4080 & 4090 Coil Whine Thread

Hostile_18 · 15 Oct 2022 at 14:08

voodoochild2008 said:
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.

Darujhistan · 15 Oct 2022 at 14:13

Imagine having just laid out the thick end of 2K and you've still got coil whine...

voodoochild2008 · 15 Oct 2022 at 14:25

Hostile_18 said:
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.

Some can settle down/burn in, but most stay the same. The sad thing is if I was brave enough to take it apart, 95% of coil whine is fixable with the right kind of glue.

Kelt · 15 Oct 2022 at 14:26

Darujhistan said:
Imagine having just laid out the thick end of 2K and you've still got coil whine...

I'd be doing a Roy Orbison.

Halliphax · 15 Oct 2022 at 14:36

Hostile_18 said:
Asus in my experience generally have terrible cards for coil whine, so not overly surprised there.

My old 1080 Ti Strix would agree with you, was very loud. The 3090 FE I had was just as loud.

Now, with a 4090 Strix, to my surprise is the quietest of all three. There's perceptible coil whine when I have my headphones off but I can't hear it at all with headphones on. I'd rank it around 70% quieter than my 3090 FE was.

Apparently PSU/power delivery also has a lot to do with it but I went from a EVGA 1000W PSU (Platinum rated? Can't remember) with the 3090 to a 1500W BeQuiet! Dark Power Pro PSU (Titanium rated) and the coil whine was no different.

aoaaron · 15 Oct 2022 at 14:44

Hostile_18 said:
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.

Don't you have a rack outside the home cinema any way?
Or have you thought about moving the PC?

I run a 150'' and 170'' projector screen in my setup and ultimately, I need to just cable and move all the components out of the room like most home cinema do and hush-box my JVC.
My room is about 4.5Mx8M and I found moving the PC to the front of the room eliminated the noise, or just stick it by the PJ. Surely the coil whine shouldn't be THAT loud that you hear it over the projector?

How big is your room and how close are you from your PC? Surely you can just move the PC somewhere else?

Kirby Wurm · 15 Oct 2022 at 15:08

I had it quite badly with my 6800 XT at high FPS (an issue with a 240hz monitor) but over time it's reduced a lot over time to the point I no longer notice it when using my headset.

The risk of swapping it is getting an example with worse whine or no improvement. It's a tough choice, but definitely try undervolting or another PSU if you have one to hand to test with, just in case.

ltron · 15 Oct 2022 at 15:15

uscool said:
Still a lottery at this price point lmao

It was the same with the 30 series.

drakulton · 15 Oct 2022 at 15:19

Kelt said:
I'd be doing a Roy Orbison.

What, driving all night?

Stu999 · 15 Oct 2022 at 15:21

voodoochild2008 said:
Some can settle down/burn in, but most stay the same. The sad thing is if I was brave enough to take it apart, 95% of coil whine is fixable with the right kind of glue.

Came to say the same. With my old 3090 FE people said it would settle in. I did all sorts like running looped benchmarks, 75 hours through CP2077, etc. and it stayed exactly the same. If you experience it I say send it back, not really acceptable on a £1700+ product and manufacturers should do more to prevent it.

Kirby Wurm said:
The risk of swapping it is getting an example with worse whine or no improvement.

Well worst case you send it back and get your money back. Of course it’s a big pain in the rear. Don’t settle for a defective product.

voodoochild2008 · 15 Oct 2022 at 15:21

Hostile_18 said:
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.

The more demanding the game, the greater the buzz, but Cyberpunk seems to be as loud as it gets, buts it's just within the area of me being ok with the card and keeping it.
The odd thing is if I stress test it, the buzz is more in line with what GPUs do when they run crazy high fps. It's that sound most people have heard and it's not that loud at all, but in games, the sound is different and louder.
I would guess this is because games need more power to render what's on screen and that is why the capacitors buzz.
I might try a 4th lol A gigabyte one and if that does it, I will settle for the lesser one. TBH, I will not really hear it, but I would still like to get one of the fabled quiet cards.

uscool · 15 Oct 2022 at 16:19

[/QUOTE]

ltron said:
It was the same with the 30 series.

40 series costs more though and it's still a lottery say someone got the same exact card but had much less coil whine but paid the same lol

I returned 3080fe for coil whine it was bad it didn't improve over time replacement was much better shouldn't have to be like a lottery

Coolasmoo · 15 Oct 2022 at 17:14

I just don't understand how people defend coil whine. If you want to sound like you have permanent Tinnitus then good for you.

Otherwise, RMA that POS and for crying out loud, you just spent a small fortune for the privilege.

CapitalOne · 15 Oct 2022 at 17:38

FE here and no whine and I have stressed it.

Hostile_18 · 15 Oct 2022 at 19:44

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.

voodoochild2008 · 15 Oct 2022 at 19:54

Hostile_18 said:
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.

Yeah CP seems to be the worst game. I can stress test the card and it's great sound-wise, but in demanding games, I get that buzzing.

Kelt · 15 Oct 2022 at 19:58

Hostile_18 said:
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.

Come on man, you buy a cheap-ass card, what do you expect!

Kirby Wurm · 15 Oct 2022 at 20:05

Stu999 said:
Well worst case you send it back and get your money back. Of course it’s a big pain in the rear. Don’t settle for a defective product.

This is true, especially for £1700+. Mine wasn't intolerable and rare so a different scenario.

Hostile_18 · 15 Oct 2022 at 20:06

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.

Sparx · 15 Oct 2022 at 20:39

I remember having a Strix 3080 and the coil whine was horrid. I complained on the ASUS PC DIG official Facebook group and the technical manager guy Juan told me until he was blue in the face how with “such high end cards” it’s simply a “characteristic” and totally acceptable.

I didn’t accept that ridiculous response. Sold it on and got the EVGA FTW3 3080 and it’s silent, even more so as weeks later I put a waterblock on it

It’s been golden for almost 2 years now.