Where is the source of my coil whine?

mogjogwa

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Aug 7, 2011
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I recently purchased an xfx ghz edition 7870 for my computer, and I started to notice coil whine coming from my computer. It is only noticeable during high framerate tests (Triangle of death from Kombustor) and during games. The sounds is MUCH worse the higher the frame rate, such as game menus. However, I'm not sure if it is from the graphics card, psu, or motherboard. I have an AMD 6 core 3.3 ghz 1100t processor with a 650w corsair psu. My motherboard is an Asus m4a87td evo, and I have 4 internal drives, all HDD. I also am using around 5 case fans. Along with that I have a corsair h50 cooler. I'm not sure if the new card has pushed power consumption to a limit and is causing the psu to whine, or if it is drawing too much and affecting the motherboard coils. OR if it is the card in general, since it's new.

It's hard to pinpoint the location of the sound since it's such a high frequency and in such an enclosed area. However it only occurs during graphics tests, and when I run prime 95 there is no coil whine to be found. I've under clocked the card at one point to reduce frame rate during the triangle of death and the whine went down, but did not go away entirely, but I'm still unsure what the main cause is.

Even after unplugging a few fans during the test to see if the psu was under too much load did not help the issue. As well as that, I noticed that during the triangle of death is run with prime95 simultaneously, the whine goes way down, but so does the frame rate. It's hard to say what exactly is causing it.

Also, besides the "glue trick" for coils, is there any fix for this issue? Please feel free to ask any questions if you're not clear about my situation.
 

mogjogwa

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Aug 7, 2011
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Well the card tends to be a bit warm, but never goes over 80c when I play crysis 3 or BF3. However, during furmark I have to close the program because the card reached over 102 and didn't stop increasing, however this only happens in furmark, and it is designed to run your card hot.
 

JRAtk94

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May 26, 2013
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I am aware of Furmark causing that in some cases, it's nothing to worry about.

what graphics card did you have before this 7870, and has this issue been around since the first day that you installed the 7870?
 

mogjogwa

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Aug 7, 2011
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I had a 6870, and this did start happening when I first bought the card about a week back. I didn't notice it until day 2 when I played audio surf and noticed that the game menu was causing a whining sound to come from my computer.