So recently installed my new 680 and this is the first graphics card I've owned. Occasionally it makes a high pitched whine which I've searched to be something called 'coil whine'. Is it normal for the card to do this occasionally when it's not under load? I've read its perfectly normal if its doing something intensive such as gaming. It does it when I have chrome and couple of other small applications up.

I can't guarantee it's the gpu but since I installed it that's when the noise started so i'm sure its that (could be PSU but doubt it) Thanks for any help.

Open GPU-z and set it to log to file, and note when the whine is happening and check it against the log. Could be 3d clocks kicking in because of a Flash or Chrome/Browser issue perhaps?

Some cards do, some don't.
My old 9800 pro and my old GTX 275 whined a very high pitch sound, not loud enough to distract you, but it was there.

no_1_dave said:

Some cards do, some don't.
My old 9800 pro and my old GTX 275 whined a very high pitch sound, not loud enough to distract you, but it was there.

Click to expand...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IaPYEOUH7LE

I believe the person shown in the video above mentions a coil whine on his 680 as well. Might be more common with GTX 680s than 580s or 480s, dunno.

He does note the 680 is particularly silent, so perhaps it's just easier to hear a whine.

I have found the psu to be at fault in 90% of the cases i have seen, i was running a single 580 with an Antec TPQ 850w with no issues what so ever, but i was looking at sli so i upgraded to an Ocz zx 1250w and the coil whine was unbearable, before u send the card back i would certainly be looking at testing another psu if u have one.

i should learn to read.

I think it's 12v feedback and it can happen with certain gpu's coupled to certain psu's, both the gpu and the psu will probably be fine but sometimes u get a conflict, no idea how it works and i am not techincally intelligent to tell u why it happens but it does, like i said i had the same gpu with an Antec TPQ 850 and it was fine, then i swopped it out for an Ocz zx1250w and it was awfull (imean really bad like a proper buzzing) then i swopped it out for an Antec HCP 1200w and it's silent, who knows, i dont think it's a psu or a gpu fault but just a conflick that seems to cause bad feedback which ends up as whine.
At the end of the day if u are not happy then it's an RMA of either the psu or the gpu.

dave_beast said:

Open GPU-z and set it to log to file, and note when the whine is happening and check it against the log. Could be 3d clocks kicking in because of a Flash or Chrome/Browser issue perhaps?

Click to expand...

It seems to always be happening but varies at different levels, when I look at the log it all looks identical Sometimes it barely audible and other times it can be slightly annoying, as I type this I can hear it but that might just be because i'm specifically listening out for it. Also seems to be a pattern with it, its not constant its almost as short bursts getting quiter then louder.

So it could be the PSU aswel? What if I connect the power cables into a different port in my PSU (its semi-modular) it's not too bad but can get kind of annoying when i'm trying to read. If it was just when it's under load I wouldn't have a problem with it.

its the cpu power saving states and the psu and or gpu interfering,try disabling intel speedstep and see if the noise stops or reduces,9 times out of ten switching psu to another make/model cures it

its totally normal to hear faint whine from the side of the pc case,but on no account should it be heard through your speakers or headphones

my gpu/psu does it when in crysis game menus ect but totally silent through speakers/headphones

wazza300 said:

its the cpu power saving states and the psu and or gpu interfering,try disabling intel speedstep and see if the noise stops or reduces,9 times out of ten switching psu to another make/model cures it

its totally normal to hear faint whine from the side of the pc case,but on no account should it be heard through your speakers or headphones

my gpu/psu does it when in crysis game menus ect but totally silent through speakers/headphones

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Yea i found it more in game menus and especially crysis, i think the main reason for that is very high fps.
I have also found that the higher fps u are getting can increase the power draw somewhat, e.g. benchmarking i would have thoght running 3DMark11 on the X preset would give a higher power draw compared to running it on the P preset as it is using a higher resolution and higher settings but it don't, and coil whine is more common in high fps scenarios.

its very common long running issue,it wont cause any harm to your pc but can be annoying,i had an el cheapo psu that did it but now have a better one and its silent

download dpc latency checker and test,

http://www.thesycon.de/dpclat/dpclat.exe

it should looklike this

wazza300 said:

its the cpu power saving states and the psu and or gpu interfering,try disabling intel speedstep and see if the noise stops or reduces,9 times out of ten switching psu to another make/model cures it

its totally normal to hear faint whine from the side of the pc case,but on no account should it be heard through your speakers or headphones

my gpu/psu does it when in crysis game menus ect but totally silent through speakers/headphones

Click to expand...

Wow tried that and seems to have done worked, I disabled the intel speedstep and CPU C1E. It's a lot better than before thank you! I think I still hear it slightly though (but it's probably just the fans tricking my brain)

wazza300 said:

its very common long running issue,it wont cause any harm to your pc but can be annoying,i had an el cheapo psu that did it but now have a better one and its silent

download dpc latency checker and test,

http://www.thesycon.de/dpclat/dpclat.exe

it should looklike this

Click to expand...

Yes my results look the same as that!

see if you can find c1e in the bios,disable it aslong as eist is enabled it should still downclock the cpu at idle if you select balanced power profile in windows power saving options

c1e disabled reduced the noise a lot for me in the past

it might let you re enable speedstep and just disable c1e,downclocking cpu at idle is a handy thing to have

wazza300 said:

see if you can find c1e in the bios,disable it aslong as eist is enabled it should still downclock the cpu at idle if you select balanced power profile in windows power saving options

c1e disabled reduced the noise a lot for me in the past

it might let you re enable speedstep and just disable c1e,downclocking cpu at idle is a handy thing to have

Click to expand...

I renabled speedstep with cie disabled and the noise has come back, the cpu doesn't seem to be downclocked and windows is in balanced mode.

im not sure on z68 i think it can be done,isnt there something in the bios about os handled power saving? ill look in a sec,i know its works for x58

try eist disabled and c1e enabled see if it downclocks then in windows

I was experiencing coil whine with my HD 7970 in games, especially when playing Skyrim when in game and it would disappear when in the menu. So what I did was got a card board tube and placed it near different places in the computer until I found where the noise was coming from and it turned out in my case to be the PSU. Now that I have a new PSU the noise has gone and the only time I get a coil whine noise from the card is when playing stalker COP on the opening menu screen as the FPS is super high

wazza300 said:

im not sure on z68 i think it can be done,isnt there something in the bios about os handled power saving? ill look in a sec,i know its works for x58

try eist disabled and c1e enabled see if it downclocks then in windows

Click to expand...

On mine I have

Real time Ratio Changes in OS Enabled
CPU Enhanced Halt (C1E) Disabled
C3/C6 Statue Enabled
CPU EIST Function Disabled

I think its the first option you may be thinking of, not sure what the setting would be for Asus board. This lets mine downclock to 1.6ghz.

Some cards whine when new and settle later I find too.

Ive not got my 680 yet should be coming on Thursday but ill keep an eye out for it.
On past cards I have found it to happen on games when in loading screens or menus when v-sync is off.
Not sure if its because the card is producing an insane frame rate on said menus but vsync turned on seems to get rid of a lot of it.