How much coil whine do you consider acceptable?

[cookybiscuit]

I don't know if theres an industry standard for coil whine deciding if a card is working or damaged, but how much coil whine does it take for you to return a card? Asking since I've only bought 2 cards ever, and I've returned both of them for coil whine, don't know if I'm being too picky or not but I could hear the first (7850) when half way across the room when the sound on whatever I was playing was muted, and on the second (7950) it was about as loud but whined even at idle, although very quietly. Personally I don't see the point in buying an expensive card with a beastly silent cooler if all you'll ever hear is coil whine, but maybe thats just because of my inexperience.

Thanks.

 

[cooldudesubho]

As long as the sound can't be heard when you move your ear away from the card.

 

[mouse24]

If I can't hear it with my headset on its fine.. Or if I can't hear it over my fans its fine.

Basically if I can't hear it I don't care... So I guess the answer to your question would be "its not acceptable if I can hear it"

 

[cookybiscuit]

Interesting. How common is it? Bad luck to have two in a row with coil whine, or do you just get good and bad ones? I different build has a 6850 in it (I suppose that makes 3 GPU's then) and stressed that can be heard whining with the case door off and my ear right over it. I was pretty annoyed when I got two considerably more expensive cards making it way louder.

 

[kallamamran]

http://www.strawpoll.me/10573004/r

 

[RobCrezz]

Almost every card has it, just in varying levels. Some people are more susceptible to the frequency than others also.

As long as I cant hear it without trying to hear it, thats fine with me.