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30xx Series Founders Edition

Associate
Joined
10 Feb 2021
Posts
608
Welcome to 3090 FE models... they all do that and some much worse than yours, we had some at work that would sound like a hive of bees in the room and then some that sounded like high piched scraping a chalkboard. Thats why we returned some and sold the rest that we tried to fix with new pads and hot glue on the chokes but made no difference.

Some start out loud and get a bit better and some just got louder and some well decided not enough noise so started to have fans that would make noises too from the bearing or rubbing against the cooler.. We had over 22 of them and all gone now because they drove us crazy even after we exchanged some of them, they would come back with new issues, if it whined before now the fan rattles and screams or fan rattle we got a whining card. We returned the ones we could for AIB blower cards or 3 fan AIBS in the end to save our sanity in the office.. Imagine 2 x 3090 in each machine doing that as all our workstations are 2 x 3090 in NVLINK or RTX Titan cards in NVLINK. The RTX Titans when we got them we never had this issue with them.

3080 FE and 3080Ti have it too.. It's some sort of design issue or the cards really hate high FPS, it's a lottery with them, that's why I stayed well clear when I got my own 2 x 3090s for my workstation at home, mine don't make any of them noises and you have to put your ear right up to them to hear electrical sounds but the 3090 FE still is the best looking 3090 :(. Not sure why the FE cards are worst for it as I have a 3060ti FE and that dosn't coil whine, something with the GA102 chips power design and clearly something now up with the 3090Ti too as they told AIBs to stop production till they fix some issues with the cards.. guessing power related..

https://www.techradar.com/uk/news/r...-bios-and-hardware-snags-and-thats-fine-by-us

This is what I find so maddening and also confusing of nvidia with the FE cards.

Why make such a great cooler, that not only easily looks the best of any 30-sieries card but is also whisper quiet while keeping temps low.
Mine stays between 60-65 degress after hours of gaming, while the fans stay at like 1000-1100rpm, thats crazy good!
Yet all that silence is filled with bloody coil-whine! To the point id almost rather have louder fans... almost...
So my point being... why did they invest in making the cooler so quiet, to then squander that silence with coil-whine.

From board tear-downs, it also seems that the FE cards have pretty good power delivery. Better than the reference board design from what I could deduct, only really beaten by the top end AIBs.

Id have rather gone with an AIB, as I had read about the coil-whine before getting my FEs, but sadly the prices on those are just insane.

When you have AIB 3080Tis costing way beyond a 3090fe, and the 3090 AIB cards beyond that still.. its impossible to justify on 'coil-whine' grounds. Especially as stock-for-stock, the AIBs are not far ahead of the FE on performance, if at all. And once you consider the extra power they draw to get that small boost... it really is silly.

I am hopeful that maybe nV will have had enough warranty claims because of coil-whining cards that they improve the designs used for the 40-sieres...
 
Associate
Joined
22 May 2015
Posts
1,954
Location
Manchester
Just to give the other side of the coin...my 3080 Ti FE has zero coil whine, even in the odd game menu where the frame rate shoots to infinity and beyond.

You can't say all FE cards have coil whine.

I don't hear any from mine either. But I have a theory about this, I must stress it's only a theory mind. I reckon they all whine, but that only younger people hear them. Don't know if you remember those things they were putting in places where youths hung out, because only younger people could hear those frequencies, old gits like me can't hear them.

I'm 52 and had quite a few cards in the last decade and haven't heard any coil whine from any of them, but wonder if that's because I'm an old git.
 
Soldato
Joined
14 Nov 2007
Posts
16,147
Location
In the Land of Grey and Pink
I don't hear any from mine either. But I have a theory about this, I must stress it's only a theory mind. I reckon they all whine, but that only younger people hear them. Don't know if you remember those things they were putting in places where youths hung out, because only younger people could hear those frequencies, old gits like me can't hear them.

I'm 52 and had quite a few cards in the last decade and haven't heard any coil whine from any of them, but wonder if that's because I'm an old git.

Well I'm an even older git, maybe there's an element of truth in this theory!

If it's true, then that's about the only "benefit" of getting older I've found so far! :p
 
Associate
Joined
31 Dec 2008
Posts
2,284
I don't hear any from mine either. But I have a theory about this, I must stress it's only a theory mind. I reckon they all whine, but that only younger people hear them. Don't know if you remember those things they were putting in places where youths hung out, because only younger people could hear those frequencies, old gits like me can't hear them.

I'm 52 and had quite a few cards in the last decade and haven't heard any coil whine from any of them, but wonder if that's because I'm an old git.
There is definitely something in it.
I can hear coil whine only in my right ear and my wife can't hear it at all.
It's coming from my PSU and not from my gpu tho.
 

ljt

ljt

Soldato
Joined
28 Dec 2002
Posts
4,540
Location
West Midlands, UK
Yup it's a known fact your ability to hear higher frequency sounds diminishes the older you get. The rate will also depend on how much abuse you've given your eardrums over the years too :p (i.e. lots of loud music concerts will accelerate the process etc)
 
Associate
Joined
10 Feb 2021
Posts
608
I don't hear any from mine either. But I have a theory about this, I must stress it's only a theory mind. I reckon they all whine, but that only younger people hear them. Don't know if you remember those things they were putting in places where youths hung out, because only younger people could hear those frequencies, old gits like me can't hear them.

I'm 52 and had quite a few cards in the last decade and haven't heard any coil whine from any of them, but wonder if that's because I'm an old git.
haha I have heard this theory, and I recon it has legs!
Would be interesting to see the age of those that do not hear coil-whine from there FE cards.
Or better, have a somebody younger see if they can hear any?

Its the variability of the coil-whine I find most intriguing. Its not like these cards are hand made and every one is slightly different. They are all to the exact same tech spec, which is why I always found it so odd some get whine and others dont!

Another theory I had was.... could it be anything to do with the power supply to the house? Is a 'dirtier' supply likely to cause more/less whine?
 
Associate
Joined
22 Nov 2020
Posts
1,453
No coil whine on my 3080 FE as well. FPS frequently hits 170-190 on mine playing COD, 150-160 FPS on Forza etc.

Anyway a noisy card is still nice to hear as it makes you appreciate the engineering that’s gone into it to produce the graphics on your screen.
 
Caporegime
Joined
20 May 2007
Posts
39,685
Location
Surrey
Its definitely an age/poor hearing thing.

I hear capacitor whine from everything - loads of power adapters and power supplies do it too (if not most). Everyone thinks i'm mad but i just have very good hearing.

My partner and I did a test (you can find them online) and i could hear frequencies higher than her even though we are the same age.
 
Associate
Joined
10 Feb 2021
Posts
608
I hope that's sarcasm :D coil whine is horrendous unless you play with closed back headphones or something that drown it out.
Gawd yea... Coil-whine is one of those irritating noises that once you hear it... you almost 'lock on' to it and just hear it through everything.

Which is why although the RMA returned 3090 I got back is better, the fact it still whines makes it almost equally annoying to the previous one...

I cant stand over the headphones for long periods... trying to get some EPOS GTW270 in-ear ones instead. On my second pair thats DOA though... so not looking good and very few "gaming focused" in-ear wireless buds. /tangent.
 
Associate
Joined
22 Nov 2020
Posts
1,453
I hope that's sarcasm :D coil whine is horrendous unless you play with closed back headphones or something that drown it out.

I am 40 yrs old and my hearing isn’t what it used to be AND my case fans are on 100% as I want the gpu as cool as possible. So even if I had whine it wouldn’t bother me. I can see how it can be annoying to some.

Anyway look on the bright side: you actually have an ampere gpu!! Better than most people.
 
Associate
Joined
22 Oct 2012
Posts
1,089
Gawd yea... Coil-whine is one of those irritating noises that once you hear it... you almost 'lock on' to it and just hear it through everything.

Which is why although the RMA returned 3090 I got back is better, the fact it still whines makes it almost equally annoying to the previous one...

I cant stand over the headphones for long periods... trying to get some EPOS GTW270 in-ear ones instead. On my second pair thats DOA though... so not looking good and very few "gaming focused" in-ear wireless buds. /tangent.
If it helps deciding whether to roll the dice, I had mine picked up Tuesday morning and got the replacement Saturday morning.
 
Man of Honour
Joined
13 Oct 2006
Posts
91,063
Got to wonder about these GPU prices - someone was pointing out at work a couple of days ago we can order pre-builds at work with like a PNY or Palit 3060ti at a list price of around half the current price (so basically MSRP) at retail (and 2 days availability)... sadly not something we can take advantage for personal reasons.
 
Associate
Joined
16 Nov 2020
Posts
269
Well I'm an even older git, maybe there's an element of truth in this theory!

If it's true, then that's about the only "benefit" of getting older I've found so far! :p

I don't know what people are moaning about - PCs always seem to make a racket. I remember getting the Gainward 6800GT years ago - and when that spun up jeez it was like having Airwolf in the box

https://i.imgur.com/EBk1LMa.jpg
 
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