My R9 290 thinks it's a barber

PenguinPower · Mar 22, 2016

So my reference 290 has this atrocious low-pitched metallic coil whine. The best thing I could compare it to is sounding like one of those hair clippers you hear at the barber lol. It sounds exactly like this, except a bit louder in real life (https://youtu.be/0aqb62LP1qQ). This sound basically happens whenever the card is under load. Doesn't matter if it's in a 60fps VSync game of GTAV or struggling to get through Firestrike Ultra at 10fps. Any ghetto fixes I could try that would help lower the noise (nail polish or gum maybe)? I don't think it's worth to try playing the RMA lottery with Asus since I bought the card used and plus I have an unused HG10 sitting around for the card.

RobCrezz · Mar 22, 2016

Try running it on a benchmark for about 4 hours.

RobCrezz · Mar 22, 2016

In fact, dont try hot glue, the 290x coils will likely get so hot they will just melt it anyway...

PenguinPower · Mar 22, 2016

Been there unfortunately. Ran Valley overnight last night and there's not really a noticeable improvement.

turkey3_scratch · Mar 22, 2016

I would just RMA it. Coil whine doesn't always result from a poor application of caulk but also from poorly wound coils, from which more caulk won't fix anything. Also, I'm not sure if opening the card voids the warranty or not, hmm...

RobCrezz · Mar 22, 2016

PenguinPower :

Tried overclocking? Underclocking? Sometimes its a specific range of frequency that can do it.

Last resort, get a silent case or some noise cancelling headphones

turkey3_scratch · Mar 22, 2016

Also your power supply? There have been instances where a better PSU has fixed coil whine, though very rare supposedly.

PenguinPower · Mar 22, 2016

I played around with the clock speeds a bit yesterday. Moving them up and down in like 2MHz increments doesn't seem to do much. One interesting thing is that when I lowered the clock speeds to the bare minimum (about half the speed of the stock clocks), the whine was a lot less even at full load. I don't really want to RMA because my fear is that it's going to get lost in RMA limbo for a couple of weeks and then they'll return a card that isn't even compatible with the HG10.

Got a Fractal R5 so not sure what else to do there lol. Headphones are also pretty much worst case scenario as I've got open back 598's ._. With regards to the PSU, it's a pretty shitty OCZ Modxstream 600w so that might be an issue? The only other PSU I really have to test is an EVGA 430w unfortunately.

PenguinPower · Mar 22, 2016

Ok so I tried it on a CS450M and a Seasonic 660W Platinum. Exact same problem. The really weird thing is that the coil whine is nonexistent during furmark... This issue is getting stranger and stranger.

PenguinPower · Mar 22, 2016

Just kidding. Realized I set my clocks to the minimum for that Furmark run. Looks like I may have to just RMA the card.

RobCrezz · Mar 23, 2016

Just RMA it, youll tend to get the exact model back, so should be fine to use with the HG10.

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My R9 290 thinks it's a barber

PenguinPower

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RobCrezz

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RobCrezz

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PenguinPower

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turkey3_scratch

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RobCrezz

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turkey3_scratch

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PenguinPower

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PenguinPower

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