Help with GPU 4070TI issue

[Prestonian]

Good evening all.

Before I go through the utterly unpleasant procedure of OCer's ticketing system, I thought I'd ask here in case it's a simple fix.

I have had this system since spring 2023 but have only just connected it to a 4k display this week. The display is an LG 42 C2 OLED TV 120hz, and I am using a brand new £50 HDMI 2.1 cable. It isn't the TV at fault because rebooting the PC temporarily rids the tearing problem. This TV has many good reviews for use as a monitor with 4K compatible GPUs.
Here are the symptoms....

Regardless of browsing or just the desktop, the screen tears/flashes for a split second, with varying frequency like 2 in 10 seconds, or 1 in 30 seconds. I recorded it on my phone and paused at the frame which shows exactly what is happening. This image is with task manager open, which shows there was no other apps open. Please see image..



On top of the unbearable screen flashes, I am experiencing an unbearable noise while media is being played, which worsens when my cursor hovers over links. The noise is akin to the dial-up modem noise, but lower pitch. Since connecting to the 4K display, the GPU fans activate when media is played, which also gives this noise, but the fans aren't the noise source because as they speed up, the said noise doesn't change.

The build of the PC is as follows, and OCers built it. I've had 2 previous unrelated issues with it, which I was not happy about, hence not wanting to venture down OCer's ticketing process.
1x Lian Li Lancool III Full Tower PC Case - Black
1x Intel Core i7-13700KF (Raptor Lake) Socket LGA1700 Processor - OEM
1x Gigabyte Z790 UD AX (LGA 1700) DDR5 ATX Motherboard
1x Alphacool Core Ocean T38 CPU Water Cooler - 360mm
1x TeamGroup Vulcan 32GB (2X16GB) DDR5 PC5-44800C36 5600MHz Dual Channel Kit - Black (FLBD532G5600HC36BDC01)
1x Gigabyte GeForce RTX 4070Ti Eagle OC 12GB GDDR6X PCI-Express Graphics Card
1x Kolink Continuum 850W 80 Plus Platinum Modular Power Supply
1x WD Black SN850X 2TB SSD M.2 2280 NVME PCI-E Gen4 Solid State Drive (WDS200T2X0E)
1x Microsoft Windows 11 Home 64-Bit DVD - OEM (KW9-00632)

Please if anyone can help or advise, I would be grateful. I really really really don't want to send this PC back.

Many thanks for reading.

 

[Prestonian]

That sounds like coil whine, are you familiar with coil whine?

No, but I will read/watch to educate myself on it.

Have you tried using a resolution of 60 Hz? The clocks and voltages change depending on the resolution and refresh rate and sometimes the manufacturer doesn't get this quite right for all configurations and one of the symptoms of this can be flashes/discoloration and freezes.

On the previous display it was at 60Hz and I never experienced the flashes. Of course I don't want to use 60Hz, but for the purpose of diagnosing, I will switch to 60Hz and test. Do I do that at the TV or on the PC settings? And when you say 'the manufacturer' do you mean the TV or GPU maker?

 

[Prestonian]

The graphics card. You can usually check what influence the refresh rate and resolution has on the graphics card clocks and voltage through GPU-Z's sensor data. HWInfo may have the same information, but the program is less lightweight.


It'll probably achieve the same thing either way.

Well on Nvidia Settings, there's only 2 options...100Hz and 120Hz. It's still doing it on 100Hz.

I have downloaded MSI Afterburner to see if that reveals anything, but I'm not sure how to use it so I will leave it alone.

I've been through the settings in Nvidia but nothing stands out other than G-sync which is already on. I'm going to reboot and time how long it take until it happens again. This is feeling like a faulty GPU.

 

[Prestonian]

You could try turning off G-Sync.

Which version of the graphics driver are you on? Have you tried using a studio driver?

How many apps are you running simultaneously that have enabled / require hardware acceleration?

4K/120 is on the edge of what your HDMI port can do, so I'd personally do some more tweaking/testing before I went down the troublesome route of getting it replaced.

There are firmware updates available on the websites of nvidia and asus too, though neither mention anything like this issue.

Edit:
I'd give these two things a go:

https://www.reddit.com/r/pcmasterrace/comments/17317oy/comment/kcrc92f/

https://www.reddit.com/r/nvidia/comments/r7iv4z/psa_you_can_fix_the_screen_flickering_issue_by/

Really appreciate your time responding to me, thank you.

So, I have watched a few vids on coil whine, and I can say this isn't coil whine because it is present while there is little load. The YT-vids showed the coil whine worsened as FPS increased. Mine is doing it just playing a Youtube video, and if I press pause, it stops. The noise I'm experiencing is laboured and broken, just like the dial-up modem, whereas in the videos of coil whine it was constant (unbroken) but pitch changed as voltage increased.
I suspect my noise is from the coils, but it's not the expected standard coil whine demonstrated in the videos about coil whine.

I'm still waiting for the screen tear/flicker/flash/horizonal-line to start since restarting the system. If it was a settings issue, I would expect it to be present all the time, but then I am not qualified to say anything on PC's with certainty, so maybe time is a factor.

Tomorrow I will make the PC accessible and record everything from the cursor hovering over links causing the noise, the screen flashes, and the fans stopping and starting as I pause/start the Youtube vids, and upload it to Youtube for this thread and the tech department if I raise a ticket.

I'll have a look at those links you have posted now.

Good night.

Edited to add....Driver is 551.23

 

[Prestonian]

After some testing I now think the noise issue is the modem on the MB. If I play a film that's already downloaded, there is no noise. If I play media that is streamed, the noise is there. If I stream from Twitch, the noise is faster and consistent which leads me to thinking the modem is at fault.

The screen tear/flash is still a problem, and I can't fathom out what's causing it.

Here's a video showing 2 flashes

I had Afterburner on to see if it helped diagnosing, which I think it might have. If you look and listen, you see a spike in MHz synced with the noise, but that could be a red herring.

Here's the noise when playing Youtube

Here's the noise when watching Twitch

Would you agree that that noise is excessive and likely due to a fault?

Could that modem noise be fixed with MB drivers/bios, if so, how do I do it?


Oh, and the GPU was changed before shipping due to stock problems, so that model I quoted is incorrect. The actual GPU in my system is Gigabyte GeForce RTX 4070Ti Eagle OC 12GB GDDR6X PCI-Express Graphics Card

Thanks

 

[Prestonian]

Just doing a little more testing and found the GPU and Memory MHz spike is consistent with the noise, and when I have Twitch on, the noise gets worse, the spike becomes constant with the MHz staying around 2500MHz for the GPU and 10500MHz for Memory. Then the GPU fans kick in, so that noise could be linked with the GPU, but it definitely only happens with data-transfer like streaming.

 

[Prestonian]

I'm adding this for the benefit of the ticket I will be raising. If anyone reading this post has a clue what this is, please let me know.

This was immediately after booting up after being turned off for a day; I restarted the PC and now it's normal. No idea why restarting temporarily fixes it.

 

[Prestonian]

So have you tried it on different screens?

Let's say you RMA the card, they test it with 5 different monitors and it works fine. What do you think will happen?

The sound is coil whine. What's confusing is why your system is pushing the GPU so hard for simple video acceleration. What browser are you using?

I am using Brave and Chrome. I disabled hardware acceleration in both browsers which has helped a lot with that noise. I have been studying what happens, with the help of Afterburner I could see the spike in MHz when media was being streamed, and the GPU would get hotter which would bring on its fans. With Hardware Acceleration disabled it runs at lower MHz and obviously quieter.

Let's say you RMA the card, they test it with 5 different monitors and it works fine. What do you think will happen?

They would charge me for the pleasure? Understandable, that's why I am going to the trouble to speak with this community of experienced PC tech enthusiasts. I will try another cable if it is a possible candidate as the cause; I've tried to research for reported issues with the Sandstrom Gold 8K series HDMI cable, SKU s3hdmi321 322795 but I can't find anything.

Unfortunately I don't have a spare 4K 120Hz display, but I'm pretty sure it's not the display as rebooting the PC fixes it, not rebooting the display.

I appreciate your time responding, thank you.

 

[Prestonian]

Have you tried a different HDMI cable?

If it was working fine before then you changed TV and changed the cable I’d be inclined to think it was one of those.

I did get a few days of trouble free use after the upgrade of display and cable. I played a few hours of DayZ without any problems, but with a headset on, I wouldn't hear the noises.

There was an update for Nvidia drivers, but nothing online suggests issues with this update.

 

[Prestonian]

It's a shame you paid £50 for that.

Could have bought a 3 pack of quality cables from a well known manufacturer like below.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Cable-Matters-3-Pack-48Gbps-Support-Color-Combo/dp/B081NXV3ZR/

If you have an Xbox Series X or PS5, use one of their cables as a test.

Hey thanks for that; I will buy these so I can rule out the Sandstrom one, and will return it if faulty.

 

[Prestonian]

Just use another monitor and use any old cheap HDMI cable. Don't need a £50 cable. This will rule out the card, or suggest it is the problem.

Glitches you observe is usually RF interference, if it isn't a bad card. A poorly shielded cable can cause that.

Also stick to Chrome for diagnosing the problem. Hardware acceleration should be fine on Chrome.

I have my old 1080 60Hz monitor, but I assumed the extra oomph needed for a 4K 120Hz display brought out the fault with the GPU, that's why I haven't switched back. I will do it tomorrow.




"What's confusing is why your system is pushing the GPU so hard for simple video acceleration. What browser are you using?" Any further thoughts on this anomaly? I haven't changed any setting since I got the PC; Overclockers set it all up.

 

[Prestonian]

Hi there those that are interested in this.

I swapped back back to my 1080 monitor but the coil whine is still there and louder than any of the examples on Youtube, but turning off hardware acceleration brings it down to a tolerable level . Anyway, I think the noise has been a red herring; the main issue was/is the screen flickering.

I found a Youtuber that has covered this, but sadly his fix isn't a fix, it's a disabling of a main feature (G-SYNC VVR), but it's 2 comments that's grabbed my attention..... "Leave gsync enabled in the control panel and just disable fast boot in the bios and windows"

I'm not sure about trying to do that without trusted approval (this community), as I haven't a clue what it is, or if it's a nasty prank that would fry my system. Anyway, here's the guy's video

Reading the comments I get the feeling this problem is more widespread than what Google searching suggested. Three of the comments said replacing the HDMI cable to better quality brands, fixed the issue for them.

 

[Prestonian]

I have not read all the replies here, so sorry if its been mentioned already.

How do you have the power cables for the GPU setup?

Is it option 1

1 - cable from PSU, in to the adaptor and then to the card
2- 2 x cables from the PSU to the adaptor and then to the GPU

I have a Zotac 4070 TI and I had 1 x cable running from the PSU (modular PSU) which had 2 x 6 pin connecters on to the supplied adaptor which turned in to 1 connecter to the GPU.

I found that the coil whine was reduced when I changed to 2 x cables from the PSU to the adaptor rather than running 1 cable that splits off.

Hi Ed, thanks for your input.

I don't know how OCers have set up the modular cables; I can have a look tomorrow and get back to you. The wattage of the PSU is 850w.



So, the flashing/tearing screen hasn't occurred again, even with the original HDMI 2.1 cable. I have now replaced that cable with a Cable-Matters HDMI 2.1 which was recommended in this thread, and tearing/flashing has not occurred with it yet, so hopefully the tweaks have fixed that. We have to be aware though, the flashing was intermittent and could be gone for hours at a time, before starting again.

Regarding the noise, that is not as bad since disabling hardware acceleration in the browser settings, but it is still present. It's likely coil whine but excessively loud and frequent, and apparent when it shouldn't be. From my understanding, coil whine is noticeable when the GPU is under moderate-heavy load.

Fast boot has been turned off in Windows. Fingers crossed it's all good.

Thanks everyone that responded. This community is the reason I don't buy from the big store on my doorstep.

 

[Prestonian]

The GPU going crazy (in afterburner) when playing video still?

The GPU and Mem MHz still spike when I hover over a link with the cursor, but nowhere near as loud and erratic as when 'hardware acceleration' was selected in the browser settings.

I need to get a controller/tuner installed. Currently using the stock Gigabyte Control Centre which is frowned upon by PC enthusiasts from what I read.