Coil whine... sigh 670

[Xarick]

So.. I was running 3dmark 11.. when it ended I got this high pitched noise... I couldn't figure it out.. I then went and ran Windows experience index and the whine returned. I looked it up and found this is coil whine...
I only have 5 days left on my 30.. do I need to return this defective to amazon?

 

[Eureka]

Coil whine isn't defective. You can try to exchange it... if it isn't loud then don't bother.

I've gotten coil whine on two out of four cards I've used this generation (7950 and 7970). It seems a lot of them are really whiney.

 

[Tsavo]

So.. I was running 3dmark 11.. when it ended I got this high pitched noise... I couldn't figure it out.. I then went and ran Windows experience index and the whine returned. I looked it up and found this is coil whine...
I only have 5 days left on my 30.. do I need to return this defective to amazon?

Your only other option is the void the warranty by silencing the coils with hot glue or silicone.

 

[Eureka]

Your only other option is the void the warranty by silencing the coils with hot glue or silicone.

Not necessarily. You can force constant Vsync in the drivers. Whine only occurs at higher FPS, so if you have Vsync on all the time, you shouldn't have an issue.

 

[Xarick]

Definitely the video card. Took the case off. It is coming from the back of the card near the pcie power connectors. It sounds like a whistle..

 

[alcoholbob]

Imagine the coil whine from triple SLI owners...

 

[Xarick]

There is no rhyme or reason to my coil whine. It happens when I logging into some games.. it goes away on menus where my fps is over 1000. It never occurs on newer games. I always occurs on wei.
I just got coil whine from checking my email, but it went away quick.

 

[Eureka]

That is weird. Usually coil whine only occurs when fps is high. Are you sure it's not a mechanical whistling (coming from fan or air flow)?

 

[Xarick]

I tried setting the fans to different levels, but that seems to have no effect on the noise. Here is another wierd thing. If I shift the card ever so slightly I can change the pitch of the noise.

 

[Lepton87]

I've got a similar problem with coil whine on my 7970s. Unfortunately it's present under any load that triggers 3D clocks regardless of FPS. It's so loud and annoying that I didn't play a single game longer then 10 minutes since I bought my cards 3 days ago. I'll try to return them if that fails I'll try to RMA them. The coil whine renders the cards completely unusable. I prefer to play on my MSI GE70 laptop with a 660M GPU. Ironically I can clock RAM way higher in my laptop then on my 7970s, up to 1700MHz but since it's got only 384shaders it doesn't need more then 100GB/s. It's complete opposite of almost all kepler cards that are bandwidth bound. My brother has very similar laptop but with 650M with GDDR3, despite having less then 40% of my cards bandwidth after OCing both it's only about 20% slower in most tests.

 

[crashtech]

Is there anything wrong with potting the coils with hot glue, aside from warranty issues?

 

[Bill Brasky]

Either dampen the noise to a different frequency or return the card. Since you're within 30 days, I'd exchange it.

 

[badb0y]

Coil whine isn't really a defect, it just happens sometimes to graphics cards. Replacing the card doesn't mean you will get one without coil whine, if it's not too loud I would stick with it.

 

[Lepton87]

Coil whine isn't really a defect, it just happens sometimes to graphics cards. Replacing the card doesn't mean you will get one without coil whine, if it's not too loud I would stick with it.

Mine is very loud. Louder then the blower at 50% and the noise is of different kind that I find very annoying.

 

[Xarick]

Mine is not super loud but is super high pitched.

 

[Eureka]

Well, look on the bright side, as you get older your ability to hear higher frequencies will degrade, so you shouldn't have a problem in around 5 years.

If it bothers you enough, exchange it. If not, keep it, it could always be worse (some cards are really bad).

 

[Xarick]

Man.. this whine is really intermitten. Infact.. I just ran WEI twice in a row and couldn't make it out. However, last night I could hear it each time I ran it. My wife could even hear it. The third time I ran it I could barely hear it with my ear close to the machine.

 

[KevinH]

Mine is very loud. Louder then the blower at 50% and the noise is of different kind that I find very annoying.

Coil whine louder than a fan at 50% is ridiculous imo.

 

[Xarick]

So.. I talked to Galaxy Tech support. They don't seem to have a clue as to what coil whine is. But they said the card should not be making any whistle noises at all.
I am on the fence for sending it back. It isn't loud, but it is high pitched.
My fear is I get a worse card. Or less boosty.. mine boosts to 1175.

 

[Xarick]

K.. I tried another card.. no whine.. though the other card also draws less power.
However, this whine does not follow the normal pattern of whines I read about.
It has nothing to do with High FPS. I can go into a game with 1500 fps and I don't get whine.
But firefox will give it to me.. because as I said above it happens when the things jumps to 1006...
In WEI.. the worst whine I get is when it is doing disk and memory assessments.. not gpu assessment and yet the gpu will still be sitting at 1006.

Okay.. I wanted to add this. I just played CS:go.. fps around 250. I enabled Vsync down to 60 and it started giving me the whine noise.
I am pretty lost. I am thinking I will return it and just exchange for another. So far disappointed.. Hate having to return cards due to odd defects. Should I live with it?

 

[Xarick]

Well.. update.. I sent it back.. Awaiting a replacement.
Not sure if that was a good idea, but the whine was intermittent and I didn't like hearing it even on the desktop at times. It wasn't terrible, but thought I would roll the dice and hope for something that doesn't whine.

 

[dqniel]

Just keep sending them back until you get one that doesn't whine. If that never happens, then maybe that particular card isn't for you since you're sensitive to it. I disagree with those saying that coil whine isn't a defect- if I buy an expensive electronic device I expect it to be engineered to be free of preventable annoyances... and coil whine is preventable.

 

[Rifter]

Switching power supplies might also help. I had horrible while on my 4890 with a antec 500w PSU and zero whine with the same card and a corsair 850w PSU.

Also all you need to do to silence it is add some hot glue or silicon to the coils, it will make them silent, I did this to one of my current 460's because it had a little bit a whine.

 

[Xarick]

If I have the same whine on the new card I will assume it is the PS, but the PS is fairly new antec true power 750 and shouldn't have an issue.