GTX 670 buzzing noise?

[Ran12]

My PC makes a buzzing noise every time I play games, so I opened it up and it seems like the noise is coming from my GTX 670. If I alt-tab to the desktop it stop buzzing or when I don't play games. Now this wouldn't be too annoying except I can hear it through my headphones and speakers. Another strange thing to add is when I play FPS shooters the buzzing goes up when I shoot and back down a little when I stop. Anyone have a solution?

 

[iam2thecrowe]

is it an MSI card? there are reports that some of their cards have dodgy circuit designs that make them put too much voltage through certain components on the board.

 

[TheGooeyman]

This is called "coil whine" and there is much to read upon the specifics, which a simple google search will yield many results, but all you need to know is that it IS normal. As for a solution, many say you need a new PSU or Graphics card, however DON'T resort to this. FIRST, try using v- sync in the game(s) in question (the ones causing the noise), and see if that works. If this does not work, you can try other solutions to this that you find on the web, but you may just have to live with it. I know it can be annoying, but you may just have an especially noisy card. Unless there is something major you changed in the system before this problem that you could revert, I think it is probably just the card. (P.S the V- sync option is usually found in the video settings of most games, and limits the FPS of the game to your monitors refresh rate. Sometimes if your GPU is outputting large amounts of frames, it "whines" in this manner). Hope I helped!!!

 

[cookybiscuit]

Mine does it too, sounds more like a tick rather than coil whine though. You might be able to tune it out by playing with your overclocks, keep the same speed and stability by decreasing core clock and increasing memory clock, or the other way around. Its usually related to the core clock.

 

[Ran12]

Best answer selected by Ran12.

 

[Ran12]

This is called "coil whine" and there is much to read upon the specifics, which a simple google search will yield many results, but all you need to know is that it IS normal. As for a solution, many say you need a new PSU or Graphics card, however DON'T resort to this. FIRST, try using v- sync in the game(s) in question (the ones causing the noise), and see if that works. If this does not work, you can try other solutions to this that you find on the web, but you may just have to live with it. I know it can be annoying, but you may just have an especially noisy card. Unless there is something major you changed in the system before this problem that you could revert, I think it is probably just the card. (P.S the V- sync option is usually found in the video settings of most games, and limits the FPS of the game to your monitors refresh rate. Sometimes if your GPU is outputting large amounts of frames, it "whines" in this manner). Hope I helped!!!

Turns out it was the graphics card. I mostly play Team Fortress 2 and it isn't that graphics intensive. On a single map alone I got to about 1000fps and when I put the max frames to only to go 150, the whining stopped.