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Coil Whine is a Problem for Everyone

With gibbo's comment on how good the 9 series cards it still baffles me how slow amd where to react to it. Wonder how many sales they would have stolen had they done the price cut sooner?
 
My 7950 whined when it was benching high clocks and at menus etc when the fps went through the roof.

My Ti whines occasionally, it doesn't bother me. I think that other people must be hearing something different to me?
 
I've just got GALAX 970 EXOC from OC, a few headaches to get it installed but seemed okay after a while.

But boy... Is this what coil wine sounds like? I was expected maybe a minor high pitched squeal that kicks in during high FPS moments (so I have gathered from forum posts) but didn't expect it to be this loud! It's more like a buzzing and grating sound, so much so that at first I thought my fans were messed up.It's significant even at 60fps. I sit quiet close to my rig, so I can still hear it when the speakers are up to a medium level.

I get that this is a problem of physics/electronics etc and is not necessarily indicative of a problem card, but it's still surprising as this is the first higher end GPU I've ever owned. I'm going to try and burn in my card with some stress tests. I hope it gets better... Or I learn to live with it. I do have a lower end PSU so I know that might be the problem as well (Cxm 430m)

Either way I see what people are talking about now, and hopefully it becomes a thing of the past soon!
 
I really do sympathise with those who have it. I have heard some seriously bad cases of it and that would be enough to put me off gaming. What is the score with returning cards now? Has it changed or can you still return a card that has it?
 
If it's audible to the point were you can hear it through your case whilst actually in games playing and it's quite excessive (I don't mean in game menus or bench marking software). Also, if you haven't tried a different PSU (preferably a good solid PSU, if yours is a lower end model), then do so before hand, as it could be your PSU creating the whine and not the GPU.

If it's still the same after trying that, then just raise an RMA and have it shipped back. OcUK can then test it on their open test rig (they'll be able to hear the whine even more).


As far as OcUK is concerned: -

Gibbo said:
I started by saying its a fault if it's audible easily, if so we will class it as a fault and RMA it for you. :)

As an official statement to stop people quoting bits here and there this is our official policy on coil whine below:-

OcUK will accept an RMA for a card which has coil whine in extreme circumstances which we consider to be audible on a quality single rail PSU of gold rating or higher. Audible as in coil whine in normal usage and gaming which is audible above case fans in a closed case. Coil whine in benchmarks is not considered as a fault. It's not actually a fault in the hardware as such if a card whines, it is inherent in graphics card design, but we will class it as a fault for cards which are clearly audible in normal usage (gaming). For example two identical cars, one will consume upto 1l of oil every 1000 miles and the other one consume nothing, this is not considered a fault by the manufacturer and it is operating within specification.
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Gregster said:
I really do sympathise with those who have it. I have heard some seriously bad cases of it and that would be enough to put me off gaming. What is the score with returning cards now? Has it changed or can you still return a card that has it?
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It is only considered a fault (and thus RMAable) if it is BAD. Like kettle boiling bad.
 
Aside from the one card I had that whined, I've had it on a few mobos. Worst was an msi 939, it sounded like a banshee, (Irish ghost o some sort). Now my hearing isn't great due to far too much shooting. But that board had me loosing my marbles. So I can sympathise with anyone experiencing whine.
 
Best solution to coil whine, headphones. ;)

Not that ive had a card with coil whine tbh tho even if i did the fans would drown the whine out probably.

Noise cancelling headphones tho or just hp in general are probably good things to use if u have noticeable whine.
 
SkeeterUK said:
Best solution to coil whine, headphones. ;)

Not that ive had a card with coil whine tbh tho even if i did the fans would drown the whine out probably.

Noise cancelling headphones tho or just hp in general are probably good things to use if u have noticeable whine.
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You doth speaketh the truth. Noise cancelling headphones are a gift from the gaming gods. Heck they even drown out angry girlfriends. Well except the physical assault part when you ignore her mid frag to avoid hearing her work day woes.:D
 
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Aa... hu...hu

Amm gowna make you squeal like a pig!!!
 
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