7970 Issue

[MKOdoric]

Hi Everyone,

Last week I managed to pick up a Gigabyte 7970 and have been happy with it ever since. I was lucky, as it overclocks to 1125/1575 on stock volts with no issues, and never hits higher than 72C during gaming (mainly BF3), and 82C running Furmark with my GPU fan running at 45%.

However I was running Furmark over the weekend and inadvertently clicked some odd resolution (can't remember what resolution) to run the benchmark and while in windowed mode I noticed my 7970 was producing coil whine. There isn't any whine when running the benchmark fullscreen in my native resolution (1680x1050) The whine isn't too bad, if the fan on my 7970 runs at 40%, I can't hear the whine over the GPU fan and case fans.

I wondered if this was a common occurrence or an isolated issue, so after a short Google search and finding some other people with the issue during menu screens of games, I fired up Stalker (one of the games mentioned) and sure enough the whine is apparent while in the menu screen, but not during game play.

So now I'm at a crossroads. I can't really find any confirmation that coil whine is the sign of a part that's bound to wear out sooner than later, however the fact that my card is making an abnormal sound is worrisome and I am worried about the longevity of it. (This 7970 replaced a 4 year old HIS 4870). What do you think I should do, return it in favor of another card, or keep it and be happy with it's high overclock.

TL;DR
Gigabyte 7970. Good overclocker. Produces coil whine in some instances. Worried about longevity of the card. Return for another 7970 or keep the card and be happy with the overclock?

 

[TakeNoPrisoners]

Hi Everyone,

Last week I managed to pick up a Gigabyte 7970 and have been happy with it ever since. I was lucky, as it overclocks to 1125/1575 on stock volts with no issues, and never hits higher than 72C during gaming (mainly BF3), and 82C running Furmark with my GPU fan running at 45%.

However I was running Furmark over the weekend and inadvertently clicked some odd resolution (can't remember what resolution) to run the benchmark and while in windowed mode I noticed my 7970 was producing coil whine. There isn't any whine when running the benchmark fullscreen in my native resolution (1680x1050) The whine isn't too bad, if the fan on my 7970 runs at 40%, I can't hear the whine over the GPU fan and case fans.

I wondered if this was a common occurrence or an isolated issue, so after a short Google search and finding some other people with the issue during menu screens of games, I fired up Stalker (one of the games mentioned) and sure enough the whine is apparent while in the menu screen, but not during game play.

So now I'm at a crossroads. I can't really find any confirmation that coil whine is the sign of a part that's bound to wear out sooner than later, however the fact that my card is making an abnormal sound is worrisome and I am worried about the longevity of it. (This 7970 replaced a 4 year old HIS 4870). What do you think I should do, return it in favor of another card, or keep it and be happy with it's high overclock.

TL;DR
Gigabyte 7970. Good overclocker. Produces coil whine in some instances. Worried about longevity of the card. Return for another 7970 or keep the card and be happy with the overclock?

I hear coil whine in my 5850 but only in the Crysis and Crysis Warhead menu screens. Nothing else can get it do whine.

If something is going to fail it will most likely do it while the warrenty is still in effect and I wouldn't worry about it unless it bothered you.

Although it wouldn't hurt to exchange it if you wanted to be safe.

 

[ctk1981]

May not even be a real issue, folding@home gpu causes most cards to whine.

Note 4, Guide for GPU Client

 

[RaistlinZ]

Just return it. Pretty much all 7970's can hit 1125/1575 with ease. No point putting up with coil whine when your card is covered under warranty.

 

[dust]

Just return it. Pretty much all 7970's can hit 1125/1575 with ease. No point putting up with coil whine when your card is covered under warranty.

+1

 

[NumericalMethods]

I have some coil whine with my Sapphire. Happens particularly on screens with high frame rates. It is bad for the first 2-3 minutes when I get into a game. As the card warms up it reduces. It has already substantially reduced in intensity over the past week. I don't plan to do anything about it.

If you return your card and get a poor overclocker also with coil whine, how upset will you be? It could happen.

 

[Cookie Monster]

Depending on the load your putting your video card through, the coil noise will be high to barely audible. This just means that at a certain load, the wire that makes up the coil is physical vibrating due to reaching/being near its resonant frequency.

Its actually normal, so dont be scared about the coil noise but I guess gigabyte kind of cheaped out. Proper engineering design would produce minimal coil noise.. (there are so many ways to do reduce this).

You could try your luck returning and getting a new card but if its a hassle I dont really see the point.

 

[badb0y]

That's normal, make sure you watch for the FPS it's probably something insane like 500 or something like that.

 

[blackened23]

I have some coil whine with my Sapphire. Happens particularly on screens with high frame rates. It is bad for the first 2-3 minutes when I get into a game. As the card warms up it reduces. It has already substantially reduced in intensity over the past week. I don't plan to do anything about it.

If you return your card and get a poor overclocker also with coil whine, how upset will you be? It could happen.

I had this on my cards on the first day and it disappeared after 2 days. I'm pretty confused on it, but I even turned the manual fan to a low setting to see if it was gone, and it does seem to be gone. Shrug.

I'd say wait a few days, I think you'll be fine.

 

[Will Robinson]

Definitely keep the card as the common thread here seems to indicate it may subside or disappear soon.
It would be great if you could report back how thing's went in a week or so:thumbsup:

 

[wahdangun]

just keep it, you would be sorry if you endded with worst overclocking card

 

[amenx]

You bought a 7970 to use on a 1680x1050 screen?

 

[Crap Daddy]

You bought a 7970 to use on a 1680x1050 screen?

So what's the problem? The 7970 can't play above 60 FPS max out BF3 on 1080p so maybe he can enjoy this at a lower res.

 

[Erazor51]

This is normal, I would recommend keeping the card. I have had many card produce this noise and it's only when the fps is insanely high in menus.

 

[MKOdoric]

Hi everyone, thanks for all the responses. I decided i'm going to keep the card. I don't want to risk getting a bad overclocker in return. I'll update in a week to let you know if the whine has improved, and also with updated overclocks beyond CCC.

You bought a 7970 to use on a 1680x1050 screen?

It does seem overkill, but I was going for the smoothest gameplay possible in BF3. When I crank absolutely everything it can drop into the 40s still. Now I have the option of moving to a larger screen as well, something my old 4870 wouldn't allow me to do.

 

[The Sauce]

Just pick up aftermarket cooling when it is available and o/c even more

 

[Rvenger]

You never know, the new one could of had worse coil whine

 

[lavaheadache]

I too notice coil whine on my Gigabyte 7970. I hear it only in game menus when I'm probably getting 2000fps lol Do I care? Not one bit.

 

[know of fence]

This be a coil

Where my coil at?

 

[96Firebird]

http://capacitorselect.blogspot.com/2011/03/blog-post.html

 

[Termie]

This be a coil

Where my coil at?

LOL.

http://capacitorselect.blogspot.com/2011/03/blog-post.html

Yeah, I think he's talking capacitor whine (or whatever applies to capacitors). Coil whine occurs in PSUs.

OP - maybe try using vsync to see if that helps. Don't know if that also caps the menu screen, but it's worth a shot. This was probably also the reason Furmark started whining when you shrunk the window - the FPS was really high.

 

[Cookie Monster]

This be a coil

Where my coil at?

The image of the coil is a toroidal choke and I haven't seen any video card use this for their VRM (This create the least noise from experience and most PSUs should use these types of coils). Instead what they use is the square chokes next to the capacitors (The flat silver components next to the choke are the mosfets). You cannot see the inductor wire because its hidden inside.

And capacitors CANNOT whine. A capacitor is simply two sheets of metal with a dielectric material in between. Now for a solid state capacitors, instead of using liquid to fill the gap they use a solid, meaning that there are no air gap for anything to vibrate. I mean how can something solid state vibrate? My understanding also tell me they cannot physically vibrate but one thing for sure is that they could be the cause of it by not doing its job properly/introducing sub harmonics that could cause such noise.

I think its a common misconception.

And for a fun fact, all coils do whine except that most of them aren't audible thanks to quality mechanical construction and engineering design (The switching frequency of these regulators are well outside the hearing range for a normal human ear).