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I need some solid opinions on what GPU to get..

TheHotDog

TheHotDog

TheHotDog

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18 Jan 2015
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48
First had the Sapphire Radeon R9 290 Tri-X - Some annoying coil whine when not even under any load.

Arrived today, Sapphire Radeon R9 290x Vapor-X - Even more coil whine when doing nothing but browsing and then it goes crazy when I load up a game.

And refunding such highly priced products can get rough... especially if I'm going to be refunding both of these.

I need some solid recommendations on a GPU which has similar performance and will last me some good few years.
Some pointers:
- I'm not an extreme OC'er so that's not a main feature I am looking for.
- Quietness and performance
- The one which has the least reports of coil whine / lowest volume of coil whining. (I know coil whining is pretty much common nowadays)
- Price £200-300 I guess.

That's as much as I can think of as of now.
 
970s are known to whine (more so than 290s). A 960 is gonna be a lot lower performance than 290/970 levels. Honestly, your only options (assuming you don't want to spend more than £300) are to go for either another 290 or go 970. Either will do you fine for 1080p. For 1440p or above I'd consider 8gb 290.

Are you sure it's the GPUs whining and not PSU or motherboard? What psu do you have anyways? Some PSUs and hardware combos whine more than others. A good quality PSU will help.
 
My power supply is: EVGA supernova g2 750W Gold
My motherboard is: MSI Z97 PC MATE

I'm almost 100% sure that the sound is coming from the GPU.
The whining is lighter than the vapor, when I put the vapor in. The whining is already loud from the get go and once I open up a game it gets pretty loud and irritating.
 
billysielu said:
960
Click to expand...

I hope you joking lol

@OP
290 or 290x do not get a 970 I can not recommend this GPU Full Stop Plus the 970 is also known for its Whine, more so that OCUK have some the can be changed without question if you have whine.

I believe the PSU plays a massive part in a GPU to whine you sure this isn't the case with you?

At this moment the only GPU I can say is 290 or 290x not even a 980 unless Nvidia features matter to you, its just not worth the extra price over a 290x if we just talking performance!
 
I hope not, before I had 2x xfx 650W psu.
1 was faulty and 2nd had bad bearings but I still could hear the coil on the GPU I think.
I gave up and then went for a better PSU instead.

Now unless I am that extremely lucky... then I dunno.

I guess it's true that I don't have much choice in terms of GPU at this point.
290 / 290x or a 970...

The whining on the 290 is kinda bearable-ish, compared to the vapor I just got which is pretty dang audible and would drive me nuts in a few minutes.

I guess I might have to just stick to my current 290 and bear with it and hopefully the coiling will wear down a bit over time and save up and wait in the future for any new GPUs which may come out.

I don't think I'm going to buy another 290 in the risk of then refunding it again, especially with products at this price.
I was thinking of whether there were any other type of brands which could be more reliable, but as for as that seems...
 
Just for consideration, what about a GTX780 Ti.

You can still get them brand new, if you look around.

Only one OcUK has is £439, so it's not an option.

Maybe 2'nd hand if you have to? I know it's older tech but it's still a damm good card.
 
Although the 780ti is a good card, I wouldn't be investing in anything less than 4gb. If it was my money and I HAD to buy right now, it would be an 8GB r9 290.

As I've said, try another r9 290. If you get whine on another one start looking towards your PSU or motherboard (or combination of certain parts). Maybe a 970 wouldnt whine. Either way your only options are:

290x (8GB version is my recommendation)
970
Wait for new AMD cards.
 
I mean if I am that damn unlucky to get a defective 290x when the condition is new... I guess I will give it a final shot and get a return/replacement... and if that fails... well.

The sound from the 290x vapor essentially sounded like this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j1L9RSAavB4&feature=youtu.be

Which it is said to be a loose choke? or just coil whine.

Maybe I will take a final shot at this replacement and hope they actually give me a good working one :(
 
I didn't think places accepted GPUs back because of coil whine as it's not regarded as a fault?

I remember in some of the 970 coil whine threads around people were suggesting running a GPU benchmark or torture test for a while to solve the issue. Not sure how effective it was, maybe someone else might remember more. Might be a solution to your problem that doesn't involve more cash and messing about though.
 
Try the 290(x) PCS+ from powercolor. Has glue on the whiny bits to dampen the vibrations and isolate the noise.

Also if you are returning faulty products ask the retailer to help cover the cost of the return. They are likely to agree and if they don't you are no worse off.
 
Yeah but that level of noise isn't normal compared to if it was a simple coil whining at the times where whining should happen.
I think that's like faulty level of a coil whining.

Well I actually just got my replacement, which I will need to send my current 290x back and getting the new one on Monday.
So I guess we'll see how that goes.
 
Why is coil whine not a fault ? For me I have to say it's not right ? But I guess some think it's ok. I tried 2 970 cards and both had whine one more than the other. Hope you get a card that don't
 
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