New GPU without coil noise. Which to try?

T

tr0lle

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Oct 9, 2012
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Built a new computer with:

cpu: i5 3570k
mb: asus p8z77
gpu: sapphire hd 7950 950 mhz edition
psu: corsair tx 650 v2

First the corsair psu had a clear coil noise, so I replaced it with a enermax NAXN82+. Now the sapphire has a faint coil noise, but much lower than the psu had. My old 8800 gt is silent with enermax, while it had coil noise together with the corsair 650.

So im sending the sapphire card back and im looking for some expertise on which brand to try. Something with "military grade components" good solid chokes or whatever..

Right now I just want to try a card which has a good record regarding coil noise, I dont care about speed/overclocking potential and im even willing to go for a 7870 card if that would solve the coil noise, even though i know it can be hit and miss.

What card/brand would you recommend me to try, any card to look for with extra quality components? so far I read okay things about the MSI R7950 Twin Frozr 3GD5 V2/OC and HIS cards.

Its a freaking jungle and im lost :eek:

Thank you for your time!
 
Coil noise is random and unpredictable, and all reference cards use the same parts anyways.
 
What Tsumi said. I've narrowed down quite a bit the GPUs that do and don't make coil noise on my rig, but that only means that this particular combination of parts does or doesn't produce coil whine.

Sapphire, XFX and HIS produce very loud whine, MSI and EVGA produce whine but only under folding load and is almost silent anyway. No Gigabyte card, to date, has produced any coil whine on my rig.

But then again, Gigabyte 7970 is one of the more reported offenders, so it just goes to show you that there is no guarantee.

Military grade components, at least when it comes to coils/chokes/inductors, is marketing bullshit.

EDIT: This is also anecdotal, but now that I think about it hard enough, coil whine happened almost directly proportionately to the amount of power that I drew. Sapphire, HIS, and XFX were all 7970s, and the noise was unbearable at any load. MSI and EVGA were Fermi cards, and were okay until I folded with them. The silent Gigabytes were 560, 670 and 7950; the Galaxy 660ti I'm using now doesn't make any noise either. Perhaps quality of the components do matter across brands, but the biggest factor might be the total power consumption...? Makes sense considering the coils vibrate to an audible pitch because of the amount of stress they're withstanding.
 
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Ajiki-kun said:
Military grade components, at least when it comes to coils/chokes/inductors, is marketing bullshit.
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No way. My motherboard is "Miltary Grade". This is what it says on my Asus Sabertooth.

I have the Saphire 7950 950mhz and it does NOT have coil whine.

What kind of case do you have? And do you site right next to the case? I'm wondering why a "faint" coil whine sound is bothering you?
 
Perhaps quality of the components do matter across brands, but the biggest factor might be the total power consumption...? Makes sense considering the coils vibrate to an audible pitch because of the amount of stress they're withstanding.
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The root cause is the transformer vibrating due to the strength of the magnetic field (which is a function of the current and thus power draw).

It's not brand-specific, and I would caution against lumping brands into "does whine, whines under x condition, ect" categories (because it isn't true).

Military grade components, at least when it comes to coils/chokes/inductors, is marketing bullshit.
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Not necessarily... The military doesn't have a spec for "coil whine noise." I'm sure if you put those parts up to operational characteristics at x to y temperature range or z shock force they'd comply. It's more of a "wrong specification for my use" case.
 
I have a cooler master 430 elite case.

I guess the things that bother me is finally buying a new computer for 1400$ and having to listen to annoyning coil whine, especially if it can be avoided. It just doesnt feel right :(

It seems I just have to pick a random brand and hope for the best. I think I will try change the motherboard, if the new GPU has coil noise aswell. I will have a new corsair 650 and the enermax psu to test with for about 10 days, before I have to return one of them.

Right now id rather just use my old 8800 gt than having to listen to coil noise, much cheaper aswell :)

EDIT:

Do some of you have a completely coil noise/whine free setup, even under extreme load @ 1000-4000fps/heavy 3d programs? is it even possibly to not have any coil noise at all?
 
Then I want no problems either :) If some coil noise is normal, fine I can live with it.. but if it isnt, then I might aswell use my right to return items while I still can (dont know what its called in english hehe)

Anyway, bedtime in Denmark. Have a very good day and god bless your GPU :) Thanks for the responses so far
 
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tr0lle said:
Then I want no problems either :) If some coil noise is normal, fine I can live with it.. but if it isnt, then I might aswell use my right to return items while I still can (dont know what its called in english hehe)

Anyway, bedtime in Denmark. Have a very good day and god bless your GPU :) Thanks for the responses so far
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My ears are very sensitive to coil whine too. I had to RMA my AX750 because of it. No coil whine or any fan noise from my DirectCU II though.
 
Have you tried a different surge protector. Or different outlet?

Had coil whine on a corsair 800watt psu. We moved houses and in the new house it doesnt have coil whine anymore. Granted it has a diff power strip and new outlet
 
Filter said:
Have you tried a different surge protector. Or different outlet?

Had coil whine on a corsair 800watt psu. We moved houses and in the new house it doesnt have coil whine anymore. Granted it has a diff power strip and new outlet
Click to expand...

Havent tried that, will keep that in mind if the coil noise persists with the new gpu card.

Think im just going to try order a MSI R7950 Twin Frozr 3GD5 V2/OC. Does anyone know whats different with "version2"?

@Sodapopjones

Im very jealous :)
 
I am jealous of how sensitive your ears are i could not hear coil whine over a fan if i wanted to... Perhaps you all should email your favorite card manufactures asking them to make a line of cards that are made to address this issue i am sure if they see enough of a demand for it they will add it to quality control and stick a true silence sticker on the box with another $20-30 markup.
 
Lunas said:
I am jealous of how sensitive your ears are i could not hear coil whine over a fan if i wanted to... Perhaps you all should email your favorite card manufactures asking them to make a line of cards that are made to address this issue i am sure if they see enough of a demand for it they will add it to quality control and stick a true silence sticker on the box with another $20-30 markup.
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Not sure if you're trying to be facetious, but I've stated many times in the past that I would gladly pay that. I sympathize with the OP because this isn't something we should have to just "accept" after paying so much for the top of the line. Especially when we've come so far in having cards run cool and quiet too...
 
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Lunas said:
I am jealous of how sensitive your ears are i could not hear coil whine over a fan if i wanted to... Perhaps you all should email your favorite card manufactures asking them to make a line of cards that are made to address this issue i am sure if they see enough of a demand for it they will add it to quality control and stick a true silence sticker on the box with another $20-30 markup.
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My old 8800 gt has a very faint coil whine in my new system, but with fan noise its not noticeable and blends together. Some coil whine is just REALLY loud.

My corsair tx 650 psu together with sapphire 7950 gpu sounded pretty close to this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C4d23F2jehQ

Drove me insane after 5-10 minutes :)
 
i have a hx520 an ati 3870 and a nvidia 250 core edition with a different hx520 in a different machine neither one is producing noise like that but even if they did i doubt i could hear it over my fans. Additionally i have damage to my hearing that caused tinnitus so i have ringing in my ears at about that frequency all the time as is it never goes away i can most of the time ignore it or distract myself from it with fan noise or music...

(never go to a heavy metal concert with your ears full of fluid from a sinus infection)
 
Sorry to hear that lunas. I think coil whine is bad, but ear whine must be terrible :)
 
Lunas said:
Additionally i have damage to my hearing that caused tinnitus so i have ringing in my ears at about that frequency all the time as is it never goes away i can most of the time ignore it or distract myself from it with fan noise or music...
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My bad. I'm sorry to hear that. My father's also suffering from tinnitus so I can understand how annoying that can be.

As shitty as the situation is, if the companies don't take this issue seriously, then our only option is to glue, nail polish or otherwise secure the coils ourselves, which is just distasteful, much less voiding the warranty. I mean, come on, we paid several hundred dollar premiums for this stuff...
 
Definitely return it if it annoys you. I had a ref GTX 285 that had coil whine unless I ran v-sync, it was extremely annoying and no normal case was going to stop the noise. Luckily my GTX 670 hasn't had any coil whine issues.
 
FaRKle0079 said:
It's not brand-specific, and I would caution against lumping brands into "does whine, whines under x condition, ect" categories (because it isn't true).
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Not correct, coil whine does come up only in certain situations, the circuitry inside the computer is constantly switching and changing the paths the current flows through.
There is nothing you actually can do to avoid coil whine, either as a customer and either as a manufacturer, perhaps isolating the device cover but with heat generators like PSUs and GPUs it is not possible. Coil whine does happen when strong electromagnetic interference is present on coils' terminals and thus generating the annoying noises, it happens more with high frequency rather than high current. For example my graphics card does a coil whine everytime I move mouse pointer, and it happens only when CPU is clocked over 3GHz, it does not happen under heavy load and it does not happen when CPU is clocked bellow 3GHz, including it was not happening in the previous rig the card was used in, even the CPU was running over 3 gigs. The PSU in my current rig, was generating coil whine when computer was powered off, but since last month it has completely disappeared without any change in computer's behavior. So the reason why this type of signal that makes coil noise is present in some computers is still not well understood.

The OP, you are better be lucky because there are no measurements on this issue. And no one knows if the new card has the whine or not.
 
Good thing im feeling lucky then :)

Looking at these same cards:

MSI R7950 Twin Frozr 3GD5/OC (3 GB) @ 500$

Has 6+6pin

MSI R7950 Twin Frozr 3GD5 V2/OC (3 GB) @ 400$

Has 6+8pin

Can anyone tell me why there is 100$ difference between these cards, thats quite alot? is it just additional software/programs and other useless extra features?
 
The one time I ever noticed any whine was when I got a new video card for my system, I'm not sure if that was the 580 or the one before it. Probably the 580. Ended up replacing the Corsair 650 PSU I had with a Seasonic X750, whine went away. Shrug.
 
tr0lle said:
Good thing im feeling lucky then :)

Looking at these same cards:

MSI R7950 Twin Frozr 3GD5/OC (3 GB) @ 500$

Has 6+6pin

MSI R7950 Twin Frozr 3GD5 V2/OC (3 GB) @ 400$

Has 6+8pin

Can anyone tell me why there is 100$ difference between these cards, thats quite alot? is it just additional software/programs and other useless extra features?
Click to expand...
Do not pay $500 for a 7950.

Do not pay $400 for a 7950.

In fact, where the hell are you getting these prices? The MSI 7950 is one of the most often on sale 7950s. I've regularly seen it at $309 and have gotten one for a friend's build at $275.

As for the versions, I don't know myself, but there was a time when the MSI 7950 was made on the 7970 PCB, which in theory gave it better power delivery and possibly better overclocking stability. Maybe now they're distinguishing between 7950 and 7970 boards? (7970 uses 6+8 pin)

And even then, there should not be a $100 gap between them; at that difference, you just buy the 7970.
 
I live in Denmark, 7950 are around 400$ and 7970 are 550$+ It aint cheap here :)

Either way I ordered a MSI 7950 TFIII, crossing fingers for no coil whine!
 
Acer_Sheep said:
Not correct, coil whine does come up only in certain situations, the circuitry inside the computer is constantly switching and changing the paths the current flows through.
There is nothing you actually can do to avoid coil whine, either as a customer and either as a manufacturer, perhaps isolating the device cover but with heat generators like PSUs and GPUs it is not possible. Coil whine does happen when strong electromagnetic interference is present on coils' terminals and thus generating the annoying noises, it happens more with high frequency rather than high current. For example my graphics card does a coil whine everytime I move mouse pointer, and it happens only when CPU is clocked over 3GHz, it does not happen under heavy load and it does not happen when CPU is clocked bellow 3GHz, including it was not happening in the previous rig the card was used in, even the CPU was running over 3 gigs. The PSU in my current rig, was generating coil whine when computer was powered off, but since last month it has completely disappeared without any change in computer's behavior. So the reason why this type of signal that makes coil noise is present in some computers is still not well understood.

The OP, you are better be lucky because there are no measurements on this issue. And no one knows if the new card has the whine or not.
Click to expand...

Notice how I said lumping "brands" and not "cards." ;). The poster made broad brand assumptions that brand x will always whine, brand y will only whine under certain conditions, and that simply isn't true.

Here's his quote:
Sapphire, XFX and HIS produce very loud whine, MSI and EVGA produce whine but only under folding load and is almost silent anyway. No Gigabyte card, to date, has produced any coil whine on my rig.

But then again, Gigabyte 7970 is one of the more reported offenders, so it just goes to show you that there is no guarantee.
Click to expand...

I had a sample of three MSI 7950 cards and two of them had an audible whine at idle and the third while at 3D clocks.
 
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