Coil whine caused by VRAM?

G

Gertjan

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May 1, 2017
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Hi,

Since Ive replaced my videocard Im experiencing a mild coil whine and Im trying to fix this.

Im not certain if its the new videocard, it could be the psu aswell since the new videocard uses a lot more power.
I went from a radeon 6950 to RX480.

The coil whine is not always there, only after like 15 minutes of heavy load my PC starts making a high pitch sound.
Not really load but I can definatly hear it.
So Im thinking it could be heat related, I removed the side plate to bring in more air and this seems te help a little bit.
Tried various settings in wattman and MSI afterburner but that really didnt help.

Now the strange finding, Ive monitored the whole thing in wattman and it seems when memory usage is high the sound is more audible.
Could it be that the VRAM is causing the high pitch sound? Ive never heard VRAM making any sound.

Any tips to get this sorted out would be greatly appriciated.

greetz,
 
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High memory usage means higher power draw from the whole memory subsystem. So it's feasible. Same goes for higher temperature.

You should try sticking your head in your chassis to isolate if it's coming from the PSU, GPU or something else though.
 
Yep, open the case, start running whatever triggers it and locate where it is. It can be anything as such, PSU, mobo, GPU.
 
My coil whine during gaming went away went I upgraded from a 970 to a 1070 so in my case it was definitely the video card.
 
I listened very carefully and it was definatly the videocard.

The noise increased with demand and no matter what i tried it didnt go away.

Ive already sold it and im about tot buy a new one.
The sapphire rx580 Nitro +
God i love buying new stuff and this one looks great!
 
I had the coil whine issue when I had my 980Ti. Changed my power supply and it went away. Yup, can be a few different things. In my case, power supply.
 
I had coil whine on one rig and it took several days to figure out what was causing it. Initially I thought it was the video card, since more intensive GPU apps (like FurMark) would cause a louder whine. However, in the end it was the PSU.

A good trick to figure out what is causing it is to use a piece of paper. Roll up the paper so it has a diameter like of a small coin, and then place it on your ear. Then move the other side onto parts of your open case to see where it is the loudest. Hope that helps.
 
Im 99% certain it is the videocard.

I couldnt find the source listentening from the side with the case open.
Listening from the back exhaust points it was clear what what causing it.

Besides, Ive had this 700 watt psu for a more then year and never experienced coil whine untill ive replaced my videocard.
 
The HD6950 uses a lot more power than a RX580 (I know, I upgraded from HD6950 to the RX480 Sapphire Nitro+ OC) so it is unlikely to be PSU but it's not impossible.

I know from experience the HD6950 under load sounds like somebody plugged in a dustbuster inside my computer case - is it possible the coil whine is from the PSU and has always been there but you couldn't hear it over the HD6950? My own Nitro+ OC is nearly silent even under load, I actually switched back from headphones to speakers because I no longer needed to block out the GPU fan noise.
 
I get coil whine only between loading in games and boot ups. It doesn't bother me tho. I'm sure it is the video card since it the only thing I changed in recent times. What really bother is that it sounds like there a frog in my case. I haven't been able to isolate it. It happens randomly. Proabably one of my fans going bad.
 
The only time i had serious coil whine in my rig, it was one of the fans on my video card going bad (developed a big crack down the middle of the fan).
 
coil whine is a high frequency sound and therefore difficult to pinpoint. I'm thinking a motherboard's CPU section uses same basic PWM design as graphics card coil circuits and so, I've heard gaming mobos whine as well as gaming cards. Some whine loud, some whine soft, quite a few are silent but this 'may whine' situation makes buying used gaming cards on eBay a challenge because you can't return a card if it works but whines. Always ask the seller through the eBay email system if the card whines or not. That way you can return it if they say "no" but you get a whiner card
 
Turns out it was the cpu fan making coil whine, Ive replaced the intel stock cooler with a coolermaster CPU fan and now its gone.
 
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