Coilwhine!! :(

[Gibbo]

With regard to the PSU and the gold, bronze, platinum etc rating isn't that just an indicator of efficiency not the quality of the output?

Dirty output makes components sing.

This.

AX1200i, had same issues, it was Platinum rated........
All about the internals.

On the 1500i they fixed it and my god that is a superb PSU quality wise, but its the only one I'd buy and unfortunately the price is insane, so I'd just go and buy an Antec or Superflower myself and 8 Pack is exactly in the same boat as me.

 

[Jinjur]

Gibbo.....remember....he cannot live for one second without a GPU. Not one second.

So....you simply must ship him all your cardzies before he returns his.....he is holding it hostage

J

 

[Gibbo]

True and this is the point Gibbo is making, but as stated, even people with the "better quality" PSUs are getting coilwhine until they replace the problem, the card!

I am going to say this once more.

Quality PSU, QUALITY!

It is about the internals, the rating not so important, I do not consider your PSU to be QUALITUY internals!

We have also said several times to you now, send it back, we will replace it if it whines which I am sure it will if its as bad as your experiencing as I doubt any PSU can help a card in such a state.

So send it back, we will sort it for you.

 

[Nines11]

Because where have we denied its not an issue, we have not?
Where have we categorically stated using a quality PSU will 100% cure it, we have not?

We know its an issue, but its being an issue for years and is actually not a fault at all, electrical items can whine that is simply science for you. We consider it as a fault when it is audible even on a quality PSU, then we simply swap it out or offer a refund, our service is exceptional.

Manufacturers such as Powercolor took steps to reduce it with their PCS+ cards.

OcUK then also took steps as well to reduce it and at the same time we recommend decent quality PSU, such as gold rated 80+ from Antec, EVGA, Superflower.

Corsair have only one PSU I'd personally buy myself for my requirements which is the AX1500i, it is absolutely superb, but nothing else I would touch now.

A perfect example to answer your question about testing Corsair, we already did this over a year ago!!!

Corsair AX1200i Platinum VS Superflower 1200W Platinum, 8 Pack tested these units and found the Corsair to be poor, it was struggling to power three 290X cards and was clicking a lot.

Yet the same wattaged and lower cost to end user Superflower unit not only managed to power three 290X without issue and in silence, it actually power four 290X without issue. Our Antec 1200/1300W model also powered foured 290X without issue as well, yet Corsair's flagship at the time struggled with three, we even tested more than one unit but the same was found.


Now back to your EVGA card, it could be beyond help, in which case we shall replace it for you no questions asked, so why don't you just raise the RMA and we will sort it, why you are so defensive over your average quality Corsair PSU is beyond me........

Ok the first 2 points i agree.

Powering 3 or 4 cards has nothing to do with coilwhine though :\ it does show its a better quality PSU but in no way at all does it compare coilwhine, which is my point. Im not being defensive but theres 2 sides to a coin. If im being defensive then so are you lol...

Of course in the future i wont purchase Corsair PSUs but not because of this whine problem, but because, like you say, you can get better for the same price and id be stupid not to.

I will RMA the card but when your staff get back saying "its not whining on our premium grade 2000W gold rated superflower" what can i do lol? Even though i know it will.

Ive heard of coilwhine before, sure but its nowhere near as bad as the 970s, every store is having problems with them, you heard the odd story now and again and changing card fixed the problem, not once was PSU brought into the equation. Now all of a sudden its you need a premium PSU...

Is there anyway to check if the 290s use the same chips the 970s do? I havent seen many reports of 290s whining yet its all over the internet about the 970.

Again i dont mind i dont have the best PSU but i know theres a 970 out there that would work perfect with my PSU.

Its nice of you to post back here, im not blaming you for my coilwhine its not OCUKs fault, ive already said that but the PSU thing keeps coming up again and again while the 970 having coilwhine is a fact, the PSU upgrade is not.

 

[Nines11]

I am going to say this once more.

Quality PSU, QUALITY!

It is about the internals, the rating not so important, I do not consider your PSU to be QUALITUY internals!

We have also said several times to you now, send it back, we will replace it if it whines which I am sure it will if its as bad as your experiencing as I doubt any PSU can help a card in such a state.

So send it back, we will sort it for you.

Cheers Gibbo and yeah ill send it back

 

[Geeman1979]

Just send the card back and if found faulty it will be replaced simple as that. I've had coil wine on a number of cards including a 290X that whined for England.

 

[Taziir]

My 970 seems to be playing happily with my Corsair bronze rated CX750. I wouldn't have bought the PSU had I known at the time, but that's my issue.

On the other hand, I might not hear anything as I have pretty bad tinnitus Don't fall in to drunken sleep in an operating bass bin kids, you'll learn to hate the sound of silence...

 

[Gibbo]

Ok the first 2 points i agree.

Powering 3 or 4 cards has nothing to do with coilwhine though :\ it does show its a better quality PSU but in no way at all does it compare coilwhine, which is my point. Im not being defensive but theres 2 sides to a coin. If im being defensive then so are you lol...

Of course in the future i wont purchase Corsair PSUs but not because of this whine problem, but because, like you say, you can get better for the same price and id be stupid not to.

I will RMA the card but when your staff get back saying "its not whining on our premium grade 2000W gold rated superflower" what can i do lol? Even though i know it will.

Ive heard of coilwhine before, sure but its nowhere near as bad as the 970s, every store is having problems with them, you heard the odd story now and again and changing card fixed the problem, not once was PSU brought into the equation. Now all of a sudden its you need a premium PSU...

Is there anyway to check if the 290s use the same chips the 970s do? I havent seen many reports of 290s whining yet its all over the internet about the 970.

Again i dont mind i dont have the best PSU but i know theres a 970 out there that would work perfect with my PSU.

Its nice of you to post back here, im not blaming you for my coilwhine its not OCUKs fault, ive already said that but the PSU thing keeps coming up again and again while the 970 having coilwhine is a fact, the PSU upgrade is not.

I am not so sure if this is really a new problem to be honest, I can see return rates and they are no higher than previous cards in the past.

What is hugely different this round is the simple facts NVIDIA have sold so many it is absolutely crazy, like 100,000's, more than triple any card before them and as always the more you sell, the more issues you will see.

Its simple mathematics:
You sell 1000 and have a 2% return rate you will get 20 cards back!
You sell 5000 and have a 2% return rate you will get 100 cards back!

With 970 in particular it is more a case of this, so many are being sold means more people have them and are talking about them, good and bad.

As to power supplies solving whine issues in the past, infact they have, a perfect example was the 7990's they would squeal like a pig on an average PSU and better quality PSU helped with those too.

Its about the quality of the power being fed to the cards and a quality PSU internally can assist.

We don't test on a 2000W 8 Pack PSU.

We test on Superflower HX Gold 550-750W or Lead Gold 650-850W models, these are priced at £50-£120, so were not expecting anyone to have some kind of power station in their PC at home, that would be unreasonable.

As I've said several times to you, the Corsair unit you have is actually OK, its not one I'd buy and its not as good quality internally as others but I personally feel as your experiencing really bad whine that the card is indeed at fault and no PSU no matter how good will change that. Its simply a faulty card, so return it and we can replace it.

If on the off chance we have no issue and no whine then your PSU could be faulty, but I am 99% certain you just have a card with poor inductors.


Regards to 970 having coilwhine is a fact is not, it is simply down to volumes sold and as such more people with them, all cards have and can suffer coilwhine. Yes I will agree manufacturers could have made more steps to prevent it, better quality inductors, better containers, glue on the inductors etc. etc. but they did not but we must have sold at OcUK alone now more than 15,000 970's which are running without whine no issue. There are several people here who have had whine but accepted the PSU they owned might not be so suitable and changed PSU which solved the issue for them. Yet for others it made no difference or they already had a decent PSU and the card was simply faulty and needed changing.

That is the stance here at OcUK we are happy to swap any card out which has coilwhine audible, if we can hear it on our rigs we consider it a fault.

 

[FaS]

Would you guys like me to post a guide up on what PSU's I would recommend to try and avoid the dreaded whine?

A lot of PSU's carry high price tags and have great marketing, but the actual internals are not the best and not something I'd buy but we all know how easy it is to get blinded by some fancy marketing and sales pitches.

So I am happy to post up a guide on PSU's we'd recommend and no it won't just include crazy expensive stuff, we've had good results with some of the much lower cost £60 stuff because they are built to very high standard and the factory is making low margin, unlike some £80 models which are all profit based as built to low standard but put in a shiny box.

YES PLEASE! post a guide thank you!

 

[mattcrane]

YES PLEASE! post a guide thank you!

+1

As I am going to be looking at buying 1 or 2 970's in the new year hopefully

 

[Burtoner]

Would you guys like me to post a guide up on what PSU's I would recommend to try and avoid the dreaded whine?

A lot of PSU's carry high price tags and have great marketing, but the actual internals are not the best and not something I'd buy but we all know how easy it is to get blinded by some fancy marketing and sales pitches.

So I am happy to post up a guide on PSU's we'd recommend and no it won't just include crazy expensive stuff, we've had good results with some of the much lower cost £60 stuff because they are built to very high standard and the factory is making low margin, unlike some £80 models which are all profit based as built to low standard but put in a shiny box.

Yeah please Gibbo

 

[DarrenM343]

YES PLEASE! post a guide thank you!

Yes, please that would be great. I wouldnt mind see more guides in the future on what really are quality goods (vs the marketing) on other items too, such as motherboards.

I'm always aware that companies often end up taking advantage of their good reputation of the past to profit in the future from lower quality products.

 

[Marine-RX179]

Yes, please that would be great. I wouldnt mind see more guides in the future on what really are quality goods (vs the marketing) on other items too, such as motherboards.

I'm always aware that companies often end up taking advantage of their good reputation of the past to profit in the future from lower quality products.

Yea. Corsair is very guilty of this. Their PSUs and their cases...

I'm a fan of their products in general, but don't like how they always release products of inferior quality at the same price range once they established their footing on that particular category of products...

 

[Timber]

Would you guys like me to post a guide up on what PSU's I would recommend to try and avoid the dreaded whine?

Yes, I personally think this is a good idea, not just for coil whine but for any system builder.

I've not experienced coil whine or had issues with PSU's but the more information the better when buying. It's one of the things I generally love about OCUK and the forums here.

I think in general when buying a PSU it's one of those components where it's easier to get the choice wrong or not be as informed as you should be. It's also less appealing to search out reviews on a PSU versus some of the more glamorous components. When I last bought a PSU some four and half years ago (OCZ StealthXStream 2 700W) I might not have researched as much as other components and thought it was fine to buy on brand alone but read some contradictory opinions later on about OCZ PSU's. Although in my case the PSU seems to be rock solid with the various components it's been paired with over the years.

My further suggestions:

1. On the main site under 'Power Supplies' make the landing page, or add a separate link, that explains the differences in the 80 PLUS certificate levels (with icons) and has short explanations about each level. Perhaps the page could also have a paragraph on explaining the different wattage levels and the importance of buying a good PSU.
2. Add filters to search PSU's for 80 PLUS Titanium, 80 PLUS Platinum and 80 PLUS GOLD models.
3. Encourage the OEM maker to be listed in the PSU product descriptions (apologies this might already be done in some instances).
4. Construct a forum sticky that list outs good PSU choices or indicates the benefits of some models as you have suggested. Again with guidance on choosing the right wattage level etc.
5. Link to other databases with detailed information about each PSU. I've seen this one linked to before: http://www.orionpsudb.com/index.html which in turn redirects to this site: http://www.realhardtechx.com/index_archivos/Page1373.htm (just using the OCZ page as an example).

I feel the advantages of points 1 to 3 are that more buyers might see a benefit but can be done in tandem with points 4 and 5. Please feel free to ignore becuase I appreciate there is a lot of work for someone, but thought I would add in some thoughts.

 

[RobHague]

I've had quite a few graphics cards this past month (boring story) and I have had zero coil whine.

MSI 970 x 2
Reference 980 x 2
Reference 290X x 2

Finally, the 295X2.

Yes I know I was like goldilocks shush. I'm using a Corsair AX860, ppl say Corsair PSUs are not the best but the AX860 is a Seasonic rather than the AX860i which is by Flextronics.

 

[Blackjack Davy]

Yea. Corsair is very guilty of this. Their PSUs and their cases...

I'm a fan of their products in general, but don't like how they always release products of inferior quality at the same price range once they established their footing on that particular category of products...

Thats true of their cpu coolers, the early H50 models were very good I've still got one here running fine after nearly 5 years been as good as gold. Their later models and H100's especially they changed the OEM presumably to increase their profit margins and they were the ones with the noisy pumps (remember those?).

I was going to say I'd only trust Corsair with their memory and their cases now, but even those sound suspect if what you say is true :/

 

[james.miller]

A friend of mine has had the worst luck ever with corsair stuff. Fans (multiple) with bearing failures, faulty ram, two faulty psus, a case with the mic and headphone jacks wired backwards, a mouse that bricked itself, a keyboard with failing leds...

Yeah he doesn't really rate corsair

 

[Nines11]

I am not so sure if this is really a new problem to be honest, I can see return rates and they are no higher than previous cards in the past.

What is hugely different this round is the simple facts NVIDIA have sold so many it is absolutely crazy, like 100,000's, more than triple any card before them and as always the more you sell, the more issues you will see.

Its simple mathematics:
You sell 1000 and have a 2% return rate you will get 20 cards back!
You sell 5000 and have a 2% return rate you will get 100 cards back!

With 970 in particular it is more a case of this, so many are being sold means more people have them and are talking about them, good and bad.

As to power supplies solving whine issues in the past, infact they have, a perfect example was the 7990's they would squeal like a pig on an average PSU and better quality PSU helped with those too.

Its about the quality of the power being fed to the cards and a quality PSU internally can assist.

We don't test on a 2000W 8 Pack PSU.

We test on Superflower HX Gold 550-750W or Lead Gold 650-850W models, these are priced at £50-£120, so were not expecting anyone to have some kind of power station in their PC at home, that would be unreasonable.

As I've said several times to you, the Corsair unit you have is actually OK, its not one I'd buy and its not as good quality internally as others but I personally feel as your experiencing really bad whine that the card is indeed at fault and no PSU no matter how good will change that. Its simply a faulty card, so return it and we can replace it.

If on the off chance we have no issue and no whine then your PSU could be faulty, but I am 99% certain you just have a card with poor inductors.


Regards to 970 having coilwhine is a fact is not, it is simply down to volumes sold and as such more people with them, all cards have and can suffer coilwhine. Yes I will agree manufacturers could have made more steps to prevent it, better quality inductors, better containers, glue on the inductors etc. etc. but they did not but we must have sold at OcUK alone now more than 15,000 970's which are running without whine no issue. There are several people here who have had whine but accepted the PSU they owned might not be so suitable and changed PSU which solved the issue for them. Yet for others it made no difference or they already had a decent PSU and the card was simply faulty and needed changing.

That is the stance here at OcUK we are happy to swap any card out which has coilwhine audible, if we can hear it on our rigs we consider it a fault.

To be fair Gibbo you know the 970 is the worst card ever released for coilwhine problems... why would you make a "coilwhine free" 970 if not so? Thats totally contradicting yourself... EVERYONE knows the 970 has way more chance to have coilwhine than any other card in history! This is not just due to the amount sold, the manufacturers have all admitted it, its everywhere on the internet too, this is not due to the amount sold, its due to cheap parts used on the 970.

Ive tested the card in 4 PCs now, 2 had Corsair PSUs, 1 Enermax and one Thermaltake, all 750w PSUs and the card whined in all. My mates and bro havent had coilwhine with any card until they tried the 970. Im not buying a new PSU either way, if i got a 290 it wouldnt whine, i just need to get lucky and get a whineless 970.

The point you made about there being many cards with no coilwhine makes me wanna send it back for a replacement instead of a refund, but what happens if i wait the 5 days for testing and then get a replacement with coilwhine again?!! Knowing my luck i will! If i get another whining card would there be a faster turn around than 5 days? I wanna try stay with OCUK as i got the card in the sale but if its gonna be a nightmare returning cards id rather a refund, pay the extra £50 and go somewhere with a faster turn around, its nearly Xmas and this added stress is really not helping!

I would have bought the Galax "coilwhine free" card but it only has 2 years warranty, that is a massive put off, doesnt help with resale at all and if you get a problem after 2 years youre screwed compared to 3 and 5 years the other brands offer! Another reason i wont keep a coilwhine card is due to resale also, whos gonna keep a whining card? As soon as the buyer sticks it into their PC id get a phone call asking for their money back! Should i try and explain they need a new PSU lol? No they will come back and smash my car windows lol...

 

[BinnsY]

Do you not think your making it more stressful for yourself by constantly posting about it and not just sending it back? In the amount of time it's taken you to keep typing all of these you could have arranged the RMA and had it on it's way back by now. If you have tested the card in multiple machines and it whines in all of them it's a pretty safe bet it will also whine in Overclockers test machines and Gibbo has stated repeatedly that if this is the case it will be replaced. I can't think of many other retailers where you will get that posted in public from someone so far up the ladder.

For what it's worth I have an MSI 970 from Overclockers and have aboustley zero coil whine. Thats running on a corsair AX760.

 

[shatpank81]

No offense mate, RMA it or put up with it...

You have wasted like 3 days arguing the toss over one thing or another, in that time the RMA would have been raised and ocuk would have it at their site for testing....
I had a similar issue with my 970, bought a different psu and was still the same..
Now did i rma it, wait etc or put up with it?
I even got an rma number etc but I put up with it because didnt want to be without my card for a length of time.

But eventually the coil whine did get on my nerves, so i sold it to someone who didnt care less about the noise.

If in the 28 day period. They will refund you but for them to do that they need the card back?