Help with coil whine.

Disco_P · 8 Oct 2016 at 13:13

I have an AX760 and have had coil whine with a 780, titan and two 1080s. Happens under load only and it is more a buzzing sound. At 3000fps it becomes a whine but that only happens when I let it.

The AX760 is under warranty with the original owner who will help with RMA if needed. The current 1080 is an evga gaming SC model and I am the original owner. It's probably the PSU seeing as all 4 GPUs have whined.

It's now quite bad as the GPU is about 50cm from my ear and I have no window on my case. Whole system is underwater so fan noise is very low which makes it more noticeable.

I am tempted by an evga G2 on the MM as I've heard good things about them eliminating coil whine. Or grabbing a new unit and returning it if it doesn't help. Cheapest option is to RMA the corsair and seeing if it fixes it but that would mean being without my computer for a couple of weeks.

Any ideas?

whyscotty · 8 Oct 2016 at 13:18

Buy the G2

RMA the Corsair and en sell it would be my call

thefogo · 8 Oct 2016 at 13:25

You might just be unlucky and got cards that all whine.
The majority of cards I've owned had coil whine, including my Titan X and current 1070. And this is with a very good PSU.

Disco_P · 8 Oct 2016 at 14:12

whyscotty said:
Buy the G2

RMA the Corsair and en sell it would be my call

The problem with buying the G2 is this:

thefogo said:
You might just be unlucky and got cards that all whine.
The majority of cards I've owned had coil whine, including my Titan X and current 1070. And this is with a very good PSU.

Then I will be stuck with a PSU that I don't really have a use for. The only option would be to sell for a loss.

Are there any other lines of PSUs renowned for eliminating coil whine?

tyler_jrb · 8 Oct 2016 at 14:21

I get coil whine from my 1080's. Also did from my 980Ti's. Can't recall if I did from my 980's or not. The TXP i had was quiet though.

My PSU is under a midplate now and can definately tell its the cards that are making the noise. And yeah more of a buzz than anything else, no high pitched squealing or anything.

If its bothering you then you could try a different PSU but equally it could be the cards too. Honestly has never bothered me as can't hear them over fans, and speakers while gaming.

Your best bet is buy another PSU and test. If it fixes then sell/RMA the corsair for a slight loss. If not keep or return the new one.

Disco_P · 8 Oct 2016 at 15:45

Looking at getting a 650w G2. Never going SLI and my current cpu is an overclocked 3570k/2600k. Most I'll ever get is a single high end gpu and a hexacore cpu (be it mainstream or enthusiast)

LoadsaMoney · 8 Oct 2016 at 15:59

Some say looping Heaven for a good few hrs gets rid of it.

Disco_P · 10 Oct 2016 at 02:08

I will try that whilst out tomorrow.

For now here is a quick sample during the start of a unigine valley run.

Kaapstad · 10 Oct 2016 at 02:17

The only cards I have had coil whine on are my 290Xs.

I have had no problems with any of my other cards. I do use large PSUs so there is no stress in the power delivery.

Disco_P · 10 Oct 2016 at 02:26

How much is a 1080 + 3570K @ 4.5Ghz 1.25v going to draw? Can't imagine that it's more than 50% of the rated wattage (380W)

Disco_P · 17 Oct 2016 at 21:52

So I grabbed a EVGA G2 650W to see if that would help with coil whine. I'll let you judge whether it helped.

Already sent a ticket to EVGA. Hoping that now I have an EVGA PSU powering an EVGA card they can't point the finger elsewhere.

DarrenM343 · 18 Oct 2016 at 08:26

Nice, but at last the non reference fans are quiet tho

Nasher · 18 Oct 2016 at 09:18

My Seasonic PSU used to get coil whine with my 970. But now I have a rx480 it doesn't, but the card whines instead :/

nashathedog · 18 Oct 2016 at 15:40

Disco_P said:
I am tempted by an evga G2 on the MM as I've heard good things about them eliminating coil whine. Or grabbing a new unit and returning it if it doesn't help. Cheapest option is to RMA the corsair and seeing if it fixes it but that would mean being without my computer for a couple of weeks.

Any ideas?

I've just done numerous upgrades to my PC including moving most my HDD's out and switching to ssd's along with swapping an 850 watt Corsair TX for a 650 watt EVGA G2 psu. I also removed 4 silent edition case fans I had added previously and the PC has become silent, I'm actually shocked at the difference.
As for the EVGA G2 it's a lovely solid, well built psu. I never had a coil whine issue previously but I'm glad to say that's still the case.

Blackjack Davy · 19 Oct 2016 at 00:09

Disco_P said:
So I grabbed a EVGA G2 650W to see if that would help with coil whine. I'll let you judge whether it helped.

Already sent a ticket to EVGA. Hoping that now I have an EVGA PSU powering an EVGA card they can't point the finger elsewhere.

My EVGA FTW is a whiner too. Well it did whine for a while now it just "chirps" is the best way I can put it. I've had at least five other cards with the same PSU wth no issues all AMD so I'm fairly sure its not that.

BluD · 19 Oct 2016 at 00:23

Kaapstad said:
The only cards I have had coil whine on are my 290Xs.

I have had no problems with any of my other cards. I do use large PSUs so there is no stress in the power delivery.

I got lucky with my 290xs as they were the most silent cards ive owned even at 1.35v, most of my other cards have had coil whine to some extent but normally vsync sorted it out.

As for getting a G2 to eliminate coil whine ya could actually end up adding to the problem as my G2 actually has coil whine itself

DarkMatter · 19 Oct 2016 at 06:18

My tv and speakers have far more cool whine than my PC... must have been lucky.

Disco_P · 30 Oct 2016 at 11:53

So I grabbed a G2 from a place with a good returns policy and it did not help. Whine was exactly the same.

Contacted EVGA support and they arranged an advanced RMA, replacement card arrived and it's a buzzer too.

Bloody brilliant.

darket · 30 Oct 2016 at 15:00

Disco_P said:
So I grabbed a G2 from a place with a good returns policy and it did not help. Whine was exactly the same.

Contacted EVGA support and they arranged an advanced RMA, replacement card arrived and it's a buzzer too.

Bloody brilliant.

My 780 lightning/ classifieds, Reference gigabyte/evga 780ti's, 980strix, Titan x maxwell and titan XP all coil whined to varying degrees.

Its not a fault, its not poorly made coils, in my experience its not caused by psu's either. Its just inerrant in the design.

The smaller the coils get the harder it is to insulate them and coupled with ever more powerful gpu's the occurrence is only going to increase until the design of the coils is changed.

This is why in mid range cards you'll find that they buzz/whine less than higher end cards.

Think of it this way, if you buy a Ford fiesta you expect it to be a reasonable day to day car, quiet and smooth, but if you buy a sports car its going to be a louder and less comfortable experience.

The other thing is also psychological, the more you let it bother you , the more your going to hear it

Heinz57 · 30 Oct 2016 at 15:47

My experience is there might be some correlation between PSUs and graphics card coil whine, but it really isn't certain. I'm pretty sure it's mostly down to just the card.

When I had my original whining Fury I was told to get a PSU which was better than my Corsair CS650 - I bought an EVGA 750 P2 and it made 0 difference. In fact, when I finally gave up on Furys and their atrocious coil whine I went back to my 290, which had never had any coil whine but with the EVGA it suddenly did (only faint, but there).