• Competitor rules

    Please remember that any mention of competitors, hinting at competitors or offering to provide details of competitors will result in an account suspension. The full rules can be found under the 'Terms and Rules' link in the bottom right corner of your screen. Just don't mention competitors in any way, shape or form and you'll be OK.

Is coil whine just accepted now?

Associate
Joined
20 Feb 2009
Posts
2,063
Location
Rugby
Finally played some more demanding games with my new GPU (7900xtx taichi), and it's got fairly obvious coil whine. I had a google search, and this seems to be a fairly common problem, with most people saying they just put up with it.

IMO with GPUs being 3-4x the price they were 10 years ago, it shouldn't be accepted that they whine like they do, but it seems this is just seemed as accepted.

Do manufacturers accept RMA for coil whine? Has anyone had any sucssess with RMAing a card for it & getting a better card out of it?
 
Caporegime
Joined
18 Oct 2002
Posts
39,456
Location
Ireland
Some accept rma for really loud coil whine, but I've seen it refused for that in the past. Seems more or less just accepted now as long as its not too loud.
 
Soldato
Joined
24 Feb 2003
Posts
8,690
Pretty much yes, It's a very good reason to keep your PC on the floor not on your desk, for me that means I can't hear it anymore as the case needs to be raised up and have an open path to my ears for me to be able to hear that frequency.
 
Soldato
Joined
1 Nov 2002
Posts
10,221
Location
Sussex
Getting a silent card is almost impossible. Some models are better than others, but it does seem like most high end cards these days exhibit it. Generally worse at higher frame rates.

My original 4090FE was swapped by Nvidia because it had insane coil whine. The replacement does too, but not quite as bad. Usually more noticeable on benchmarks etc rather than most games especially if I cap the frame rate.
 
Associate
Joined
3 Feb 2017
Posts
1,489
Location
Mondas
Finally played some more demanding games with my new GPU (7900xtx taichi), and it's got fairly obvious coil whine. I had a google search, and this seems to be a fairly common problem, with most people saying they just put up with it.

IMO with GPUs being 3-4x the price they were 10 years ago, it shouldn't be accepted that they whine like they do, but it seems this is just seemed as accepted.

Do manufacturers accept RMA for coil whine? Has anyone had any sucssess with RMAing a card for it & getting a better card out of it?
I would not accept it. When you by a card you have 14 days for getting your money back should you have any problem.
 
Associate
Joined
18 Feb 2008
Posts
1,020
It’s difficult because it’s often the combination of PSU+GPU and most people don’t seem to care too much so manufacturers get away with it.

I RMAd mine twice, had to pay because the shop didn’t accept it as a problem… but they all had loud coil whine, a few years later switched to a new PSU and it went away. Switched PSU again (to a high quality PSU) recently and it came back so went back to the old one
 
Last edited:
Soldato
Joined
22 May 2010
Posts
12,229
Location
Minibotpc
It’s difficult because it’s often the combination of PSU+GPU and most people don’t seem to care too much so manufacturers get away with it.

I RMAd mine twice, had to pay because the shop didn’t accept it as a problem… but they all had loud coil whine, a few years later switched to a new PSU and it went away. Switched PSU again (to a high quality PSU) recently and it came back so went back to the old one

This really.

Some of the ATX 3.0 power supplies are notoriously bad with coil whine which can easily cause other components to whine as well. It's not as easy as just pointing at one culprit when there's many factors involved.

I trialled 3 different Asus Loki SFX-L PSU's before i settled as they all exhibited loud coil whine.
 
Associate
Joined
3 Feb 2017
Posts
1,489
Location
Mondas
Agree about the psu can be a problem. I replaced knackered psu and the new one caused a good GPU to coil whine really bad. That psu went straight back.
 
Last edited:
Soldato
Joined
25 Oct 2002
Posts
2,631
If your PSU has more PCIE power connectors than what you're using then perhaps try switching them around. I found in doing this I was able to reduce coin whine on my GPU from extremely annoying to barely noticeable.
 
Last edited:
Associate
OP
Joined
20 Feb 2009
Posts
2,063
Location
Rugby
If your PSU has more PCIE power connectors than what you're using then perhaps try switching them around. I found in doing this I was able to reduce coin whine on my GPU from extremely annoying to barely noticeable.
I'm using 3 of the 4 8-pin connectors, but my PSU is a single 12V rail, so I doubt it'll make any difference swapping these round
 
Associate
OP
Joined
20 Feb 2009
Posts
2,063
Location
Rugby
I've also heard that APC's help with coil whine, don't know if its true though as i've never bought or used one at home.
I assume you mean UPS (as APC is a large manufactuer of these)? If so, I guess it's possible, if the UPS removes some noise from the input, it might help reduce whine (depending on the route cause of it)
 
Associate
Joined
29 Jan 2022
Posts
460
Location
UK
I had it really bad with an RX7600 and RMAd it, new one has it but not as bad (using a decent NZXT PSU)
Seems worse at high fps in menus etc and sometimes does it when scrolling in a browser and large changes occur in screen.

Annoying yup, but I just have to put up with it unless copious amounts of hot glue still works?
 
Last edited:
Soldato
Joined
22 May 2010
Posts
12,229
Location
Minibotpc
I assume you mean UPS (as APC is a large manufactuer of these)? If so, I guess it's possible, if the UPS removes some noise from the input, it might help reduce whine (depending on the route cause of it)

Yeah sorry meant UPS lol, had APC in my mind as it was the brand i looked at buying to test this theory before.
 
Soldato
Joined
31 Oct 2002
Posts
9,919
Finally played some more demanding games with my new GPU (7900xtx taichi), and it's got fairly obvious coil whine. I had a google search, and this seems to be a fairly common problem, with most people saying they just put up with it.

IMO with GPUs being 3-4x the price they were 10 years ago, it shouldn't be accepted that they whine like they do, but it seems this is just seemed as accepted.

Do manufacturers accept RMA for coil whine? Has anyone had any sucssess with RMAing a card for it & getting a better card out of it?

For high end cards (300w+), yes absolutely. Since owning several 3080, several 3090 and now a 4090 strix, all have had coil whine when running at 100% load (4k etc).

Some are definitely worse than others, though it's simply not possible to get one that's completely silent.

Bear in mind that many claiming to have "no coil noise" simply have age related hearing loss (or have damaged their hearing via loud music etc), so to them, they're telling the truth.
 
Last edited:
Back
Top Bottom