NO MORE GTX 280 SQUEALING! Nvidia’s “Deadly” Flaw and How To Fix It

Many thanks go out to Theo Valich for posting this article.


Theo's Bright Side of IT - NVIDIA's "deadly" Flaw and How To Fix It - No More GTX 280 Squealing!

It is no secret that I am huge fan of Folding@Home project, or that I love to play computer games (when I find time ). Both of these activities put high amounts of strain on components inside the computer, and any weakness in product design can be easily discovered.

This tale speaks of a company that makes great chips, but also has a serious design flaw: PCB design. As long as story about “Built by Nvidia” components was told, there were isolated cases of “squealing”. This squealing is caused by vibration of copper coils, and is not present on products designed by people that take attention at these things. Read: if your card has Digital Voltage Regulation Module (DVRM, as Iwill originally called it - Digital PWM is more popular these days) or all solid-state caps and shielded chokes, no sound should be produced. But, if your part has coils or non-shielded capacitors/chokes, you could be “enjoying” in squealing sounds of electronics.

To make the matters clear, certain products from BOTH ATI and Nvidia can squeal under load. ATI moved to clear the issue, Nvidia didn’t. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to record squealing with any of my microphones (upcoming test lab will feature ultra-sensitive microphone equipment), but in a silent computer with three Noctua fans, any non-standard behavior is noticeable. This high-pitched noise is often eaten by the sound of fans, but if you have a silent rig, it gets really, I mean REALLY - annoying.

The squealing is only appearing when the GPU is cranked all the way up, in Folding@Home, Far Cry 2, Crysis: Warhead - the same cards that squealed like pigs in Crysis didn’t do the same in Unreal Tournament 3, Fallout 3 or Race Driver: GRID.

After experiencing squealing with my reference Nvidia GTX280 card in the past month or so, I’ve thoroughly checked following products:

* ATI Radeon X850XT
* ATI Radeon X1800XT CrossFire Edition
* ATI Radeon 2900XT 512MB
* ATI FireGL V8600 1024MB (2900XT)
* ATI Radeon 3850 256MB
* ASUS EN9800GX2 1024MB TOP
* ASUS EN9800GTX 512MB TOP
* EVGA GeForce GTX260 Core 216 896MB x2
* EVGA GeForce GTX280 SuperClocked 1024MB
* EVGA GeForce GTX280 SSC 1024MB x2
* Gainward GeForce 8800GTS 640MB
* Gainward GeForce 8800GT 512MB
* Palit Radeon 4850 512MB x2
* Palit Radeon 4870 512MB x2
* Palit GeForce 9800GX2 1024MB x2
* Palit GeForce GTX280 1024MB
* Sapphire Atomic 3870 512MB
* XFX GeForce 8600GTS 256MB XXX Edition


Keep Reading..

Yep, the problem effects both NVIDIA and ATi cards. This is explained further in the article.

Who tested every video card?