clicking sound with 960 vid card

[luv2liv]

fan is NOT spinning, but there is still a clicking noise. when fan does spin, the clicking noise level is about the same as well.
the loud noise can last as long as 8hrs nonstop.
then again, the vid card can be dead silent,....even when the fan is spinning!!! weird
EVGA sent me a brand new card to replace but the exact same problem occurs

is it because my mb is pci express 2? but the card is pci express 3?
video of it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EcoxYT8Mx6c
and by the way, i dont play games. using it to drive a 24 inch 1080p asus monitor.

more info on my system:
windows 7 64bit
GIGABYTE GA-MA790XT-UD4P
amd phenom 2 x4
8 gig ram

 

[Seba]

Are you sure that the sound is from the GTX 960 graphics card?

 

[luv2liv]

Are you sure that the sound is from the GTX 960 graphics card?

yes!
i pressed my ears next to it. im 99% certain. in fact, i will put my old vid card back in to be sure. the noise is very similar to a dead hard drive making clicking sound. crystal disk info shows all HD as healthy. but i will disconnect all except the SSD to be sure too.

 

[luv2liv]

only SSD plugged in now. all other drives are disconnected and the noise is definitely coming from the evga card.
i see the fans twitching, as if they want to move, but they are not moving. i manually spin it to check resistance or obstacles, but there are none. in fact, when cold booting, the fans spin really fast, but no noise at all. the noise comes on about 30 mins after turning the pc on and leaving it idle. insane right?

1 hr later, pc has been quiet. i see some people suggest it could be the power supply, but my PSU is 600W.
any ideas would be appreciated!

 

[xorbe]

It is simply a poor implementation of fan-off from EVGA. The warmer the card gets, the more it will "try" to spin until it finally does. Once spinning the sound should be gone. One solution is to run MSI AB and force the fan to never stop entirely, with a custom fan profile. My EVGA mini 960 doesn't seem to make the clicking noise, but I can see it twitch sometimes.

 

[bononos]

.....
1 hr later, pc has been quiet. i see some people suggest it could be the power supply, but my PSU is 600W.
any ideas would be appreciated!

Being 600W is not a measure of quality and nothing to do with whether it will click.
Swap out the graphics card or use integrated graphics to check if its the psu.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KkL9iyo_x00
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VTc4TZeATWo

 

[luv2liv]

It is simply a poor implementation of fan-off from EVGA. The warmer the card gets, the more it will "try" to spin until it finally does. Once spinning the sound should be gone. One solution is to run MSI AB and force the fan to never stop entirely, with a custom fan profile. My EVGA mini 960 doesn't seem to make the clicking noise, but I can see it twitch sometimes.

yeah, i tried setting the fan speed manually. with low or max rpm, the fans will spin really quiet for a very long time. and then out of the blue, that clicking sound will come back lasting really long too. so the clicking sound is independent of fan spinning or not spinning.

 

[luv2liv]

PSU swapped out to a brand new 500w. problem gone! (5 hours so far, anyway)
cant believe a psu can affect the vid card like that.
thanks for all your help.

 

[Seba]

Maybe the sound was from the old power supply. Recently I replaced under warranty a Seasonic S12II-620 Bronze that started to make clicking noises.

 

[xorbe]

My fancy Seasonic 860w psu is squeaking after not that long >_<

 

[mojothehut]

I literally just sent my 980TI Classified to EVGA an hour ago, for the same darn reason. Fan clicking/spinning up rattles. Custom fan profiles seem to fix it, but the EVGA software tends to cause several games to crash. Frustrating. Maybe when they send my card back I'll check out MSI AB.

I'll probably be avoiding EVGA in the future

 

[DAPUNISHER]

First, fix that cable management.

Your SSC may have the QSD dual bios, if so switch it to the performance mode and see if the clicking persists.

I have the 960 FTW in one of my systems and it is a jewel. First thing I did was switch it to the performance mode. I had their 750 FTW in a old system and it too was a winner. did close to 1.5Ghz on the boost clock alone. Picked them both up cheap as refurbs. Did not care about the transferable warranty. No way would it compensate for the price difference via resale value. Or the step up buyers remorse program.

 

[luv2liv]

First, fix that cable management.

Your SSC may have the QSD dual bios, if so switch it to the performance mode and see if the clicking persists.

I have the 960 FTW in one of my systems and it is a jewel. First thing I did was switch it to the performance mode. I had their 750 FTW in a old system and it too was a winner. did close to 1.5Ghz on the boost clock alone. Picked them both up cheap as refurbs. Did not care about the transferable warranty. No way would it compensate for the price difference via resale value. Or the step up buyers remorse program.

in the evga promo video, i do see QSB is available. but looking at the card, all i see is a switch labeled Master-Slave. is that the same thing?
maybe once i find this switch, it will end my other issues as seen in the other thread i posted about samsung 4k tv used as a monitor

 

[DAPUNISHER]

in the evga promo video, i do see QSB is available. but looking at the card, all i see is a switch labeled Master-Slave. is that the same thing?
maybe once i find this switch, it will end my other issues as seen in the other thread i posted about samsung 4k tv used as a monitor

Yes, that is the switch. Try the performance setting, and see if the clicking persists. They advertise the fan will last 400 percent longer, but then default it to fan off until it is 60c The card is fairly quiet with the fan running, I would have made the silent computing option the one that requires the switch be used.