Corsair HX750 - buzzing noise when in-game

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Hi guys

I just built an almost entirely new system about a month ago, the only part not being new was the PSU. I've had a HX750 for about the past 6-7 years and never had any problems but since building this system which is running a 2700X and EVGA 1080, I've noticed a buzzing noise when I play certain games and its literally ONLY when I'm in-game, as soon as I alt tab out it stops immediately.

I thought it was the GPU fan at first so I stopped each fan and it persisted, stopped the PSU fan and it still continued.. It wasn't until I stuck my ear right up to the back of the PSU that made me certain its coming from inside the PSU, like it sounds electrical.

This oddly only happens in some games and at different severities for example in WoW its really bad in the character selection screen, yet in-game whilst it is still buzzing loudly it appears to buzz a little less. On the new Blops4 it buzzes at almost max settings but its faint and nowhere near as loud as WoW. Also noticed it in DOOM but ever so slightly compared to WoW. Basically it is doing it in WoW the worst by far but can still be heard when I'm in-game and not wearing headphones for other games when they are at high/max settings.

I can get it to stop when turning graphical settings down, especially resoluition scaling in WoW. So would this obviously be some sort of load problem? Obviously I'll be looking into getting a new PSU but should I be okay for the mean time or should I be seeing some smoke coming from my PC any day now?

Luckily I don't play WoW that much/if at all anymore but I'm kind of glad it was able to identify this problem.

Thanks
 

Gee

Gee

Soldato
Joined
11 Jul 2007
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4,192
Sounds like GPU coil whine to me. You essentially have an uncapped framerate in the character select screen, so your GPU will be at maximum load. I bet if you limit the framerate using RivaTuner or something, the noise will quieten.
 
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I thought that at first but I can play games like BF1 at 100+ fps with virtually no coil whine, but when wow is running at 60fps in a major city for example the coil whine is really bad? Cod runs at 150+ fps mostly and has minimal coil whine.

Also like I said when I put my ear up too it, it’s definitely coming from the PSU.

Is it impossible for the noise to be coming from the PSU in a situation like this or is the only option the GPU?
 
Soldato
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Roll up a bit of stiff card and use it as a stethoscope (IE. Stick one end to your ear and the other to each component in your pc in turn). You'll soon be able to work out what is making the noise. As already stated, it will be cool whine. Just a matter of working out where it's coming from. Coil whine can be an odd phenomenon, certain loads / conditions can trigger it. While other times it can be absent. Good luck.
 
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Soldato
Joined
12 Apr 2007
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You can get this kinda noise in game menus when the frame rate is unlimited as it can run at hundreds and hundreds of frames per second.

If you can cap the frame rate at 60fps for example or try it with vsync on and off as an experiment... See if that makes any difference.
 
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