Question Is there any data on RTX 4090 coil whine

[Wolverine2349]

I have tried 4 different RTX 4090 including 2 Gigabyte Gaming OCs and a Gigabyte Aorus Master and a PNY XLR8

Unfortunately all had too much a buzz like noise that will not be drowned out by the sound of game in a quiet area of the game. Though in areas of the game where sound is louder it can it would be drowned out, though looking for less whine than that.

I had a GeForce RTX Gaming OC 3090 Ti and it had almost no coil whine at all in any situation and it was so hush and faint and very hard to detect even if you looked for it.

Sadly not the case for the 4 RTX 4090s I have tried.

3 of the I sold and now left with a Gaming OC again with the same issues.

Is there any setup or any ones with no or extremely little coil whine??

Or is it just a reality that all 4090s have it more than just a little and no way around it??

Its hard to believe they could not have any without them as many 3090 Tis tested by Guru3D stated they had a hard time detecting it on those cards and the 3090 Ti power draw is very similar to factory RTX 4090 power draw around 450 to 460 watts,

And yeah I did try power limit and it does almost nothing unless I put it below 60% which is unacceptable gimping of performance. If I could almost eliminate the buzzing/whine at 80 to 85% power usage, great. But having to go below 60% or even as low as 50% is not good.

Strange thing is the whine is actually bad in high end AAA games like RDR2 and GTA V even with FPS only 80 to 120. In Furmark bench Mark at 1080P with MSAA at 8X FPS is like 200 to 300 and like no buzz nor whine. Or course FPS goes into 700s with MSAA off in Furmark and it starts to make a different kind of whine which is ok if FPS goes that high as never in real world usage.

I have seen many reports that say Zotac, Gigabyte supposedly have less chance of it and are better. Though the Gigabytes I had all have too much.

And have heard Asus is worst and MSI also has lots of complaints.

Though I have heard some reports of people insisting they have none even with their ear right by an MSI Suprim X. I wonder is the newer batch of cards from MSI better. I know Suprim X has the best VRM of all cards. The Gaming X Trio has 8 less power stages and only 50 amps at that.

 

[gdansk]

The reality is almost all high TDP boards have it. You can try different PSUs, it doesn't make much difference. You can try to add a UPS, it doesn't make much difference. Manually replacing inductors until there is no whine can make a difference. But that will void your warranty. You can reduce the target board power, that often helps and doesn't void warranty.

But for context I haven't been able to find a single high-end GPU with reasonable coil whine since Pascal in 2016. And I bought about a dozen.

 

[Wolverine2349]

The reality is all high TDP boards have it. You can try different PSUs, it doesn't make much difference. You can try to add a UPS, it doesn't make much difference. Manually replacing inductors until there is no whine can make a difference. But that will void your warranty.

I haven't been able to find a single GPU with reasonable coil whine since Pascal in 2016.

On an unrelated topic and coincidence good old 2016. A year dear to my heart as my old job and company were good and the way I liked it that year before the bottom fell out July 2017 with the same management and owners that betrayed us beyond belief with the worst nightmare of office politics I ever had and rest was history that changed the shape of my life and career forever. 2016 is very memorable to me as such and coincidentally when you last found a card with almost 0 coil whine when they were released RTX 1080 Pascal.

Anyways so no card with reasonable coil whine since Pascal in 2016?? Why is it that cards have it so bad, but motherboards even running a CPU at insane 300 to 400 watt power draw do not unless the VRM is weak. They both have high TDP going through VRMs on each. Why would video cards be different than a motherboard with high power draw?

 

[gdansk]

Why would video cards be different than a motherboard with high power draw?

Perhaps because most CPUs aren't drawing anywhere near 350-450W when gaming?
If you do end up buying a different RTX 4090, please do follow up if it's better. Also people who use headphones will applaud you for the open box deals you are creating.

 

[Wolverine2349]

Perhaps because most CPUs aren't drawing anywhere near 350-450W when gaming?
If you do end up buying a different RTX 4090, please do follow up if it's better. Also people who use headphones will applaud you for the open box deals you are creating.

No they do not. Though I have stressed a CPU briefly that did pull 350 watts and do not remember hearing much coil whine.

I will have to sell this one and look at a different one and will follow up if its better.

Do you game with head phones. IO am single and live alone and I do not.

I am thinking of the Zotac AMP 4-090 which I hear better reports regarding coil whine though I hear Zotac has bad fan motors. Though maybe I could replace the fans.

 

[gdansk]

Do you game with head phones. IO am single and live alone and I do not.

Single player games I use my speakers. Multiplayer I use headphones.
And I have had some cards with worse coil whine than others. So it is worth shopping around until you find one you can tolerate even if it still makes some annoying noise.

 

[Wolverine2349]

Single player games I use my speakers. Multiplayer I use headphones.
And I have had some cards with worse coil whine than others. So it is worth shopping around until you find one you can tolerate even if it still makes some annoying noise.

Thanks for the advice.

You stated you found a card in 2016 with reasonable amount of coil whine. Did it have any at all just almost none or absolutely none??

The Gaming OC 3090 Ti I had had almost none. Well you could hear it if you looked but it was very faint and hush and not at all audible.

Which cards in your opinion have you found to be more tolerable or less with the 4090s?

 

[n0x1ous]

FE coil whine is minimal thankfully

 

[CP5670]

I think most of the 4090s have it. It's noticeable on my Suprim Liquid X, but I only hear it if the case is open. I use speakers but have the PC on the floor and connected to a UPS. My previous 3090 and 1080ti did not have any (that I could hear) at <120fps, but several past cards had it worse. I'm not sure if you can say that a particular model has coil whine or not, it depends on the specific card, game, psu, etc.

 

[Wolverine2349]

I think most of the 4090s have it. It's noticeable on my Suprim Liquid X, but I only hear it if the case is open. I use speakers but have the PC on the floor and connected to a UPS. My previous 3090 and 1080ti did not have any (that I could hear) at <120fps, but several past cards had it worse. I'm not sure if you can say that a particular model has coil whine or not, it depends on the specific card, game, psu, etc.

Yeah unfortunately most of them have it. Though most is not all and I wonder what the minority 4090s that do not. And by not I do not mean absolute 0 to the point if you put your ear next to it you cannot hear a thing. I mean so faint and hush and smooth and no buzzing at all and really only audible with a faint lite squeal if you have your ear right next to the card.

 

[Wolverine2349]

Upon further research from 3 responses I have found 1 on Tech Powerup and 2 on overclock.net, the ones with no coil whine they can here even if they use an open bench only a couple of feet from it are all using Asus high end motherboards.

1 Asus Z790 Apex with an MSI 4090 Suprim X and their ear right by it under load and no noticeable coil whine - Also using an eVGA P2 1200 PSU (PM on Tech Powerup so cannot share link)

2. An Asus X570 Dark Hero with a Gigabyte Gaming OC 4090 and SeaSonic PX-1300 - No whine close to the case.




3. Asus Z790 Rampage Extreme with MSI Suprim X Liquid 4090 and Corsair AX1600i and no whine

[Official] NVIDIA RTX 4090 Owner's Club

www.overclock.net

I already have a Corsair HX1200 which is supposed to be a very good if not top notch PSU.

And I have an MSI Z690 Unify X mobo.


Though in 3 responses common theme seems to be high end Asus motherboards no coil whine with RTX 4090s?? Coincidence or something to it?

 

[DAPUNISHER]

TPU has a good thread about coil whine - https://www.techpowerup.com/forums/...asily-fix-coil-whine-coil-choke-noise.294015/

 

[CP5670]

For my card, there is one report on Microcenter: "Coil whine (brand new was loud under all conditions. 2 months in...no whine at idle; slight whine while gaming if more than 150fps). " I'll have to check how it sounds after some use. It's almost like breaking in headphones/speakers.

 

[aigomorla]

Im amazed you gone though that many 4090's and didn't even bat an eye when you opened them, and took loss in having to sell them as refurbished / used.

Though in 3 responses common theme seems to be high end Asus motherboards no coil whine with RTX 4090s?? Coincidence or something to it?

That makes no sense unless the board was providing 100% of the power.
Coil whine is sourced at the card, and its mostly from the CAPS due to vibration at high frequency.

Power supply once u get up to gold, plays very little in coil whine, unless its a bad or poor PSU.
The motherboard also plays very little, because it provides on 60-75W to the card over the 500W+ your PCI-E power lanes will.

It could be your sourcing the cards too quickly and a bad batch of caps were being used when the cards were assembled, hence your getting the same problematic caps.

 

[Wolverine2349]

Im amazed you gone though that many 4090's and didn't even bat an eye when you opened them, and took loss in having to sell them as refurbished / used.



That makes no sense unless the board was providing 100% of the power.
Coil whine is sourced at the card, and its mostly from the CAPS due to vibration at high frequency.

Power supply once u get up to gold, plays very little in coil whine, unless its a bad or poor PSU.
The motherboard also plays very little, because it provides on 60-75W to the card over the 500W+ your PCI-E power lanes will.

It could be your sourcing the cards too quickly and a bad batch of caps were being used when the cards were assembled, hence your getting the same problematic caps.

Yeah sourced form card as most power comes from PSU. But could that extra 60-75 watts of power play a role just as weaker PSUs with weaker ripple play a role even if power delivery was fine. Some switchig of PSUs has been shown to help.

Perhaps are the PCI-E top slot have better shielding or ripple suppression for the extra 60 to 75 watts on Asus boards than others?

 

[aigomorla]

No im gonna guess you sourced the cards too quickly, and they were all using the same problematic caps.
Most vendors use the same vendor for caps.
It wouldn't suprise me if there was a bad batch of caps then the actual cards themselves, especially since nvidia has slowed the supply to the cards.

Especially since u went though 4 cards all with the same issues and problems.

 

[Wolverine2349]

No im gonna guess you sourced the cards too quickly, and they were all using the same problematic caps.
Most vendors use the same vendor for caps.
It wouldn't suprise me if there was a bad batch of caps then the actual cards themselves, especially since nvidia has slowed the supply to the cards.

Especially since u went though 4 cards all with the same issues and problems.

Is it possible they are all just bad with whine and no way around it??

Its not like I got them from the same store. They were from scalpers selling at markup, but I can also resell at markup for almost as much to lose very little money in quest for coil whine free card.

 

[lopri]

I don’t believe these high end video cards are pulling much from motherboards at all. (Exception maybe RX 7000 series). Not sure how motherboards can stop video card coil whine.

 

[Hitman928]

Im amazed you gone though that many 4090's and didn't even bat an eye when you opened them, and took loss in having to sell them as refurbished / used.



That makes no sense unless the board was providing 100% of the power.
Coil whine is sourced at the card, and its mostly from the CAPS due to vibration at high frequency.

Power supply once u get up to gold, plays very little in coil whine, unless its a bad or poor PSU.
The motherboard also plays very little, because it provides on 60-75W to the card over the 500W+ your PCI-E power lanes will.

It could be your sourcing the cards too quickly and a bad batch of caps were being used when the cards were assembled, hence your getting the same problematic caps.

Why wouldn’t coil whine come primarily from the inductors, aka coils?

 

[aigomorla]

Why wouldn’t coil whine come primarily from the inductors, aka coils?

Well inductors and capacitors to my understanding are basically the same thing.
Only one is used for alternating current and the other for direct current.

So when i say capacitors, i also mean inductors as well.
But people understand what caps are more then what inductors are.

 

[Hitman928]

Well inductors and capacitors to my understanding are basically the same thing.
Only one is used for alternating current and the other for direct current.

So when i say capacitors, i also mean inductors as well.
But people understand what caps are more then what inductors are.

Inductors and caps are more like opposites. Both are needed in ac and dc systems as they serve different functions.

 

[aigomorla]

I think my understanding on electrical physics has rotted over the years.

 

[Wolverine2349]

The reality is almost all high TDP boards have it. You can try different PSUs, it doesn't make much difference. You can try to add a UPS, it doesn't make much difference. Manually replacing inductors until there is no whine can make a difference. But that will void your warranty. You can reduce the target board power, that often helps and doesn't void warranty.

But for context I haven't been able to find a single high-end GPU with reasonable coil whine since Pascal in 2016. And I bought about a dozen.

Define reasonable coil whine? You mean none at all, or so faint and hush that it is like a slight pitch in change of dead air noise and nothing more on the Pascal card you got with reasonable coil whine?

 

[Puffnstuff]

For $1.6k the only whine I want to hear is my own when its time to pay the cc bill.

 

[igor_kavinski]

Which is best power supply to mitigate or eliminate...

www.overclock.net

That thread mentions something about dirty power. Could be that you may need to get an electrician to check out the wiring going to the socket that powers your PC and consult him on how to get cleaner electricity to your PC.