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GTX 280 "Squealing" in games...

silversurfer said:
Theres no point discussing noticeable because with high pitched noises especially it varys between people, some may hear nothing
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I agree, but i can hear up to ~19000Hz which is considered to be better than average and i have never had any components make an audible squealing sound. I always build quiet PC's because noise irritates me immensely (current rig has only 1x120mm intake fan and Seasonic PSU as exhaust) so i don't have a lot of backgrund noise that would drown any high frequencies out.

Maybe i am extremely lucky and The Asgard is extremely unlucky, but in my experience it's far from the norm. To have a GFX card make a squealing sound which is audible even while gaming is not something i would be happy with.
 
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p0rks0da said:
I agree, but i can hear up to ~19000Hz which is considered to be better than average and i have never had any components make an audible squealing sound. I always build quiet PC's because noise irritates me immensely (current rig has only 1x120mm intake fan and Seasonic PSU as exhaust) so i don't have a lot of backgrund noise that would drown any high frequencies out.

Maybe i am extremely lucky and The Asgard is extremely unlucky, but in my experience it's far from the norm. To have a GFX card make a squealing sound which is audible even while gaming is not something i would be happy with.
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May be you just haven't heard the sound yet.

3D Mark 06 and the Crysis menu is good for highlighting the sound. Try it.
 
The Asgard said:
May be you just haven't heard the sound yet.

3D Mark 06 and the Crysis menu is good for highlighting the sound. Try it.
Click to expand...

I don't have Crysis to test atm, but i just downloaded 3D Mark '06 and i'm getting no high pitched noise at all. If i get a chance i will grab the Crysis demo and report back.
 
Neil79 said:
Ive got this noise too and its ONLY started happening since going over to vista :(
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Noticed mine squeals a bit more in Vista too.
Also seems to artifact at lower clocks in Vista.

Perhaps the DX10 core (even running in Dx9 mode) works one's stream processors that little bit harder?



And BTW, if inductors/coils are guilty, there will be a tendancy for the shriek to appear in the machine's audio output (unless you have VERY well made sound hardware).

I don't even bat an eyelid at it TBH, as long as the card and mobo etc run OK, and don't overheat or anything, what's to worry about a few capacitors charging and discharging quickly and vigourously enough to squeak.
 
The Asgard said:
Fan disabled? :confused:

Never disabled the fan but running everything at stock temps shot up to 115'c within seconds of running furmark. At this temp it ran for seconds before hard locking the computer.
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So am I (confused)

Lets rewind shall we

In your original statement in reply to my other post


Originally Posted by wombraider View Post
Just a tip , if you have anything electronic that makes a noise and the noise is
NOT coming from its fan its a really bad sign , and I would get it looked at.

I have never had a mobo , card or anything else squeal on me unless it was on its way out.

I spent about 3 months fixing switch mode power supplies in a previous job ( hated it )

That's utter rubbish!

I have a degree in Electrical & Electronic engineering and I have worked in the computer hardware & software field all my working life. I also spent about 10 years programming and commissioning some very big PLC systems. I buy hardware on a regular monthly basis. All high powered devices will suffer from cap/inductor squeal to some degree and it doesn't mean they are about to fail.

So as you can see my statement

Just a tip , if you have anything electronic that makes a noise and the noise is
NOT coming from its fan its a really bad sign , and I would get it looked at.

Is stating for example IF you have for a graphics card that is making a noise
and that noise is NOT coming from its fan ( as in the noise is not being
generated by the FAN ) then I would read that as a bad sign and maybe have
a look at it.

So I assumed that you must have disabled the fan on that long list of graphics
cards that you listed owning , after all with the fan spining you would not
be able to hear any squealing made by cap / inductors.

Is that any clearer ?







__________________
 
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My advice, noise isolating headphones. Doesn't matter how much whining/squealing/whirring your pc makes, because you can't hear it with these on.

thegoonden said:
Vsync is sadly, as you say, a total curse in any game that cannot ALWAYS reach 60, because once you drop below 60, you have frames held for 2x refershes and so on, which makes thing jumpy, laggy, and overall, slower (2 frames that may take 1.1 refreshes to render, will take 2 refreshes to display etc).
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That's what triple buffering was invented for. ;)
 
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wombraider said:
So am I (confused)

Lets rewind shall we

In your original statement in reply to my other post


Originally Posted by wombraider View Post
Just a tip , if you have anything electronic that makes a noise and the noise is
NOT coming from its fan its a really bad sign , and I would get it looked at.

I have never had a mobo , card or anything else squeal on me unless it was on its way out.

I spent about 3 months fixing switch mode power supplies in a previous job ( hated it )

That's utter rubbish!

I have a degree in Electrical & Electronic engineering and I have worked in the computer hardware & software field all my working life. I also spent about 10 years programming and commissioning some very big PLC systems. I buy hardware on a regular monthly basis. All high powered devices will suffer from cap/inductor squeal to some degree and it doesn't mean they are about to fail.

So as you can see my statement

Just a tip , if you have anything electronic that makes a noise and the noise is
NOT coming from its fan its a really bad sign , and I would get it looked at.

Is stating for example IF you have for a graphics card that is making a noise
and that noise is NOT coming from its fan ( as in the noise is not being
generated by the FAN ) then I would read that as a bad sign and maybe have
a look at it.

So I assumed that you must have disabled the fan on that long list of graphics
cards that you listed owning , after all with the fan spining you would not
be able to hear any noise made by cap / inductors.

Is that any clearer ?
Click to expand...

ROFL :D

Depending on the fan noise and if I have a block that fits I will water cool a card. The cards that have been on air ( 8800 GTX, 8800 GTS, 3870X2 ) have all suffered from cap inductor squeal which could be heard over the fan. 3870X2 to a lesser extent.

Just to be clear. I have been aware of this issue for many years and I have just learn't to accept it. Because I have 3 small children I tend to play any games with headphones. So it's become less of a problem.

Conclusion.
Cap/Inductor squeal is Normal and doesn't mean your card is about to fail.
 
Only last week I ordered a 220 microfarad capacitor rated at 16volts , with a squeal factor of 15dB

As I said ealier , in my experience of 4 years of doing component level fault finding I tended
to find that if something was making a noise ( example transformer coil ringing due to be badly wound or having too much
current put through it ) I would think that was something to be looked at.

Your ? years of experience of component level fault finding has lead you to a different conclusion ,as I said opinions vary.
 
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My new Leadtek GTX280 squeals as well. I noticed it when running performance tests in FEAR and HL2 so it does seem to be when the FPS is in the 200+ zone. Also noticed it really loud when games were on the menu screen and FRAPS was reporting the FPS to be over 1000, it was very loud.

It doesn't bother me though as Ive only heard it once when i was doing benchmarks, i always wear my headphones for gaming so i haven't heard it since.
 
Mine to squeals when im in menu screens.evga 280gtx
And i just replaced my psu from a ocz 700 to a corsair hx1000
so def not the psu
 
jasont said:
Mine to squeals when im in menu screens.evga 280gtx
And i just replaced my psu from a ocz 700 to a corsair hx1000
so def not the psu
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Yes, but does it squeal during any 3D activity? Mine does, and very loud too. It event makes a sound when I minimize large windows in Vista. (Due to the Aero animation)

With my old GTS 512, my system would squeal in a number of menus screens, which is fine, but my psu squeals with my current GTX 280 when I run any sort of 3D based game or application, or do anything that puts load on the card really. If this is just a common occurance with these cards, then it's a complete joke really. I have a more than capable power supply and the noise is completely unbearable for me. It's the louded thing in my set up when it happens.
 
MystaEB my 8800gts 512 didnt squeal at all.
infact this is the first card i ever owned that squealed?
I just ran through a few games and if i pan the camera around say in gtr2 when outside the cockpit the squeal gets louder and quieter at diffrent angles?
 
jasont said:
MystaEB my 8800gts 512 didnt squeal at all.
infact this is the first card i ever owned that squealed?
I just ran through a few games and if i pan the camera around say in gtr2 when outside the cockpit the squeal gets louder and quieter at diffrent angles?
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This is the first card I have owned that has caused my system to squeal too, my GTS 512 caused it to a degree, but it was VERY quiet, and was very uncommon; it happened in the Crysis main menu for instance, but that's about it.

I think the changes to the volume of the squeal have something to do with the load being put on the card - the noise coming from my PSU changes pitch depending on where I am and what I'm doing in a game. If I'm in a menu, it may be making one type of squeal, but in game it'll change to a higher or lower pitch at different intervals.

The fact that a lot of people seem to be reporting this happening worries me a little - it seems like it's a somewhat common occurance and fixing it seems to be impossible. I can't really RMA the card, because technically it's not faulty, and it's not even the card making the noise, the card is just making my PSU squeal. If this is normal, it sucks, because I spent a lot of money making my PC almost silent, and this undoes all that effort.

Headphones are unfortunately not an option because that's not really an ideal solution, and I have a very meticulously placed surround sound set up which I'm not going to let go to waste.

:(
 
For those interested, I fixed the issue!

Basically, long story short, since the noise was coming from the PSU, I replaced the PSU. I bought a Silverstone Decathlon 650w (Single 54a 12v rail), and the problem has pretty much vanished.

The usual buzz in areas such as menus in Crysis and other games is still there, but that happened on my old card. In game however, it appears to be pretty much gone! There is still a very very minor buzz coming from the system when under heavy load, but it's almost inaudible 99% of the time.

So if anyone else had the same problem with very loud, distracting squeal/buzz, I suggest checking the quality of your PSU! My old one was an OCZ, and I won't be buying OCZ again after this debacle.

Off to play Crysis! :D
 
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