My 4870x2 hisses, is this bad?

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Wheels617

Limp Gawd
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Feb 4, 2006
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I just dropped in my brand new Asus 4870x2 yesterday. Today while playing HL2 I noticed that it makes a hissing noise whenever I play. The card doesn't make this sound when I am not gaming and I dont believe it makes the sound when I play cod4. Is an rma in order or is it nothing to worry about?

thanks in advance.
 
hissing noise? as in the Fan ramping up in speed?

also make sure there are no stray wires near the fans.

but when the fans go from 25-50%, it does sound like a jet stream...

also what are your temps?
 
yang88she said:
hissing noise? as in the Fan ramping up in speed?

also make sure there are no stray wires near the fans.

but when the fans go from 25-50%, it does sound like a jet stream...

also what are your temps?
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haha people do say that. anyway, but defualt, the fans will automatically raise speed based on temperature and stress, which is in games. So i would reccommend downloading Expertool and raising the fan speed with that to see if its the noise. And as yang88she said, you should probably take the card out check if anything hitting the fan or if the fans hitting the wall, but most likely its the fan speed.

Personally, i always keep my fan at 100%, in game or out cause the card is alwasy cold and i dont annoyed by the rpm changing as i switch tasks.
 
speedy523 said:
Personally, i always keep my fan at 100%, in game or out cause the card is alwasy cold and i dont annoyed by the rpm changing as i switch tasks.
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Seriously?!

I know that having 2 x2's @ 100% fan speed is insanely loud...haha but I can't imagine having it on 100% all the time during in-game ...you must have some nice noise canceling headphones :p
 
Let me explain further. I have the asus version of the card and am using smartdoctor to keep the fan speed at a constant 40%. There is just a constant sound of fan. But when I exit HL2 some "noise" goes away. This shouldnt be the fan because I have it set to a constant rate.
 
It's the parts on the board making the noise. My x800xtpe 'hissed' a bit to when I played certain games or ran the cube in ATitool. Probably a cap or a voltage regulator or something that's functional, but not quiet.
 
i believe its called capacitor whine. The 8800gtxs have it too, im sure several other cards do as well.

Not everyone can hear it, my family was over and no one else could hear it. Yet as I type this my 8800gtx is hissing at a near unbearable level because I'm running folding@home on it.

It deeply saddens me to find out that ATI cards do this too.

I am not 100% sure its capacitors that cause the whine but that's what I recall being the culprit.
 
maybe your making it mad. :D

my 8800GTX has a high pitch whine when I run folding at home. not sure about hissing
 
Thanks for the replies guys. The card works beautifully, so i dont think it is dying or anything, but I got it from the egg and could return it pretty easily if need be. Would I most likely encounter this sound with a replacement card?
 
Wheels617 said:
Thanks for the replies guys. The card works beautifully, so i dont think it is dying or anything, but I got it from the egg and could return it pretty easily if need be. Would I most likely encounter this sound with a replacement card?
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Well, you could always go to your local B&M, pick up a PCI Express card and see if you get the same "hiss" noise.

That way you will know that it's the video card making the noise
 
yang88she said:
Seriously?!

I know that having 2 x2's @ 100% fan speed is insanely loud...haha but I can't imagine having it on 100% all the time during in-game ...you must have some nice noise canceling headphones :p
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nah just 4 speaks and sub. but im used to the noise. all fans in my case are on max, i have an air purifier and fan running on level 2 out of 3. so im accustomed to the noise, but i keep my speakers a bit up so its doesnt really affect me haha. if i do lower the fan speed it is a signifact quiter, but on 100 it doesnt annoy me, the heat annoys me more. And i cant go to sleep if theres at least a little background niose like my fan, so haha, i know, im weird :D
 
speedy523 said:
nah just 4 speaks and sub. but im used to the noise. all fans in my case are on max, i have an air purifier and fan running on level 2 out of 3. so im accustomed to the noise, but i keep my speakers a bit up so its doesnt really affect me haha. if i do lower the fan speed it is a signifact quiter, but on 100 it doesnt annoy me, the heat annoys me more. And i cant go to sleep if theres at least a little background niose like my fan, so haha, i know, im weird :D
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lmao, a little background noise? I'm sure it sounds like wind tunnel when you are gaming haha
 
yang88she said:
lmao, a little background noise? I'm sure it sounds like wind tunnel when you are gaming haha
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haha not in my room, but i broght it into the basement a couple days ago to play on the bravia, so it was all quiet and right when i hit 100% and apply, it was so loud, like u said, a wind tunnel haha :)
 
Mine does this too. It's really noticeable when going from 2d menus or movies back to the 3d game.
 
my 4870 whines when its on a large screen of white, its only noticeable when i put my head up to it.. very faint. my X800GTO does the same thing playing games. its not deafing or windtunnel its just a very faint hiss/whine/ airy noise
 
It's most likely a quality issue with the parts some companies use. I had a power supply creating all kinds of sound interference when it was delivering adequate, but 'dirty' power. Certain parts (caps) were starting to swell when I opened and inspected it. I bought a newer, better power supply and all the interference went away. Same with my GPU. My x800xtpe must have had functional, but still sub-standard parts because of the hissing noise I noticed when the card was under load. My current card doesn't do this thank goodness. Cause in all honesty, the hissing bothered me.
 
Ive got a vistiontek and can confirm i also get this 'whine' noise during any game for me, unless i exit.

It is not a fan noise, because i have physically stopped the fan and it still makes the same noise. (YEAH I DID IT)

placed my head next to the card and it is DEF coming from the card.
 
weird, well i guess some are affected and some aren't. i personally havent heard my card make any "hissing" or "whining" sounds. Even if i run the fans on auto or manual, hmm guess it just depends on the card.
 
I've never had a card that maks hissing noises that I could hear, but I do have a S939 ABIT board that hisses when the CPU is under load
 
Almost all of my videocards make that noise in 3d mode (including the 3 year old 7800 in my laptop) just the nature of the beast lol
 
So would it be worthwhile to rma the card or wait a bit? Newegg warrants it for a year and asus warrants it for 3, so I could take a wait and see approach. The noise doesn't bother me so much as if there is an underlying problem. Thanks for your advice.
 
I wouldn't, my laptop gpu has been hissing away for 3 years and is still working, actually i think its still flashed with an overclocked bios lol.
 
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