Graphics card making high pitched noise after OC

[Bradguin121]

Today I OC'd my HD7850 and since then, every game I start up ends up making the GPU make a high pitched squeaky kind of noise. Have I damaged my GPU by OC'ing? It doesnt make a noise when idle, just when its under load.

Specs:
Phenom ii x4 960 BE @ 3.8GHz
HD 7850
ASUS M5A97 R2.0
Corsair 600W PSU
4GB DDR3 RAM
1TB HDD

 

[nforce4max]

That is know as coil squeal or coil whine and it increases with power consumption. When you overclocked your card you pushed the load on the power vrm higher and with the coils being the weak point the load exceeded their normal expected use. Some types of coil inductors have no problem with high loads but some have serious problems under long term heavy use.

It is a easy guess that your card uses ferrite shielded inductors of a rather poor grade and the insulation in the windings of the coils has started to fail. The two ways to fix this is to RMA for a replacement or replace the weakened coils. The R30 ferrite core inductors that Gigabyte uses are very dependable but unlikely to fit your card with the stock cooler installed but for experienced modders the repair would enable better overclocking and longer life.

 

[badtaylorx]

^^^what he said^^^ is exactly correct....whack that best answer button for him

 

[ibjeepr]

I've heard some people say that the coil whine has gone away for them after a "break-in period" and they don't have an issue afterwards. I can't vouch for this but throwing it out there.