Received my 3080 today, now my PSU is producing coil whine :(

[3lackMamba]

So I got my MSI 3080 Gaming X Trio today, I got very lucky when ordering off ocuk, completed my order at 14:05. Thankfully this isn't a crashing thread (not yet anyway)

So I installed the GPU and drivers, tested some games and was very happy with the performance boost, all was going well until I took my headset off and heard the screeches coming from my PC. I had completely forgot this happened to me before, when I upgraded to a GTX 1080 with a very old corsair PSU and now it's happening again with a 2 year old EVGA G3 750W

I've tested by using a toilet roll tube and putting it to my ear and going around the GPU and PSU including the back of the PSU, im 90% sure the sound is coming from the PSU as the loudest noise was coming from the back where the I/O switch is. Is there any other way to test this?

What's the reasoning behind this? Is it just because the PSU is under a much bigger workload now? Probably close to its limit?

I have a 2700X OC'd to 4.1ghz, that probably doesn't help either.

Lastly, unless anyone has a reason or a test for me to perform to prove it isn't my PSU. Any recommendation's for PSU's?

 

[3lackMamba]

Linux Tech Tips recently was running a founders edition 3080 on a 650W for a small PC build with Ryzen 3900xt (https://youtu.be/Z2s-q34FX7c) and I am fairly sure he would have complained if any coil whine.

I know, I was surprised myself. I’ve seen youtubers running the 3080 fine on a 650W and even a 500W

Are you using separate cables for the 2 or 3 pins on the 3080? Or you using a daisy chained one for 2 of them? If you are that could be the cause of the coil whine pulling 300w out of the psu on a single cable could be to much for the powerfully on that rail. Try changing the cables around. Coil whining can be caused by a lot of reasons though but that my best guess

Okay so my PSU has four VGA ports and comes with four VGA cables, two of those cables are single ended and two are daisy chains. So yes I have 3 separate cables plugged into the card but one of the cables is a daisy chain cable, but the extra connection isn’t plugged into anything. Surely this wouldn’t be the cause? I mean that’s all the GPU cables my psu came with so it’s the only setup choice I have.

 

[3lackMamba]

How old is the PSU? That could have an effect.

Not even 2 years old

 

[3lackMamba]

It should be okay

Do you have another computer you could test the card in, or another PSU you could swap in for a test?

I do yeah but not right now, it's a friends. Would maybe be next week or the week after before I can get testing.

This might be a stupid question, but how many rails is your PSU? With some PSUs you need the VGA outputs plugged into specific places depending on the number of cables you're using.

I don't know much about rails or anything but from a quick google search, my PSU is a single 12V rail.

 

[3lackMamba]

Okay so I just tested it with one regular VGA cable and one VGA daisy chain cable, just to see, and the coil whine has actually been significantly reduced.. I've heard a lot of reports to stay away from daisy chaining with these 3080's but, the coil whine is def less obvious when I use one although it is still there.

 

[3lackMamba]

I have a friend nearby who needs me to build his pc into a new case he purchased, I told him I’d do it for him next week or maybe the week after depending what time I have. But I remembered he has a HX850 so yeah.. told him I’ll build it for him a lot sooner provided I can test my 3080 in his system. I’ll find the time somewhere

rma the card

Um, what?

 

[3lackMamba]

From what I can tell in the frantic research I’ve been doing about coil whine in the past 5 hours, is my PSU is definitely capable of running my 3080, coil whine doesn’t exactly mean my PSU is struggling, it’s just a response to the higher current flowing through it. Maybe I got a bit unlucky as like with all computer hardware, every component is different, even if it’s the same.

Trying to RMA this PSU will probably not be successful also as apparently companies don’t really RMA because of coil whine, unless in very extreme cases which I wouldn’t call mine extreme.

I could super glue the coils but.. no, I’m not even venturing down that path lol

I’ll test it in my friends rig just to 100% confirm it isn’t the gpu then I guess I’ll just deal with it for a while until PSU’s start coming back in stock, as most of the good ones seem to be sold out atm, for obvious reasons.

 

[3lackMamba]

Is there a way to undervolt the 3080's? If you can reduce the power draw it might make the coil whine go away.

I reduced the power limit by 20-30 and 40% and by the time I reached 40 the whine was practically gone but, that’s not a fix.

Honestly I’d rather buy a new PSU than reducing voltages, I plan to OC this card soon and reduced voltages won’t help lol

 

[3lackMamba]

So a 850W PSU is safe? Right?

I really hope so cause that’s what I’ll be picking up soon

 

[3lackMamba]

It's gonna sound like a weird one, but my partner got their MSI 3080 Gaming X Trio installed yesterday, and when in certain games noticed coil whine from his PSU too. Strangely, turning V-Sync on in the affected games stopped it from making the whine O_o

What hz is their monitor? I’m pretty sure coil whine is louder in higher frame rates, my monitor is 165hz so even with vsync on it’s still producing high frames. Whereas if your partner’s monitor is say, 60hz 4K for example, that might be why the whining stopped.

I play at 1440p and I noticed when I bumped my resolution scale to 200% in a certain game, even though my gpu is working harder and even though it’s not true 4K or anything, the frame dropped to like 80-90 and the whining was a lot quieter. Although I haven’t tried capping to 60fps, just for tests sake.

 

[3lackMamba]

He plays at 1080p on a 144Hz monitor; this may be why it was okay for him O_o. Worth a try capping it for tests sake though

What’s your SO’s PSU model and wattage? If you don’t mind.

 

[3lackMamba]

He has a Corsair CX750M which as the name suggests is 750 Watts

Same as mine basically.. Tell him he’s a !@#@%#! £&?!... but Im glad he got it fixed

 

[3lackMamba]

My Corsair 650W (RM650x) is running my 3080 and i9 9900k perfectly fine so I would be surprised if a decent 750W was having problems

Looks like my luck is awful, nothing new there

@tyler_jrb yeah man, my pc is like a meter away from me so that helps blocking out the sound thankfully.

So am I right in saying once you have coil whine, it’s more or less impossible to get rid off without running the risk of completely breaking your PSU by glueing the coils?

 

[3lackMamba]

Then run it like this. As long as your PSU isn't garbage (which it isn't), it'll be fine as the cable must be spec'd to carry upto 300W (assuming it's a pair of 6+2 pin PCIe cables). Furthermore, with 3 8pin cables and the PCIe slot, that's a total of 525W of capacity before going overspec and given that the 3080 doesn't draw that, you'll not be pushing the cables to their limits.

Thanks dude

Its hard to get rid of, even glueing the coils may do nothing (ive tried before).

Best bet is another PSU either replacement or another model. Or if you can attempt to isolate the noise somehow. Or say undervolt your 3080.

I know how frustrating it is though hence why my pc is now several feet away in a wall cupboard . Honestly there are weeks on end where I don’t even look at it anymore. Do miss it on the desk but I don’t miss the whine.

Yeah it is very irritating but thankfully mine isn’t atrocious an my computer is far enough away for the sound to be blocked out lol

I've got an EVGA 750 P2 and that's giving me coil whine as well. Hadn't noticed it as PC is under my desk and I wear headphones, only checked because of you and now I'll hear it forever grrrr!

I am truly sorry for this aha

 

[3lackMamba]

Try undervolt it with Afterburner? That might help.

I’ve done that just out of curiosity with my ASUS TUF 3080, down to 0.86v and still got core clock set to 1950MHz and runs no problem at all!

Now uses a fair bit of less power which is nice, for the same performance!

I'm currently trying to learn how to undervolt, I don't really understand it lol but I think I'm starting to pick it up, I never really use curves.