970/980 Coil Whine

fdiaz78

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Oct 6, 2007
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I just received my Gigabyte 970 card today and got some annoying coil whine. I've been doing some research and I've notice folks that report the coil whine seem to have Corsair PSU's and it might be a factor. Can anybody here help confirm my theory and has a spare different brand PSU to test with? I'll try and find another brand tomorrow as well. Thank you.
 
Well keep in mind Corsair doesn't manufacture power supplies. They are usually made by Seasonic, CWT, or Great Wall with Corsair branding and a few small modifications. So it won't likely be a case of "Corsair does something that causes GPUs to whine". I think a lot of people have whine with Corsair power supplies because a lot of people are using Corsair power supplies. The last five PC builds I have done for other people have ended up with a Corsair power supply in them since they have been good value purchases.

Having said that, i am using a Corsair HX520 and I had a lot of whine with 2x 970s (both were returned both for refunds). While waiting for the second refund, I also bought a new power supply from XFX (made by Seasonic). I am going to try a Asus Strix 970 next, if that whines I am going with AMD :p
 
Heh welcome to the club. :(

2 Gigabyte 970s and both have coil SCREECH. Using a Corsair AX1200i as well. AFAIK the OEM is Flextronics for my PSU. I'm 100% certain it's not the PSU that's whining because while my old 750 Ti also whined while running benchmarks, it never whined during games.

As for whether it's the PSU itself causing the coil whine that I don't know, and I don't have a different brand on hand to test. I do know that Antec uses Delta as their OEM for PSUs though. Make sure you check out this list before buying anything, just to make sure you don't accidentally end up with the same OEM.
 
I initially bought two evga 970's and returned them without opening because of the stories I read. I got the msi gaming version after that and it had severe coil whine coming not only from the card, but through my speakers as well. I returned it and was going to give up until a new whineless revision came out, but then Newegg had to go ahead and get a shipment of the gigabyte 970's. Against my better judgement I ordered two, and installed them earlier today. They are whine free in all but the most demanding benchmarks, however I still have the same coil whine sound coming through my speakers that I had with the msi card.

I shouldn't have to, but I'm going to try using a USB DAC. If I still have a problem both of these cards are going back.
 
Man I wish I could somehow trade my Gigabyte cards with yours. I don't have the whine coming through the speaker, but the whine/screech is loud enough that I can hear it over the speakers during quiet scenes, drives me nuts.
 
I see a pattern here. This is going to be like the Korean monitors soon. Instead of Perfect Pixel it will be Without Whine™ and cost us another $30 a card or something to be certified.
 
Well I have ran a multitude of stress tests this morning for about 6 hours and the coil whine seems less pronounced or not as bad. I don't know if its just my "buyers bias" and subconsciously the sound "feels" less but with the case on I can't hear it honestly. I also bumped up the OC on this card to 1428 and it's stable. Might go higher but my case cooling needs improvement and I value stability over crazy FPS at unstable clocks.

I'm going to give the card a few weeks since its within my newegg return window and make a decision then. I would still love the ASUS Strix.

I have to make a confession though. I have always been a cheap gamer and after buying this card I can't believe I played my favorite games in the 30-40 FPS range. The gaming experience at sustained 60 FPS is night and day. The smoothness of the higher FPS adds so much to the gameplay experience.
 
Was over at a friend's place and heard that cool whine first hand, whoa... That's as bad as I've heard any. Told him to do a burn-in for 24h-48h. Will see how it goes, it usually helps.
 
So I've had evga acx 1.0 and Asus strix 970s. Both exhibited coil whine with the EVGA being much worse. I now have 980 zotac reference cards in sli and while there is a slight buzz under load, it is almost inaudible.
 
I've had a major breakthrough and learned something...

The whine isn't really a whine. It's the sound of your games yelling in agony at the top fo their lungs because Big Maxwell is Pwning them. :D

^^ Sorry I had to be silly and do it :)
 
Well I have ran a multitude of stress tests this morning for about 6 hours and the coil whine seems less pronounced or not as bad. I don't know if its just my "buyers bias" and subconsciously the sound "feels" less but with the case on I can't hear it honestly. I also bumped up the OC on this card to 1428 and it's stable. Might go higher but my case cooling needs improvement and I value stability over crazy FPS at unstable clocks.

I'm going to give the card a few weeks since its within my newegg return window and make a decision then. I would still love the ASUS Strix.

I have to make a confession though. I have always been a cheap gamer and after buying this card I can't believe I played my favorite games in the 30-40 FPS range. The gaming experience at sustained 60 FPS is night and day. The smoothness of the higher FPS adds so much to the gameplay experience.

Yeah it's been mentioned elsewhere that changing the volts or even the clocks can sometimes alleviate this problem entirely. Unfortunately for me OC or OV doesn't do jack. I can try undervolting but I sure as hell am NOT underclocking lol that defeats the whole purpose of buying a high end card.

Was over at a friend's place and heard that cool whine first hand, whoa... That's as bad as I've heard any. Told him to do a burn-in for 24h-48h. Will see how it goes, it usually helps.

Yep I'm gonna let it buzz for several nights and see if it helps any. Very subjectively, I can say that the buzz doesn't seem to be as loud or as annoying on my second day of use. Although I may just be suffering from the placebo effect.

Anyway, this dude was able to cure the coil whine on his 7970 by simply letting it sit on the Crysis main menu where the whine was the worst. Maybe it's time to bust out that CD again...
 
Just got one of my Giagabyte g1 970 and sure enough I get the whine sound, but oddly the buzz/whine is coming from the PSU. I am still waiting on the other card and my new motherboard so I can't test SLI to see if the results are the same, but this is definitely strange -- as I have had a number of cards run on this PSU (from 7950,7970,770,780, 970). This is the first time I have heard this sound. It is only audible in games (well during the benchmarks and seems to go 'in-and-out' during scene changes) but it is most definitely a "buzz".

I got a really good deal on two of these through a friend so I wont be RMA-ing them but man I need to find a fix for this. Maybe the old way of fixing GPU coil whine will work ( running an in-game menu at 1000fps overnight)?

Interesting and annoying indeed.
 
Are you sure it's the PSU? I took both side panels off and tried moving my ears around and the buzz is definitely louder on the side with the GPU than the one with the PSU. (I have the Enthoo Primo case and the PSU is behind the mobo tray on the opposite side of the cards)

Also, previously while I was tweaking my CPU with only a 750 Ti, I did manage to catch a glimpse of my PSU whining, but oddly enough it only whined when idle, but not under load. In any case the whine was extremely faint, and was more a high pitched "shriek" than a buzz. The tonal quality (lol) of this buzz is totally different.

All that being said, maybe I should try some different cables and see if it helps any. Oh and one more thing: I'm actually using separates cables for each 8 and 6 pin connector, since I wasn't sure if the wires on the dual 6+2 pin cables were robust enough to handle the power draw. A quick google search seems to indicate this is ok, so I'll see if using a dual 6+2 pin cable would be better than using 2 separate 6+2 cables.
 
You know now that I tried a different spot for the PC and used a different benchmark I am not sure if it is the GPU or PSU but I think you are right that it may be the GPU. It is hard to tell on my desktop. Either way I guess it is not a deal breaker and I mostly play games with a headset or through HDMI to the TV in my computer room while also using a wireless headset so I guess I can live with it.

Shit as much as I mess around with my PC parts I might be able to overclock the whine out of it. Though the buzz I am getting is at stock.
 
Well you're certainly more noise tolerant than I am. I honestly wouldn't mind if it was a true buzz, as low frequencies are much easier to tune out (pardon the pun).

But this buzz has a screeching quality to it, and as such it simply sticks out like a sore thumb against the background drone of the case/cpu fans.

I've already OC'd and OV'd and the buzz is still there. I should try undervolting next if the burn in is unsuccessful. That and different cables, or hell even different connectors on the PSU since there's like 8 to choose from on the AX1200i lol
 
So Gigabyte approved my RMA request for both cards, and after a day of burning in by letting the cards sit on Watch Dogs main menu, the whine does seem to have decreased in intensity. I almost feel like I shot myself in the foot lol, but yeah I really hope all this works out.
 
placebo effect?

I'm not sure what the logic/physics is behind the idea that "burning in" the card will decrease coil whine. It's caused by high frequency vibration of the copper wrapped around the chokes. If you want to stop it, you need to use a thermal epoxy or something that will dampen the coil.

Running the card all day won't do anything other than heat it up, but it's not going to get to a temperature high enough to do anything to the copper - it'd have to be several hundred degrees C to get the copper warm enough to "settle" and stop vibrating.

The RMA was probably a good idea.
 
this coil whine thing surely is costing manufacturers some real profit damage with all these returned cards.. why the heck does this keep happening in 2014 ??
 
placebo effect?

I'm not sure what the logic/physics is behind the idea that "burning in" the card will decrease coil whine. It's caused by high frequency vibration of the copper wrapped around the chokes. If you want to stop it, you need to use a thermal epoxy or something that will dampen the coil.

Running the card all day won't do anything other than heat it up, but it's not going to get to a temperature high enough to do anything to the copper - it'd have to be several hundred degrees C to get the copper warm enough to "settle" and stop vibrating.

The RMA was probably a good idea.

Maybe, but the whine is now more a buzz and the screeching noise that used to be present whenever I fired up Heaven is now gone. There are definitely reports of coil whine being fixed with the burn-in. I mean it doesn't hurt to try, plus both cards were only running in the 47-51C range, so they weren't suffering.
 
Well I left the in-game menu of Vanishing of Ethan Carter for half of the day, restarted and now the buzz is gone in both games and benchmarks.

I fixed one of my old 7950s doing the same thing. Good stuff. Now to do some slight non-voltage overclocks to see what range I can get in.
 
has anyone had success with rma? as in getting a new card that has no whine
 
placebo effect?

I'm not sure what the logic/physics is behind the idea that "burning in" the card will decrease coil whine. It's caused by high frequency vibration of the copper wrapped around the chokes. If you want to stop it, you need to use a thermal epoxy or something that will dampen the coil.

Running the card all day won't do anything other than heat it up, but it's not going to get to a temperature high enough to do anything to the copper - it'd have to be several hundred degrees C to get the copper warm enough to "settle" and stop vibrating.

The RMA was probably a good idea.

My suspicion is that burning in changes the resonant frequency of the tank circuit that is causing the coil to vibrate. It could be a slight inductance, capacitance or resistance change that moves the resonant frequency outside of the audible range or outside of the coil's resonant frequency thus halting the coil's vibrations. Lots of anecdotal evidence to suggest something is going on along with the altering of the voltages and frequencies being applied to the coils. Sometimes a little hot snot takes care of it but modern coils are now sealed and aside from drilling open the case and pouring in epoxy, burning in and voltage tuning are pretty much the only two things to try. Otherwise, its RMA time.
 
Yep I'm gonna let it buzz for several nights and see if it helps any. Very subjectively, I can say that the buzz doesn't seem to be as loud or as annoying on my second day of use. Although I may just be suffering from the placebo effect.

Anyway, this dude was able to cure the coil whine on his 7970 by simply letting it sit on the Crysis main menu where the whine was the worst. Maybe it's time to bust out that CD again...

placebo effect?

I'm not sure what the logic/physics is behind the idea that "burning in" the card will decrease coil whine. It's caused by high frequency vibration of the copper wrapped around the chokes. If you want to stop it, you need to use a thermal epoxy or something that will dampen the coil.

Running the card all day won't do anything other than heat it up, but it's not going to get to a temperature high enough to do anything to the copper - it'd have to be several hundred degrees C to get the copper warm enough to "settle" and stop vibrating.

The RMA was probably a good idea.

The heat seems to settle things. I've had "a few" cards when I was mining and some had coil whine for the first few days (no way you RMA'd mining cards unless they just didn't work), it always went away after a few days.
 
I'm not sure what the logic/physics is behind the idea that "burning in" the card will decrease coil whine.

heat could soften whatever existing dampening material is in there...
and prolonged vibrations could loosen up any contact points that add to the noise
 
Lots of helpful response in here, I like.

But yeah these cards are going back and hopefully Gigabyte does right by me. If not... well let's cross that bridge when we have to.
 
hmm, interesting thoughts flod, floptical. I hadn't considered those possibilities. And continued anecdotal evidence, like Yakk's and n=1, certainly seems to indicate that it can have an effect.

Thanks all, that's helpful. Maybe this will help some people with the issue on their cards.
 
Update:

My Gigabyte 970 buzzing is definitely not as loud or pronounced as the first day. I played Crysis 3 for a few hours last night and OC'ed a little bit as well.

Performance wise this card and for that matter the GPU is absolutely phenomenal. Worth every penny for the 970.
 
I have two Zotac GTX 980s, vanilla reference.
No noise.

I bought a couple MSI GTX 670s when they first came out and they squeeled like little girls at a birthday party.

I had to RMA 4 times before I finally got a pair that didn't make any noise.
 
I have two Zotac GTX 980s, vanilla reference.
No noise.

I bought a couple MSI GTX 670s when they first came out and they squeeled like little girls at a birthday party.

I had to RMA 4 times before I finally got a pair that didn't make any noise.


Seems to be a common issue with non-reference designs on the 970 but I don't have any statistics to back that up, just observation.

I'm going to wait a few weeks just before my RMA Return window closes with newegg. I hope that Asus finally stocks retailers with enough cards. I absolutely hate that I get an alert for a dam Strix card and its sold out within a few minutes.
 
No whine on either of my reference 980's.

Edit: EVGA cards with a Seasonic SS-760XP2 power supply.
 
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Just got Gigabyte to replace my MSI and it doesn't have anything major or annoying coil noises. It also boosts about 115 Mhz higher by default which is rather large difference.
 
So it seems that the reference design might be the one to go with if one wants less chance of getting a whiny card.

Sucks that there's no reference board for the 970, but also explains why (in addition to the 970 outselling the 980) we see so many more complaints with the 970.
 
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So it seems that the reference design might be the one to go with if one wants less chance of getting a whiny card.

Sucks that there's no reference board for the 970, but also explains why (in addition to the 970 outselling the 980) we see so many more complaints with the 970.

I think most people consider any blower version of the 970 "reference", even if its only because the cooler looks similar. Its certainly the same layout as the reference 670 and 770.
 
I just received my Gigabyte 970 card today and got some annoying coil whine. I've been doing some research and I've notice folks that report the coil whine seem to have Corsair PSU's and it might be a factor. Can anybody here help confirm my theory and has a spare different brand PSU to test with? I'll try and find another brand tomorrow as well. Thank you.
Could be either component, really.

I will say I have had a LOT of trouble with Corsair-branded power supplies and coil whine. I've been through multiple RMAs in some instances, and STILL ended up with a unit that whines when moderate load is placed on it. It's also worth noting that allowing the power supplies to burn-in generally did help eliminate some (or all) of the whine, but it took about a week of normal usage to get to that point.

I've also had coil-whine issues with a GTX 260 and a HD 6970, but most graphics cards have been just fine.
 
I think most people consider any blower version of the 970 "reference", even if its only because the cooler looks similar. Its certainly the same layout as the reference 670 and 770.

See I thought the same and was basically told I'm an idiot for thinking that in another thread...
 
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