Help me understand coil whine

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Kaiketsu

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Basically I've tried upgrading to 970GTX a couple times, but every time the new card buzzed under load (in games).

I tried a Gainward Phantom, a MSI G1, and even the GALAX, which was advertised to be free of coil whine due to cards having their capacitors glued in. ALL buzzed. The GALAX was ironically the loudest one. It's pretty much the same sound as any "graphic card buzzing" youtube video, not a high pitched sound associated commonly with coil whine.

MSI was the quietest, but still unbearable (I have a very quiet PC so it was just a terrible experience).

my old Gigabyte 760GTX makes absolutely no whine, even under extreme loads.

All of that made me think that this MAY be the fault of PSU (a bronze-class 500W SilentiumPC). Or maybe motherboard (MSI B85G43). Honestly, I have no clue what to do. It's been half a year since I tried (I returned all of the cards as faulty), I want to upgrade to Pascal/Polaris soon but I'm literally afraid I will be forced to do this ridiculous card-juggling again and again.

So, what could be the culprit here? Was I really unlucky to get three defective cards in a row (including one advertised as "whineless"), or is it the PSU/MoBo?

i tried another PSU by the way, I have a spare, with ALL three Geforce 970GTX and they whined all the same, albeit my spare PSU is ALSO a bronze-class PSU (600W), so this may not be conclusive.
 
Solution
dish_moose
If you try something like this: https://www.amazon.ca/SODIAL-Mechanics-Stethoscope-Automotive-Diagnostic/dp/B00KBQB3MC/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1460377070&sr=8-1&keywords=mechanic+stethoscope
You may be able to isolate the noise. Coil whine is a generic term to put a name on irritating vibration of electronic components. Typically it is the winding in a coil that vibrates as the magnetic forms/collapses. Many years ago when I wound a transformer or two, I used to dip them in varnish to bind all the windings together. As stated above any component in the switching power supply of the psu/mobo/gpu can vibrate at a frequency that may be a multiple of the fundamental operating frequency. As more load is demanded higher currents result in...
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Kaiketsu

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Is there any way to track the culprit?

Two Bronze PSUs + Three Cards = 6 x whine (100%) , I know some manufacturers say you should use Gold class PSU to avoid whine... but if I buy such PSU and it whines anyway, I'll just end up without 150$ and in the same spot anyway.
 
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RobCrezz

RobCrezz

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The power efficiency rating of a PSU is unlikely to help.

Without just changing parts its really hard to say. I would try the easy things first (different surge/spike protector, different power outlet etc).

It seems to happen more on the 900 series cards due to the higher clock speeds.
 
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Kaiketsu

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I see. Could it be caused by PSU anyway? 760GTX is dead silent on both my PSUs. But those PSUs are rather cheap (they cost 50 bucks). Could it be caused by inferior build quality resulting in 12V line being "polluted" ?

if it's the MoBo, perhaps I should try another PCI-E slot, since it offers two?
 
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Kaiketsu

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If it makes any difference: I tried over/underclocking all three of my cards, also over/undervolting. It didn't do much. The only thing I managed to do was to make the buzz less loud by cutting the clock in half, which was obviously unacceptable (and the cards still whined. Just less loud). Switching to 30fps in games would also reduce the noise, but it never went out completely. It was dead silent in menus, when browsing, etc.
 
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Dunlop0078

Dunlop0078

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I have a pretty good 80+ gold seasonic psu and I still get gpu coil whine, didn't have any when I fist built the system three years ago but now my gpu screams every time I put it under load. I wear headphones when I game so it doesn't really bother me. My recommendation would be to just deal with it you can spend a lot of money chasing coil whine and you may never fix it. I would do what rob said and maybe try to move the computer to an outlet on another circuit, change your surge protector, make sue your outlet is grounded, etc.
 
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Kaiketsu

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"deal with it" is really not a solution I'm looking for. Especially if it's indeed something as simple as surge protector (who knows, may be worth a try).

I also don't use headphones, so I can't even pretend the problem is not there :)
 
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Dunlop0078

Dunlop0078

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I said look at the surge protector, I would say something like moving the pc onto another circuit would be more likely to do something but im doubtful, I have already tried every common practice to cure my coil whine and nothing works. And I dont mean to sound rude when I say deal with it but that may be your only solution or non solution, short of buying entirely new hardware which may or may not even solve the problem.
 
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dish_moose

dish_moose

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If you try something like this: https://www.amazon.ca/SODIAL-Mechanics-Stethoscope-Automotive-Diagnostic/dp/B00KBQB3MC/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1460377070&sr=8-1&keywords=mechanic+stethoscope
You may be able to isolate the noise. Coil whine is a generic term to put a name on irritating vibration of electronic components. Typically it is the winding in a coil that vibrates as the magnetic forms/collapses. Many years ago when I wound a transformer or two, I used to dip them in varnish to bind all the windings together. As stated above any component in the switching power supply of the psu/mobo/gpu can vibrate at a frequency that may be a multiple of the fundamental operating frequency. As more load is demanded higher currents result in bigger magnetic fields and if you can visualize what happens in a speaker voice coil - wires want to move. Try to isolate the offending component(s) and go from there.
-Bruce
 
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Solution
maddogfargo

maddogfargo

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Coil whine is a high pitch vibration caused by rapid expansion/contraction of components due to high frequency power controller switching. If it is on your GPU, try making sure v-sync is on, as this can sometimes help with keeping the load more even. If it is on the motherboard or the PSU, there's not much you can do about it.

This is usually considered a defect and you can usually RMA the part if it is relatively new.
 
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