Msi GTX 970 Gaming 4g buzzing

T

TomJesusBrady

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jun 28, 2005
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I have 2 MSI gtx 970 and on load there is a buzzing sound coming them. I have tried each individually and they both buzz only on load. If I go into MSI afterburner and turn up the fans there is no buzz. Only on load. I have a corsair hx1000 power supply which is about 4 years old now. Could it be the power supply?

I saw someone else was having this issue on overclock.net. I am assuming its the power supply or i have really bad luck with 2. I don't have an extra power supply to test.
 
can you describe the buzz?.. a electrical buzzing (coil whine maybe?) or air pressure turbulence humming? (for certain RPM fan speed?.)

coil whine sound like This

whirling sound or humming by the fans sound like This check at 1:04..
 
do you have a tube (similar to a water cooling one) so you can easily detect where the sound is coming from ? how many fps do have during the buzzing sound ?
 
that was just an example of coil whine, but its similar to that? as Kaori asked how much FPS do yo have during the buzzing?.. some cards and PSU at certain uber high FPS like the first 3dmark test.. above 1000FPS produce coil whine.. its a relative common "issue" in cards.. and very common PSU due to high vibration of certain components inside..
 
This is a little worrying as I was going to go with two of these to replace the evga 970s I had which emitted a coil whine
 
I was just testing it in firestrike but i just tried it with diablo 3 and without vysnc it was a very loud buzz. Around 150 fps. With vsync on (60hz) there was still a buzz but nothing like with it off.

I tried the tube couldn't pinpoint it.
 
FRZ said:
This is a little worrying as I was going to go with two of these to replace the evga 970s I had which emitted a coil whine
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and i have to ask again.. was caused by the cards or PSU? and in what type of loads?.. above 1000FPS its extremely common coil whine in GPUs..
 
TomJesusBrady said:
I was just testing it in firestrike but i just tried it with diablo 3 and without vysnc it was a very loud buzz. Around 150 fps. With vsync on (60hz) there was still a buzz but nothing like with it off.

I tried the tube couldn't pinpoint it.
Click to expand...

can you make a short clip to hear it and try to detect?..
 
sounds like PWM of the fans for me... for sure its a mechanical sound.. I guess you will have to RMA it.. MSI have bad reputation with dry fans or fans that start to splash the oil after some time of use..
 
TomJesusBrady said:
I have 2 of them and they both do it. So you think the psu could not cause this?
Click to expand...

you can discard the PSU easy by putting your ear in the back of your case near the PSU outlet... but the noise its just there in the cards just too much to think its the PSU.. you can also try using evga precision or msi afterburner to set the fans RPM at 10%.. and launch the game.. that way would be easier to find the noise.. but for me are the fans of the card..
 
After viewing the youtube video. That buzz sounds a bit familiar. I think mine buzzes like that too, I originally thought it might be the fan hissing on my h80i, but now it could actually be the MSI.
 
i'm not familiar with fan buzzing, but maybe you can try manually stopping the fan (put a finger on the hub) and seeing if it still makes a sound.
 
Why did I click this thread...I cancelled the order on Evga 970 cause of issues there. Asus not for me etc. Still waiting for my 970 Gaming 4g to come in & this will be the first thing I check for once it's up and running.
OP, it sounds like a fan to me as well. I second the idea of stopping a fan to see if it goes away. I'm really hoping it's not both fans on both cards. What would be the odds of that!

At this rate I am beginning to think Zotac may be the only logical choice left.
 
runudownquick said:
Why did I click this thread...I cancelled the order on Evga 970 cause of issues there. Asus not for me etc. Still waiting for my 970 Gaming 4g to come in & this will be the first thing I check for once it's up and running.
OP, it sounds like a fan to me as well. I second the idea of stopping a fan to see if it goes away. I'm really hoping it's not both fans on both cards. What would be the odds of that!

At this rate I am beginning to think Zotac may be the only logical choice left.
Click to expand...

Zotact its making a good effort to gain more reputation, their AMP! products are highly binned products which always overclock like a dream and run cooler, they have lifetime warranty and so on.. im still a bit hard to try Zotac but they are making a good job actually.. probably soon I may try their cards...
 
I have an MSI GTX 970 Gaming that makes the same buzzing noise under load, it's definitely not the fans.

I have a Corsair HX750 PSU also, but pretty sure it's something to do with the card. I'm going to RMA it and get a replacement, hopefully this fixes the problem.

EDIT: I reinstalled the 2 asus gtx670's that I had before I got the MSI 970 and the same noise was there, not quite as loud as when the MSI does it, but it's still there. So maybe it's a mobo issue or something, I'm just surprised I'd never heard the noise before now.
 
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Mine makes a similar noise, though it is barely audible. It is much better than the EVGA 970 I had before. Also if I didn't have that EVGA card making me highly aware if the sound, I may not have noticed at all on the MSI. People with Asus cards are reporting the same noise.
 
flod said:
i'm not familiar with fan buzzing, but maybe you can try manually stopping the fan (put a finger on the hub) and seeing if it still makes a sound.
Click to expand...

I tried manually holding fans and the noise is still there. Also the first few seconds on any load the fans are not spinning. The noise starts instantly
 
can you hear the noise with the case closed and a few feet away from it ? seems it's pretty common issue with these cards but people only notice the noise really close to it..
 
I'm actually going to make a different thread, since the whine I'm experiencing is through my speakers, and not from the actual 970.
 
I am pretty sure I also have this same noise from my msi 970. Fans work fine and are not blocked. It happens immediately when a game is loaded.
 
Those of you who are having this buzzing issue, have you tried switching back to your old card and see if it also makes a buzz? FWIW my EVGA 750 Ti SC makes a buzz whenever I load up a benchmark, and the amount of buzzing seems to correlate how much load there is on the GPU (and thsu by extension, power circuitry).
 
n=1 said:
Those of you who are having this buzzing issue, have you tried switching back to your old card and see if it also makes a buzz? FWIW my EVGA 750 Ti SC makes a buzz whenever I load up a benchmark, and the amount of buzzing seems to correlate how much load there is on the GPU (and thsu by extension, power circuitry).
Click to expand...

Quite possible. In the past I had a 6850 Crossfire and one card buzzed so bad I RMA'd it. The I had a GTX 660 which didn't buzz to any noticeable degree, and I never benchmarked that card either. I noticed the EVGA GTX 970 buzzing right away when I got it. Sent that back for a refund, now the MSI GTX 970 is buzzing a bit, however now I am just hyper attuned to the noise.
 
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n=1 said:
Those of you who are having this buzzing issue, have you tried switching back to your old card and see if it also makes a buzz? FWIW my EVGA 750 Ti SC makes a buzz whenever I load up a benchmark, and the amount of buzzing seems to correlate how much load there is on the GPU (and thsu by extension, power circuitry).
Click to expand...

I haven't switched back to my 570, but it did not make the buzzing noise I hear now when i was playing on it a few days ago. I'll try switching to double check once I'm home tonight.

Probably not a super useful observation, but when I boot up a game that isn't fps limited the buzz is even louder than when I enable vsync. Menus in games also tend to be the loudest. Alt tabbing/closing the game stops the buzz immediately.
 
sergeantmajesco said:
Probably not a super useful observation, but when I boot up a game that isn't fps limited the buzz is even louder than when I enable vsync. Menus in games also tend to be the loudest. Alt tabbing/closing the game stops the buzz immediately.
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That makes sense. Certain things on the card are working hard when VSync is disable. Menus in game can often be rendering at 1000+ FPS when you are sitting there doing nothing.

I am close to sending this card back, ah well.
 
ocellaris said:
That makes sense. Certain things on the card are working hard when VSync is disable. Menus in game can often be rendering at 1000+ FPS when you are sitting there doing nothing.

I am close to sending this card back, ah well.
Click to expand...

Same, waiting to see if the emails / tech support ticket I filed with MSI goes anywhere (doubtful). It's a bummer since stocks are so low, I assume sending this back means I wouldn't get a replacement for some time.
 
sergeantmajesco said:
Same, waiting to see if the emails / tech support ticket I filed with MSI goes anywhere (doubtful). It's a bummer since stocks are so low, I assume sending this back means I wouldn't get a replacement for some time.
Click to expand...

Also might mean you get another card that whines :D
 
I haven't noticed buzzing with mine, afraid to turn a game on and put my ear right next to it now LOL.

Sounds like coil whine... just a different flavor of it.
 
pandora's box said:
right, so its a non-issue. stop putting your head right next to the card(s) when doing benchmark runs and just enjoy them.
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I have 5.1 speakers hooked up to my living room pc - if you sit on the couch you can hear the buzzing, especially on the left side since that's where a fan opening is. Far from "putting my head right next to the card."
 
OP What motherboard do you have, and also does it make the noise when only one card is installed?
 
pandora's box said:
right, so its a non-issue. stop putting your head right next to the card(s) when doing benchmark runs and just enjoy them.
Click to expand...

Or I could return it and get a card that isn't annoying? If I want to sit around for an hour and run benchmarks, who cares. I dropped $350 on it a video card and the only game I really play is Diablo 3 which isn't exactly demanding (but often runs like crap anyway). Different people are willing to deal with different levels and types of noise. My case fans are loud, I am 100% fine with that. The high pitched whine from the GPU is like someone sticking a screwdriver in my ear once I hear it.

Really I haven't decided yet though, since this MSI is much better than the EVGA GTX 970 I had previously. Might just upgrade to a GTX 980 at this point.
 
^I know what you mean, Had a Noctua 120mm case fan that annoyed the living shit out of me because the motor had this annoying high pitched whine even at 50%. Even though it was "objectively quieter" as in my decibel meter registered less decibels, I returned it because I just couldn't live with the jet engine like noise (however faint it might be).
 
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