Capacitor wine on 6970

G

Grimlaking

2[H]4U
Joined
May 9, 2006
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Is it time to start looking for a new card?

Just curious what this means. Currently looks like a 780 will be the next card if this one dies.


Yes I know whine...
 
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Usually hot vrms causes coil wine. If they dont have heatsinks, then it may be a good indicator
 
IMO, if the card is still functioning normally and you're happy with the performance, it's not time to look for a new card. I wouldn't let coil whine be the determining factor unless I was looking for an excuse to upgrade. ;)
 
Try limiting your FPS or using Vsync, ive read that this that sometimes fix coil whine
 
Not sure that qualifies as a "fix" more like avoiding the problem by introducing another (lower performance)
 
RamonGTP said:
Not sure that qualifies as a "fix" more like avoiding the problem by introducing another (lower performance)
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How is that introducing another problem? Coil whine is very common and usually caused when the fps reaches a extreme level.
 
Domini said:
How is that introducing another problem? Coil whine is very common and usually caused when the fps reaches a extreme level.
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In the form of lower performance, which I mentioned. If your solution is to turn on vsync, that means any game that the card cannot maintain 60fps in will drop all the way down to 30. Many gamers would consider that a problem, and it's not actually fixing anything.
 
Ive had many whiners in my time (both girls and video cards) none of them suffered an early death ..upgrade if you want, but I doubt very much the card is on its way out.
 
RamonGTP said:
In the form of lower performance, which I mentioned. If your solution is to turn on vsync, that means any game that the card cannot maintain 60fps in will drop all the way down to 30. Many gamers would consider that a problem, and it's not actually fixing anything.
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Which is why i mentioned a FPS limiter, limit the FPS at 59 or something
 
Or just turn on dynamic v-sync... Nvidia has it built into their drivers, AMD users can get it through Radeon Pro.

Ultimate fix for coil whine is to apply clear nail polish to the offending coils (yes, this is safe, and what the factory is supposed to do).
 
My HD 6970 had that issue on many game's menu, even when it was new. The same thing happens to my HD 7970. It isn't a bad indicator of anything, it is just that the coils are vibrating very fast due to the high FPS the GPU is rendering. A tip to silent them is to paint them with clear nail polish, it won't do any harm, just let it dry. Other thing would be just to ignore it, I learned to live with that weird noise sometime ago lol
 
Just so you know Capacitors are not coils lol and i don't think I've ever heard of Capacitor wine so no need to paint those
 
Domini said:
Where are you seeing anyone claiming that capacitors are coils?
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Subject line in op's post refers to it as Capacitor wine on 6970 and he may not of known their completely different components
 
I think spilling wine on any electronic device could cause serious problems.
 
primetime said:
i don't think I've ever heard of Capacitor wine so no need to paint those
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Capacitors are known to "scream" when they're near failure and/or leaking. It's a sustained high-pitch tone easily mistaken for coil whine.
 
Unknown-One said:
Capacitors are known to "scream" when they're near failure and/or leaking. It's a sustained high-pitch tone easily mistaken for coil whine.
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That's good to know....I wasn't aware of that...but they are different issues yes? Any good way to determine which was making the noise? I had read its kinda easy to spot bad capacitors in how they look, as in bulging or leaking, but i never knew they actually made a high pitch noise...but that's why i read these forums...and some of us have been reading them a very long time have we not? the last 3 of us over 8 years lol
 
primetime said:
That's good to know....I wasn't aware of that...but they are different issues yes?
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Very different. Coil whine is normal (though fixable / avoidable), a cap screaming is a sign that it is damaged and needs to be replaced.

By the time a cap starts screaming, it's usually bulged or partially popped.

primetime said:
Any good way to determine which was making the noise?
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Honestly, a short length of small rubber tubing does a great job. Power up the board and put one end of the tubing in your ear, then poke around the circuit board with the free end. It'll act like a crude stethoscope, and you'll very easily be able to tell when you have it pointed at the component making noise.
 
Grimlaking said:
Is it time to start looking for a new card?

Just curious what this means. Currently looks like a 780 will be the next card if this one dies.


Yes I know whine...
Click to expand...

Should've bought a sapphire model to prevent that coil whine. mm mm good x)

Coil whine doesn't mean a card is on it's last limb, a quick google search will tell you that. Hell, even brand new 7990s have coil whine.
 
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