value card.

yes that's coil whine, which PSU as you using?

im using evga 650G2, do you think its a problem with the power supply then or can i get a replacement card?

 

[Pulseammo]

The 650g2 is generally a recommended PSU for avoiding coil whine, I wouldn't bother to change it.

I'd be inclined to run the card for a bit to see if the noise reduces, otherwise ask the customer service where you bought it from what the policy is for coil whine and if they'd replace it.

 

[Bumblebox]

The 650g2 is generally a recommended PSU for avoiding coil whine, I wouldn't bother to change it.

I'd be inclined to run the card for a bit to see if the noise reduces, otherwise ask the customer service where you bought it from what the policy is for coil whine and if they'd replace it.

i also noticed a similar sound when i had a 1080 from zotac, i got an rma for a different reason though. is there a way to check which component is causing the coil whine?

 

[Pulseammo]

Are you certain the noise is coming from the GPU? It can also come from motherboards and the PSU its self, although both of those cases are generally far more rare.

The noise is made by some board components resonating at a frequency which is audible as current flows through them, it can be bad luck that both your cards suffered from it, like I mentioned I've had a few cards that have done it. Generally using a high quality PSU (such as the one you have) gives cleaner power delivery which can cut down on the resonance because there's less variance in the supply. Other things which I think help is when components such as motherboards or GPUs have additional power phases to help regulate the supply, but those aren't things you can swap out, and none of these things are sure-fire ways to make sure you have no coil whine... it's basically luck of the draw to some extent.

Sometimes you get lines of GPUs which are more prone to it than others as well, iirc the GTX 970 had quite a high occurrence of coil whine - could be wrong though, also could be that since it was such a popular card there were more people to report an issue. At any rate some things you can put up with on a £300 product that you shouldn't necessarily put up with on a £800 product, that's up to you to decide assuming the noise doesn't go away.

 

[Bumblebox]

Are you certain the noise is coming from the GPU? It can also come from motherboards and the PSU its self, although both of those cases are generally far more rare.

The noise is made by some board components resonating at a frequency which is audible as current flows through them, it can be bad luck that both your cards suffered from it, like I mentioned I've had a few cards that have done it. Generally using a high quality PSU (such as the one you have) gives cleaner power delivery which can cut down on the resonance because there's less variance in the supply. Other things which I think help is when components such as motherboards or GPUs have additional power phases to help regulate the supply, but those aren't things you can swap out, and none of these things are sure-fire ways to make sure you have no coil whine... it's basically luck of the draw to some extent.

Sometimes you get lines of GPUs which are more prone to it than others as well, iirc the GTX 970 had quite a high occurrence of coil whine - could be wrong though, also could be that since it was such a popular card there were more people to report an issue. At any rate some things you can put up with on a £300 product that you shouldn't necessarily put up with on a £800 product, that's up to you to decide assuming the noise doesn't go away.

ive listened closely and its quite hard for me to distinguish where its coming from tbh, my best bet is at the power cables connecting to the gpu. When i didnt have a gpu for a couple months due to old one getting rma, there was no coil whine or any issue.

 

[WantoN]

I had cool whine on one of my 980s, went after a while.

Limiting frames etc all helps but honestly I just hide my pc in a cupboard these days, I hate desk clutter and I've grown out of that 'look how cool my rig is' phase.

No one even sees my PC.