• 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.

KFA2 GTX 970 coil whine - should I return?

sitruz

sitruz

sitruz

Associate
Joined
1 Mar 2008
Posts
42
Location
Nottingham, UK
Hi Guys,

I received my KFA2 and full system upgrade last week, and have finally got round to setting everything up.

My last machine was over 10 years old, and I'd not heard of coil whine. Having listened to an example of it on YouTube, I decided I definitely didn't want any of that so I bought the KFA2 for coil whine guarantee and one of the Super Flower rated PSU's.

Here's the thing. I think my card has some whine, but nowhere near the level I saw on YouTube. In fact truth be told, when I put the case side on I can barely hear anything but the fans.

My concern is will it get worse? I can live with it as is, but if it usually does get worse, I don't want to wait for it to happen.

Thanks guys
 
I haven't particularly heard of whine gradually getting worse over time unless of course you're talking about my better half.
 
Black Edition or normal? I know the Black edition has a zero coil-whine guarantee, contact customer service to sort you out there. It shouldn't get worse, but IMO the best 970s are the MSI Gaming and Gigabyte G1. The OCUK Reference 970 is another 970 that's been modified to eliminate coil-whine if thats a problem. If you bought the cheaper non-Black edition of the KFA2, then... ya get what you pay for. IMO, the EVGA is the cheapest 970 that's 'safe.'
 
Whine doesn't normally get worse. People run benchmark loops in order to try and reduce coil whine overtime but i've never heard of it getting worse with age.

You could RMA although i'd strongly expect OcUK to say it's fine if you can barely hear it with the case side on.
 
Thanks for the responses guys. FYI I got the Infin8 Black Edition with the guarantee.

I've not played many games on it. The ones I have weren't very taxing. Is it best to listen whilst running something like 3dmark, or to hear it at its worse should I be actually playing an intensive game? (e.g. Battlefield 4, Witcher?)
 
Coil whine does get worse/develop over time. It is caused by the coils vibrating because the glue that holds them still is either on the low side (new) or because it has degraded over time.

The only time I've ever heard it is on very old hardware where the caps and coils were very worn.

Granted it's quite rare because many don't keep the hardware for more than ten minutes but yeah, it will definitely get worse over time.

Epoxy degrades and becomes brittle.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom