KFA2 GeForce RTX 3080 Ti HOF - Coil Whine

Gibso · 18 Aug 2021 at 16:23

Hi guys,

So I finally got my hands on a 3080 from Overclockers, I went for the 3080 ti upgrade offer of a KFA2 GeForce RTX 3080 Ti HOF.

However I'm getting very loud coil whine when playing some games. I used to get this on my Zotac 2060 when in game menus, but this is much, much worse and is constant during some games.

Has anyone else got this graphics card? Have you got any coil whine issues? Or has anyone got any advice in how to reduce this / what I should do?

I have limited my FPS to 115 as I have a 120hz monitor, I think this helped a little but it's still very loud, I can hear it quite noticeably even over explosions etc going on in the game. Very annoying.

I have also replaced my PSU as my old one was quite old and thought this might help, it made no difference at all.

Any advice would be appreciated.

random_matt · 18 Aug 2021 at 16:45

See if OC will RMA it. All cards have it, just the degree of how unlucky you get on severity. However, sometimes it goes away from constant gaming.

Psycho Sonny · 18 Aug 2021 at 17:03

People say that undervolting yet keeping your max boost clocks the same helps.

Will require you spending a bit of time in MSI afterburner playing about with the curve and auto oc tool.

Also limit your FPS to 4 below the max refresh rate of the screen. That should be standard anyhow for best latency.

Unfortunately it's a complete lottery and even buying the absolute best cards males zero difference. My friend has it on his MSI suprim x model 3080. Which is absolute top end only the strix from asus is on the same level.

Yet his other 3080 an FE which was half the price has none.

uscool · 18 Aug 2021 at 17:54

I just returned 3080fe for coil whine tried under volting and capped FPS only slightly improved it , I know should expect coil whine and varies from card to card had cards in the past that had it but would be drowned out with case and gpu fans spinning faster so didn't bother me but with the 3080fe I can clearly hear it over them and also the pitch changes during game which I found most annoying

I had to record the issue and was given RMA just hope they don't say it's normal can't imagine installing water block on it would be even more noticeable hopefully get replacement doesn't have to be totally quiet as long most of it can be drowned out by the fans

Daytrader · 18 Aug 2021 at 18:35

Yeh, in this day and age, why is coil whine even there, all this money we spend and we have to put up with stuff like this, nvidia sort it out already.

Gibso · 18 Aug 2021 at 18:48

Just tried undervolting as suggested and unfortunately made no difference.

Psycho Sonny · 18 Aug 2021 at 19:44

Daytrader said:
Yeh, in this day and age, why is coil whine even there, all this money we spend and we have to put up with stuff like this, nvidia sort it out already.

Not sure if serious.

Coil whine is only going to get worse with advances in tech not better. The more transistors and chips you pack in the more power regulators and vrms are needed.

The main reason why some probably hear it more often is cases are now on desks at head height and cases are open with sound leaking right through them.

Old cases on the floor in a corner you hear nothing even if there is coil whine.

Daytrader · 18 Aug 2021 at 20:06

I am 100% serious, we don't get this problem in specialised audio equipment and other electrical stuff, and some of them amps drive massive power, they just need to use better transistors/chips/regulators and vrms then surely ? what ever it takes to cure the problem, there must be a fix.

uscool · 18 Aug 2021 at 20:40

Lol so we have to settle for it getting worse :cry:

Quartz · 18 Aug 2021 at 21:18

Are you sure that the whine is coming from the GPU and not the PSU?

EdGey · 18 Aug 2021 at 21:31

Psycho Sonny said:
Not sure if serious.

Old cases on the floor in a corner you hear nothing even if there is coil whine.

Not necessarily, I've had it in the past where coil whine has come through headphones.

uscool · 18 Aug 2021 at 21:54

Psycho Sonny said:
Not sure if serious.

Coil whine is only going to get worse with advances in tech not better. The more transistors and chips you pack in the more power regulators and vrms are needed.

The main reason why some probably hear it more often is cases are now on desks at head height and cases are open with sound leaking right through them.

Old cases on the floor in a corner you hear nothing even if there is coil whine.

No one card is the same with coil whine some will be bad while others not so much it's case by case I can hear it from other side of the room

Gibso · 18 Aug 2021 at 22:20

Quartz said:
Are you sure that the whine is coming from the GPU and not the PSU?

Yeah definitely not the PSU. I just tried 2 PSU's, 1 powering the PC and a separate, external PSU powering only the GPU. The coil whine is coming from the GPU.

Matthew Blake · 19 Aug 2021 at 08:58

Gibso said:
Hi guys,

So I finally got my hands on a 3080 from Overclockers, I went for the 3080 ti upgrade offer of a KFA2 GeForce RTX 3080 Ti HOF.

However I'm getting very loud coil whine when playing some games. I used to get this on my Zotac 2060 when in game menus, but this is much, much worse and is constant during some games.

Has anyone else got this graphics card? Have you got any coil whine issues? Or has anyone got any advice in how to reduce this / what I should do?

I have limited my FPS to 115 as I have a 120hz monitor, I think this helped a little but it's still very loud, I can hear it quite noticeably even over explosions etc going on in the game. Very annoying.

I have also replaced my PSU as my old one was quite old and thought this might help, it made no difference at all.

Any advice would be appreciated.

No coil whine on mine. The card is a beast, almost makes up for the fact I turned down a 3090FE at MSRP and only realised what a fool I was about 12 hours after it went. Stupid stupid stupid.

Gibso · 19 Aug 2021 at 09:02

Matthew Blake said:
No coil whine on mine. The card is a beast, almost makes up for the fact I turned down a 3090FE at MSRP and only realised what a fool I was about 12 hours after it went. Stupid stupid stupid.

Exact same card? That's interesting, I was going to get a gigabyte eagle instead to try and avoid a repeat issue with this KFA2 card. Maybe I just got an unlucky one...

Matthew Blake · 19 Aug 2021 at 09:26

Gibso said:
Exact same card? That's interesting, I was going to get a gigabyte eagle instead to try and avoid a repeat issue with this KFA2 card. Maybe I just got an unlucky one...

Exact same card, exact same upgrade option I suspect as well! I suspect you got unlucky. The only downside is my case is now a space heater and is on the floor right in front of my legs whilst I save up to extend the house and have a gaming room (although for purposes of discussing with my partner it is referred to as "an office").

Gibso · 19 Aug 2021 at 09:32

Ha, yeah it sure does produce some heat. It is a shame as apart from the coil whine it's a nice card.

I can tolerate some noise, but this is really bad. Never heard coil whine like it before.

Matthew Blake · 19 Aug 2021 at 09:36

Gibso said:
Ha, yeah it sure does produce some heat. It is a shame as apart from the coil whine it's a nice card.

I can tolerate some noise, but this is really bad. Never heard coil whine like it before.

I would RMA it. If a graphics card intended for gaming is producing so much coil whine gaming is ruined because of the noise then it is not fit for purpose. I've only ever had positive experiences with overclockers when I had to RMA something in the past.

Barleyman · 19 Aug 2021 at 12:27

Daytrader said:
I am 100% serious, we don't get this problem in specialised audio equipment and other electrical stuff, and some of them amps drive massive power, they just need to use better transistors/chips/regulators and vrms then surely ? what ever it takes to cure the problem, there must be a fix.

Because the currents in GPUs are crazy high. If your core voltage is 0.9V (for the sake of argument) and you're pulling 200W power, that equals 222A current. To put this into context, arc welders use 100-300A current so you can see this makes things "slightly" challenging for the power supply designers. Basically what they (have to) do is run several supplies in parallel in a staggered manner to keep individual part power density from melting it down (arc welding, remember?).

Audio equipment has nowhere near that high currents unless you're working with a SONAR transducer or something and even if you were, the business end components much larger, drastically reducing power density.

Capacitors do something similar ("singing capacitors") which you can suppress with a couple of techniques on PCB side but for inductors it's more complex. TDK would be happy to sell you something they call "integral molding type" inductors where the inductor core is essentially molded around the coils so there's no airgap to compress.. That adds costs and may not be viable due to the crazy power density, e.g. 30A parts are about 12x12mm in size which is way too big for a GPU.

fr0sty · 30 Aug 2021 at 18:19

Gibso said:
Exact same card? That's interesting, I was going to get a gigabyte eagle instead to try and avoid a repeat issue with this KFA2 card. Maybe I just got an unlucky one...

I was looking at the Gigabyte but it seems plagued with problems. Now I'm looking at the hof but the thought of loud coil whine is not nice. My msi gtx1080ti has it but its not too bad, I can't hear it with headphones on.

So much money I hate the thought of it not being right.