Do ocuk class coil whine as a fault?

[86dan]

I see that some 4080's are at the £999 mark at ocuk so I figure instead of waiting for the 4090 to maybe fall in price again I will have a go with a 4080 instead, if I buy one of these cards and there is audible coil whine from 7ft away as that's how far I am from my pc would I be able to get it replaced from ocuk? no rma with the gpu manufacturer, no refund, just replaced.

Had 4090's that were horrendously bad so i guess less power should in theory mean less chance of coil whine...............I hope.

 

[LiE]

Coil whine isn't usually considered a fault these days. You can still return a GPU with 14 days if you pay return postage.

 

[SpudMaster]

Depends in the extent of the coil whine imo. I think you need to accept coil whine to some extent in GPUs but some are definately worse than others. My card is pretty much coil whine free in most situations but in some game menus when the FPS is very high its likes a little whine.

 

[86dan]

Depends in the extent of the coil whine imo. I think you need to accept coil whine to some extent in GPUs but some are definately worse than others. My card is pretty much coil whine free in most situations but in some game menus when the FPS is very high its likes a little whine.

That I can deal with, my last 4090 however had coil whine from 7ft away even if I capped the fps to 60(seems to be much more related to low watts as it would start after 200w), undervolting did nothing, it could be heard over my surround sound, I would class that as faulty but its had to tell what a retailer classes as a fault.

 

[rare]

Although not OCUK, I got my 4090 FE exchanged due to coil whine which I argued was beyond reasonable amounts.

 

[Noxia]

Swapped 3x 90s over until I got one with minor whine, the others were way too loud. Wasn't OCUK though and they didn't quibble once.

 

[GhostDog1981]

Swapped 3x 90s over until I got one with minor whine, the others were way too loud. Wasn't OCUK though and they didn't quibble once.

This has a different tolerability with each individual. I personally think going through RMA/returns is stressful, ties up money and what you end up with is not necessarily worth the trouble and is likely a compromise of some sorts.

 

[Removed User 345456]

I genuinely would prefer a consistent hum of a fan, than have coil wine, it just goes through me and I find it extremely irritating, a fan you just get used to and don't really notice after awhile.

 

[Noxia]

This has a different tolerability with each individual. I personally think going through RMA/returns is stressful, ties up money and what you end up with is not necessarily worth the trouble and is likely a compromise of some sorts.

No stress when DPD pick it up for you, only a compromise if you let it, personally I ended up with a night and day difference in cards.
Absolutely negligible effort and I ended up with a perfect card. If I had to go to a post office or whatever then maybe but the retailer made it great. Literally one minute work to arrange collection and then order another card.
Not sure what you mean by tying up funds.

 

[ICDP]

Depends on the level but some people will tolerate more than others.

I had a relative who changed from a 970 to a 5800XT and was convinced AMD sucked and that was purely down to coil whine and constant lock-ups. He blamed AMD poor quality hardware and drivers.

I had a look at his PC and asked what games he was having issues with. It turned out only one game was problematic and it was only locking up in the menu. It was an older MMO first person shooter and it seems FPS over 3000 in a game menu causes lots of whine and an overheating GPU.

I turned on an FPS cap in the game menu and problem gone.

Sorry for the long post about this but it is to highlight the point that coil whine usually manifests at higher FPS. If you cap at your monitor max refresh it reduces the likelihood of coil whine.

 

[GuruJockStrap]

Controversial but is this really a problem?

I only ever hear coil whine when gaming and even then, I have a headset plugged in and can't hear a thing.

 

[Noxia]

Controversial but is this really a problem?

I only ever hear coil whine when gaming and even then, I have a headset plugged in and can't hear a thing.

If you can hear it from another room and over headphones yes. If you have to put your ear to the case, then no.
The cards myself and Hostile18 had were more like a buzzing and it was highly distracting.
If I'm paying £1800 for a gpu I'm not compromising.

 

[Nasher]

Usually capping FPS gets rid of it. It's normally when the card is rendering 100s of FPS.

 

[throwaway4372]

Seems it's subjective. I'd never accept a product with any whine.

 

[GhostDog1981]

No stress when DPD pick it up for you, only a compromise if you let it, personally I ended up with a night and day difference in cards.
Absolutely negligible effort and I ended up with a perfect card. If I had to go to a post office or whatever then maybe but the retailer made it great. Literally one minute work to arrange collection and then order another card.
Not sure what you mean by tying up funds.

Happy it worked out for you. Most retailers don’t exchange free of charge if the gpu is working (coil whine is not technically a fault) - you have to pay returns and on a gpu can cost £30 recorded delivery. If you go through this 10 times like some have done that’s £300 only in returns postage! Each time you are waiting for a return/refund. It wouldn’t make business sense for retailers to offer a no cost process so I am surprised at which retailer allowed that for you.

 

[Noxia]

Happy it worked out for you. Most retailers don’t exchange free of charge if the gpu is working (coil whine is not technically a fault) - you have to pay returns and on a gpu can cost £30 recorded delivery. If you go through this 10 times like some have done that’s £300 only in returns postage! Each time you are waiting for a return/refund. It wouldn’t make business sense for retailers to offer a no cost process so I am surprised at which retailer allowed that for you.

They put a note saying 'excessive coil whine' after testing, therefore deemed the item faulty hence no cost I guess.
Amazon allow free returns, actually, I think most do come to think of it unless it's a 14 day 'changed my mind' reason.
Other than the money off voucher I had for that retailer, the returns policy was another reason I chose it. I paid £20 to change my mind on my first zotac card at OCUK though. I knew the particular model of GPU was a lottery and that is why I wouldn't have purchased it from certain retailers.
Refunds took about a week I think, but I appreciate it would be annoying if you had to wait for that before you could order your new card.

 

[Removed User 345456]

Seems it's subjective. I'd never accept a product with any whine.

THIS!

 

[D1craig]

Coil whine has too many variables. Ocuk will obviously use the best motherboard and psu to power their test rig which will all contribute to coil whine. If a card has coil whine under them circumstances they might rma it. Not sure though.

 

[Dave2150]

I've owned and used several 3080, 3090 and now 4090 (Strix) cards. ALL have had coilwhine, it's actually impossible to have a GPU a this level of TDP that doesn't. Obviously I'm talking about when the GPU is loaded 100%, such as 4K RT.

Some cards are louder than others, but as others have said, only when gaming. Headset on and the coil whine becomes negligible.

Also beware when some say they have no coilwhine. Age related hearing loss means someone in their 50's or older will simply not hear much of the noise/higher frequencies that coilwhine produces. One benefit of getting older

 

[Aretak]

Controversial but is this really a problem?

I only ever hear coil whine when gaming and even then, I have a headset plugged in and can't hear a thing.

I don't enjoy wearing a headset whilst gaming. Maybe if you mainly play multiplayer titles and are constantly yapping away to friends or whatever it's fine, but I mainly play single player RPGs and nothing ruins a nice quiet moment during a cutscene or something like a swarm of angry bees next to my head. It'll never be acceptable to me because, despite any anecdotal evidence to the contrary, it absolutely is possible to get a card without it if you're stubborn enough (at least if it's not your power supply or even motherboard causing it). I've done the returns shuffle enough times now to know that I will eventually get the silent experience I want. I'll never accept a card with coil whine again. It's a manufacturing defect.