4080 & 4090 Coil Whine Thread

[Hostile_18]

Hi all.

I thought this issue is very important to some of us, that majorly affects our enjoyment of gaming. I've created this thread to discuss your experience of it (or not) with the new 4090 cards from Nvida.

I'll start off with my card, 4090 SUPRIM X. It's completely silent for games below 50% gpu usage, the higher it gets the more pronounced it gets. I'm considering my options as I am sensitive to it. If I walk in a field in a quiet moment of God of War I hear it quite clearly, same with GTA 5 at 4k etc.

My old card 3080 Suprim was completely silent in these games and only really made a noise in a game as intense as Cyberpunk on max settings etc. I'll see how it "breaks in" and go from there.

Silent Gaming in a home cinema is glorious though and I'll miss it if I have to "compromise" from now on.

 

[Hostile_18]

Does it still do it at say 95% power limit? It can sometimes reduce quite heavily after a few weeks in use.

I'll have to try that when I get in. As well as run it at stress for a few hours.

 

[Hostile_18]

Coil whine is somewhat correlated to fps, the 4090 is a victim of success - a quiet cooled card with insane fps = easier to hear coil whine

I always limit my fps to 120 the TV refresh rate. Also though in some games it whines where previously the 3080 Suprim did not, like God of War and Spiderman.

Seems like a lot of tips. I'll try them all out.

 

[Hostile_18]

I have now tried 2 Suprim 4090s and 1 Asus Tuf 4090. All three cards have the same buzz....not a whining sort of thing, more like an electric buzz.

Oh god I'd give up after three units. Yeah mine is the same. Is the rest of your PC silent by the way? Mine is (loads of fans at a low rpm) I think that makes it worse. I think some people that don't have it might have their fans masking it.

 

[Hostile_18]

I have 12 fans on the go, but it's the Be Quiet light wings so it's fair good noise-wise.
The buzz is hard to hear in the case where I am sitting, it really needs to be a quiet bit in a game before I can hear it. It's not the high pitch squeal that I think is way worse, it's just an electrical buzz.
I tried with a Corsair XXi 1500w and EVGA P6 1000w and that did not change anything either. But it's odd how all 3 cards make the same buzzing sound.

Yeah it is strange. Does it buzz on all games? Loads of games on mine it's silent. About one third slight buzz but it'd probably say not the end of the world, even if it doesn't change. I mean if I could swap and it's likely I'd get a better unit I'd be tempted... but the risk is I could get a much worse unit back (and the hassle).

I'm wondering when I eventually get the bequiet single cable if that will help at all.

 

[Hostile_18]

Well there is a lot you can try, I mean you can even try cleaning the electric supply as that can cause it.....no idea how, but it's a real thing. People have complained about their PC, took it to a shop, plugged it in and GPU is fine, and all because the shop's electricity was not dirty.
So yeah, you have electric/psu/motherboard/cables/case as things to try, but more often than not, its the GPU and your luck, although I find it too odd that 3 GPUs make the same sound. I would have thought there would be some change between 2 msi cards and 1 Asus.

Mines a new ish top tier PSU that worked with the last card 3080 fine, so I'm not worried about cleaning it. Same plug/socket etc.

Sounds like undervolting may be the way to go. Sounds like you only lose a few fps (which would bring it down to the founders edition) ans save power, thermals and noise. That been said definitely going to see if it "wears" in first.

Asus in my experience generally have terrible cards for coil whine, so not overly surprised there.

 

[Hostile_18]

Testing a lot of games tonight, if I'm not happy with it ill exchange. Seems random which games are affected.

In Cyberpunk at max settings with RT I'm getting about 80fps and a coil whine, but if I look to the sky it goes to 120fps and becomes silent.

 

[Hostile_18]

Its strange because God of War and Spiderman where I got near enough 120fps with dlss and I got no coil whine on my 3080, so here (like for like) I'm getting an annoying buzzing at the same 120 fps and same settings.

 

[Hostile_18]

RMA

Its tempting, looking around though it seems fairly common. Imagine i get one worse .

Going to give it the weekend see if it changes with been worn in. Its an overclocking beast. Only 400 points off the world's best with Time Spy Extreme 4090 and a 5800x and I've still got head room to try and close that gap as well!

 

[Hostile_18]

Well some good news. Last night I overclocked it and raised the power limit. Then did loads of benchmarks to stress test it. Now at stock settings it's loads quieter. I'm going to keep going over weekend but even on Cyberpunk 99% gpu utilisation it's very, very mild now.

 

[Hostile_18]

Age related hearing loss starts after the age of 12 and affects everyone to different degrees. While I respect your intention for this thread, I don't think it'll serve the purpose you intend.

There'll be people in their 30's, 40's or 50's claiming their card has "no coilwhine". If you dig deeper, they'll be playing at 1080P or 1440P (where card doesn't load loaded up enough for it to manifest) or they simply not able to hear it.

Others will say no coil whine, yet have their case fans, AIO pumps on max for a very noisy PC to begin with, masking the coilwhine.

Many will say things like "I'm in my 40's and can hear a pin drop, I have no coilwhine" but if you actually test them with a hearing test >

they'll not be able to hear past 14k hz etc.

On the above video, I can hear the tone very loud @ 15,100HZ, then it completely drops off for me, just as an example of someone in their thirties. I have a work mate also in his thirties who went to many heavy metal concerts, who can't hear past 12k. He'll notice no coil whine if his card is at these frequencies etc.

That videos interesting 14.500 for me and I'm 38. I remember once my wall plug was buzzing, driving me up the wall and my parents couldn't even hear anything lol. So yeah its definitely a hard subject to gage for all the reasons you said. I think the people who actively dislike coil whine though have heard it before and know what to look out for. I have a quiet/silent Pc and room, loads of fans at a low RPM. My PC is in a home theatre with Dolby ATMOS surround, so something that effects audio quality is very important to me. If a brand made silence a selling point at this gaming level I'd 100% go with them (glue their coils etc, use good capacitors etc).

Still I'm super happy my 4090 has reduced so significantly. Its now silent in most games and not at all distracting at very high 4k loads like Cyberpunk.

 

[Hostile_18]

Ok guys I've got to make a decision on mine, it is better on Cyberpunk but playing Control (120fps, Native 4K) today it still seems just above acceptable. What do you think? (I know there's only so much you can get from a youtube video). Worth a roll of the dice?

4090 Suprim X Coil Whine

4090 X Suprim Coil Whine in Control 4k at capped 120fps.

youtube.com

 

[Hostile_18]

Well, I have kept the better of the 3 cards I have tried, but I am getting a 4th as the last attempt. If that's the same, then it's okay because the only way I hear the buzzing is if I turn down all volume on my TV and listen for it.
The only reason I am trying to find a better one is for resale....when that time comes.
I am also trying a 3rd PSU. My EVGA P6 and Corsair HXi are both made by Seasonic so I am trying a different brand just in case there is a connection and they are the cause.

How does mine compare to your units? Especially the Suprims.

 

[Hostile_18]

Have you tried running a benchmark like Valley, for a few hours yet?

Done hours on 3D mark, couple on Cyberpunk 2077.

 

[Hostile_18]

What FPS are you getting and gpu clock speed ? When it is doing the coil whine in control.

That was at stock. 120 FPS DLSS quality RT Max. Native it is pretty much the same, at about 85fps IIRC.

 

[Hostile_18]

Hard to say, but they seem the same. The Tuf was a tiny bit worse.
From looking online, the cards that seem to have the worst feedback for coil whine are the FE/Suprim and Tuf.

If you've had two makes me think its riskier to swap for another Suprim in that case. The two 3080 Suprims were excellent acoustically last gen. I mean this isnt bad, but objectively in this aspect it is worse.

 

[Hostile_18]

4090 at 1080P or 1440P is the only cause of coil whine if your PSU is solid and ATX 3.0 soec.

Coil whine in this case was because you are a stupid person who wastes GPU potential for high frames which give you nothing but coil whine.

This is akin to a 2080Ti user playing at 1440x900.

Yes high frames = coil whine.

This is all at 4k Native or DLSS highest quality.

 

[Hostile_18]

PSU?

Be Quiet Straight Power 1200w.

Had no problems with two 3080 Suprims. But did with a 3080 Rog Strix.

 

[Hostile_18]

Because higher FPS.

If I'm paying 2k for GPU i wouldn't consider 120fps max that high TBH. Plus it's the same at native at 85fps. It's the workload rather than the frames I think. Obviously if it was uncapped a menu reaching 200+ would be whining because of the FPS.

 

[Hostile_18]

I will leave a reply tomorrow after I try this 3rd PSU. If it sorts it, happy days, if not, that leaves GPU lottery or maybe try a socket filter.

I think I saw on YouTube its a bequiet PSU? I have one of those, and it's spot on but obviously doesn't have an effect or is the cause of my GPU coil whine. Good luck. I'll report back tomorrow what my retailer says.

I really don't want to miss Uncharted or Plague Tale launches next week lol.