GPU coil whine making me considering quitting gaming, is it just common these days?

[Evilnapkin]

I never had coil whine before aside from one card (an AMD) right before it overheated and took my system with it, my current card is giving me coil whine. I swapped it for another model but different brand and it has coil whine as well. It's driving me nuts. Is it just super common these days?

[Viper]

Nguyên văn bởi Suicidal Monkey:

Nguyên văn bởi Evilnapkin:

Not saying this with frustration at you guys, but they had it for 7 days total and were working on it constantly during the shop's hours. How would they be unable to diagnose this and just have it as an "Oh well" issue?

Easy, they weren't on your system 100% of the time. They'd make a change, run test and probably walk passed every now and then to check how it was going.

I took a system to store near me last year due to hardware failure I couldn't be 100% sure what was the cause. Turns out the motherboard failed. Long story short as I had to paid for the diagnostic I may aswell have them do the rebuild. I opted for a AIO (yeah I'm lazy) for them to fit too. Got it home to find the lead technician hadn't even checked his work.

The fans on the top mounted rad were positioned to push air downwards. Previous fans there where exhaust. I never even turned it on to see that because I couldn't even plug my mouse or keybopard in because the moron placed rad below the fans. The rad was higher than the rans and was forcing the motherboard to back so the whole back panel didn't line up. Thats the quality of some 'Experts' out there.

I would never trust someone else to do it. I have always built my own PCs. That way I know it gets done right.

[Supafly]

Nguyên văn bởi Viper:

I would never trust someone else to do it. I have always built my own PCs. That way I know it gets done right.

I've always built my own besides my first P75.

I worked there 20+ years ago. As sales. That expert has been the lead technician for over 20 years now.......I did regret him building it. And not just for the AIO Rad and fans issue. I had to cut all cable ties and redo the entire cable management.

[Evilnapkin]

I cap my fps at 60 through Riva. I'm aware of the decapped frames causing this issue in some cases but that isn't it here.

[gods strongest little guy]

nope

[Andrius227]

From my limited experience (gtx460, gtx560, gtx650 ti, gtx680, 2x gtx980's, gtx1080 and gtx1080 ti), i can say that most gpus have some coil whine at high load or high framerates, some have it worse than others, but usually nothing to go crazy about.

And for example my current EVGA GTX1080 Ti SC2 doesnt have any coil whine, but instead it makes some sort of quiet hissing noise. Its barely audible over my 2 fans that are locked to ~20% speed and when 2 gpu fans kick in (which are capped at 45% @80 degrees celsius) i cannot hear it at all.

So yeah, maybe you should try different gpu, maybe something higher end, like a gtx1080 or 1080 ti, and not the cheapest versions.

[Evilnapkin]

It's weird because I thought I solved it (I moved the soundcard from the bottom PCI-E slot to the top one and it went away), but it's actually just mostly gone. For example, FFXV@64% load still produces coil whine, but Hitman 2016 gives no coil whine at the same load (and it was giving whine before I did this fix).

[Sapph]

Nguyên văn bởi Evilnapkin:

It's weird because I thought I solved it (I moved the soundcard from the bottom PCI-E slot to the top one and it went away), but it's actually just mostly gone. For example, FFXV@64% load still produces coil whine, but Hitman 2016 gives no coil whine at the same load (and it was giving whine before I did this fix).

Sometimes the coil whine is produced by simply very high fps. So when the fps goes lower, the coil whine disappears.

[Muppet among Puppets]

Nguyên văn bởi Evilnapkin:

It's weird because I thought I solved it (I moved the soundcard from the bottom PCI-E slot to the top one and it went away), but it's actually just mostly gone. For example, FFXV@64% load still produces coil whine, but Hitman 2016 gives no coil whine at the same load (and it was giving whine before I did this fix).

That points to the source of the problem.
They interact electro magnetic.

[MA☝Omgwtfbbqstfu™]

This is why you don't keep your pc on your desk, or bother with fancy windows
I think antec still makes their p19x series for noise suppression
I also just wear headphones or have the speakers loud enough that I never hear it.

[Evilnapkin]

It isn't on my desk or by windows.

Again 60fps capped so not high frames.

The top PCIE puts the sound card even closer to the GPU, but changes positioning to bottom of soundcard facing top of GPU instead of the other way around. Regardless as mention still present in stated scenarios while eliminated in others. Ideas? All I should hear from my case is fans and HDD barely when it's used (rare since it's backup and rest is on SSDs).

Also I've removed the sound card entirely, and the coil whine scenario is what it was as though it were in the top slot still. So while moving the sound card from bottom to top helped, it's the same level of whine in same programs when in top or removed. So it's coming down to GPU whine exclusively in certain games, since again when at same usage in other games, some games have whine some games don't.

[MA☝Omgwtfbbqstfu™]

sensitivity to high frequency noise also varies by age and genetics.
Its just pretty common these days, I guess you could build a baffled isolation box using a pci-e riser, entombing the gpu in a shoe box beside the pc....

[Evilnapkin]

Nguyên văn bởi MA☝Omgwtfbbqstfu™:

sensitivity to high frequency noise also varies by age and genetics.
Its just pretty common these days, I guess you could build a baffled isolation box using a pci-e riser, entombing the gpu in a shoe box beside the pc....

But then I'd have to do OCD case design over temps for a system I'd be replacing in ~1 year max. You're right I hear frequencies others don't seem to, the hardest thing about getting the shop to attempt to diagnose this was none of them could hear it, at least until they got it into a much quieter setting or something... because they did later acknowledge it.

[Viper]

Nguyên văn bởi Evilnapkin:

Nguyên văn bởi MA☝Omgwtfbbqstfu™:

sensitivity to high frequency noise also varies by age and genetics.
Its just pretty common these days, I guess you could build a baffled isolation box using a pci-e riser, entombing the gpu in a shoe box beside the pc....

But then I'd have to do OCD case design over temps for a system I'd be replacing in ~1 year max. You're right I hear frequencies others don't seem to, the hardest thing about getting the shop to diagnose this was none of them could hear it.

That whine is happening all the time in every coil, transformer, inductor in ever piece of electronics. Its just that in most cases it is so low in volume you cannot hear it. It is the vibration of the component caused by the changing magnetic field. If you have better ears and can hear that high frequency noise better than other people it is most likely something you cannot avoid. I suggest doing some research and finding a GPU that doesn't have many complaints about coil whine. Some are better than others. Like you say some people cannot hear it at all. Also if its there you can't get rid of it. So you need to find a GPU that has an acceptable amount of it.

[Evilnapkin]

Again even post-fix (now removing the soundcard entirely) it's only happening a select few games, at lesser or similar GPU usages of games it doesn't whine in.

[Jazman2k]

I totally understand. I finally got myself a bad GPU from MSI. MSI RTX 2060 Super. I tried to build myself as quiet PC as my budget allowed me. I have hearing damage so all fan noises etc. are super annoying to me these days. So got the most silent PSU, almost most silent CPU cooler (only 1db more louder than noctua, this is very quiet). I got myself Define 7 case, it has soundproofed side panels - super quiet. And then I bought the MSI RTX 2060S GPU which had lowest FAN NOISE results in reviews. And yes, the fans are silent indeed.

Well. The fan is not the problem in this GPU, but the darn coil whine is so loud I can hear it several meters away. I asked MSI "It's normal. It has no harm to GPU so we cannot have it under warranty.".

It's normal?! How can such noise be normal. These GPUs are expensive ffs. I could understand some noise from under 200 euro GPU, but I paid almost 500 euros from mine, that is more than a GAMING CONSOLE.

And you know what? Never heard any coil whines from Xbox Series X or PS 4 Pro, or even gaming laptops. This damn thing buzzes like crazy. Why on earth they make more silent fans if the coil whine is even louder than the fans?

When I am playing Diablo 3, I have to limit my FPS to 60, even though I have 144hz screen, but because the GPU buzzes so loud, I just rather limit the FPS then.

And I don't think changing PSU would do anything. As far as I know, this PSU - Corsair RM550x should be good enough for this GPU.

I think gamers should really rise up and say NO TO COIL WHINE.