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Noisy Asus 970 Strix (coil whine?)

Bearukun
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Hello everyone..!

I've purchased a Asus 970 Strix card since the reviews from all around the internet has been pretty positive, and especially since Linus told in his review that it was a silent card. But now that I've got the card in my rig I noticed that every time I'm gaming the card is emitting some sort of annoying buzzing - especially if the FPS is high. The pitch of the buzzing is changing accordingly to the FPS.  I have recorded a sample of it, not the best, and put it on youtube if you'd like to hear the sound. Please notice that the "rattle" sound is from the IS on my dSLR camera, but if you have trouble hearing the "buzzing", go to 0:25 where the microphone get close of the card.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ko7edYNolo

Is this considered normal, or is it a defect. The buzzing is loud enough to be heard with the side of the case on since there's a lot of ventilation holes on the Obsidian 450D, so it's pretty annoying because my aim was to have a silent build. If it's considered as normal, I guess I have to change the 450D out with a CM Silencio case... :(

Thanks..!

 

A couple of important aspects to note no inductor is 100% immune to "coil whine" by moving to a fully molded inductor you can considerably reduce it and in some cases eliminate it. With that noted coil whine can vary from card to card as well as from card to PSU. Some PSU have a higher tendency to produce coil whine ( either within the PSU itself ) or on the card.

 

You can attempt to exchange the card but there is no guarantee you will not possibly have some level of coil whine. Generally though we found with a wide range of PSUs with the current generation inductors used to be inaudible or nearly inaudible in relation to coil whine. I do not have the PSU you show in your video to test but will see if I can have corsair check if time allows and I have a card I can get to them. It would be great if you could send me more details on the PSU specifically part and lot number to PCDIY@Asus.COM

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Hello everyone..!


I've purchased a Asus 970 Strix card since the reviews from all around the internet has been pretty positive, and especially since Linus told in his review that it was a silent card. But now that I've got the card in my rig I noticed that every time I'm gaming the card is emitting some sort of annoying buzzing - especially if the FPS is high. The pitch of the buzzing is changing accordingly to the FPS.  I have recorded a sample of it, not the best, and put it on youtube if you'd like to hear the sound. Please notice that the "rattle" sound is from the IS on my dSLR camera, but if you have trouble hearing the "buzzing", go to 0:25 where the microphone get close of the card.
 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ko7edYNolo

Is this considered normal, or is it a defect. The buzzing is loud enough to be heard with the side of the case on since there's a lot of ventilation holes on the Obsidian 450D, so it's pretty annoying because my aim was to have a silent build. If it's considered as normal, I guess I have to change the 450D out with a CM Silencio case... :(

Thanks..!

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Thanks guys, I'll go and complain about it tomorrow at the store - wish me luck! xD

I've stumbled about a thing while watching Linus review once more... On one of the slides he's showing from Asus - it says "buzz-free operations", but I can't really find that statement anywhere on Asus own site http://www.asus.com/Graphics_Cards/STRIXGTX970DC2OC4GD5/ - weird huh? Have they discovered that some of the cards, like mine, is making buzzing sounds and then removed that statement?asus.PNG

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So I've tried overclocking the card, it only seemed to make the noise worse, hence the higher FPS - but I hoped the OC would make the coil whine (buzzing) go away because of the power increase in the circuitry. I think I'm cursed, I always have to RMA hardware! :(


Edit: To anyone that might have the same problem as me, I finally found a link to asus with their "buzz-free statement", I'm going to print this our to the store so I have some proof that this isn't normal.
http://www.asus.com/Microsite/2014/vga/Strix_Series/ 

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Just a follow-up, sure enough the card was faulty and the store gave me a brand new one... And guess what, the coil whine is even worse on this one - and it even overheats when running Unigine Valley after a few minutes and freezes everything... From what I've read on other forums, people suspect that the reviewers were sent cards to them that was perfect in every way - but I wouldn't be surprised if that really is the case...  I must say the quality from what I've seen on the two Strix cards has been very poor, I'm considering the 980 with the reference design instead. Haven't seen as many reported coil whine incidents with the 980 cards..?  

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that buzzing is definitely coil whine. It's kind of like a bad overclocking CPU... it just kind of happens sometimes. I don't think ASUS will let you RMA it just for that. maybe you could put some noise dampening foam in your case to help. 

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that buzzing is definitely coil whine. It's kind of like a bad overclocking CPU... it just kind of happens sometimes. I don't think ASUS will let you RMA it just for that. maybe you could put some noise dampening foam in your case to help. 

I did get an RMA on it, and got a new one. ASUS states on their own site that their choke concrete cores eliminate buzzing sounds under full load as I wrote on #6.   ;) And such an expensive card shouldn't be having those faults in the first place, my case has low db fans - so when the card starts coil whining my ears begins to bleed from the horrid sound. 

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I did get an RMA on it, and got a new one. ASUS states on their own site that their choke concrete cores eliminate buzzing sounds under full load as I wrote on #6.   ;) And such an expensive card shouldn't be having those faults in the first place, my case has low db fans - so when the card starts coil whining my ears begins to bleed from the horrid sound. 

I'm sorry man. maybe it's just because the card is so new

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I'm sorry man. maybe it's just because the card is so new

Yeah, it could be the first batch that has a lot of faulty cards - or then I'm just extremely unlucky.  :(

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many gpu manufacturers don't consider coil whine to be a defect on high ends cards, so getting an RMA for coil whine can be pretty hit or miss. However since Asus does claim 'buzz free operation' for that card, I'd give an rma a shot.

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I hope I don't get the coil whine as I have ordered a STRIX 970 as well....

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I hope I don't get the coil whine as I have ordered a STRIX 970 as well....

Best of luck mate, please tell us if it has any faults when you get it.  :)

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Looks like a defective batch. Hopefully the store receives new ones so they can give you a fixed one. Maybe that's why amazon and other retailers are taking so long to getting this card in stock.

I'm considering buying this card, but maybe I'll wait a few months to buy it.

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Looks like a defective batch. Hopefully the store receives new ones so they can give you a fixed one. Maybe that's why amazon and other retailers are taking so long to getting this card in stock.

I'm considering buying this card, but maybe I'll wait a few months to buy it.

Yeah, most certainly looks like it. I told the place where I bought mine that I want to change it to the MSI 970 Gaming, even though it's pretty annoying when my build is asus/corsair.  :unsure: 

I went from Gigabyte (*-Z77), to MSI(Z87) and then Asus with the Z97, and I must say that my experience with Asus so far has been quite atrocious - I've had problems with the Maximus VII Hero and even my Asus VG248QE have dead pixels...  

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Yeah, most certainly looks like it. I told the place where I bought mine that I want to change it to the MSI 970 Gaming, even though it's pretty annoying when my build is asus/corsair.  :unsure: 

I went from Gigabyte (*-Z77), to MSI(Z87) and then Asus with the Z97, and I must say that my experience with Asus so far has been quite atrocious - I've had problems with the Maximus VII Hero and even my Asus VG248QE have dead pixels...  

Asus doesn't like you xD

 

I think you should be fine with the MSI, it would look great in combination with your VII Hero (I have the same board) only downside is not having a backplate. Actually I was looking to buy the MSI, but it´s not available in my country and amazon doesn´t ship it here so I started to looking at the Strix.

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I tried out a reference EVGA SC 980 and it had coil whine. I was hoping going to a custom ASUS Strix or Gigabyte G1 would eliminate this, but it seems like it is luck of draw. Some either have it a little bit, not at all, or really bad. I find it unacceptable for the price you are paying on these cards, especially when ASUS at least is marketing that their higher end components are better and thus not making it noticeable to hear.

Intel i7-5820K@4.5Ghz // Corsair Hydro H80i // ASUS X99 Deluxe // G.SKILL Ribjaws 4 DDR4 16GB@2400MHz 13-13-13-35 // Gigabyte GTX 980 G1 Gaming // Creative Sound Blaster Z // Bose Companion 3 II // Samsung 850 Pro 256GB // Corsair AX750

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*

At what FPS was Diablo 3 running? GPU's coil whining at 300 FPS is normal, every card whines at that much fps because the frequency is switching at that point just so hard that the coils vibrates which causes the whining noise. 

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Has anyone heard of noise problems with Gigabyte G1 boards?

I think Gigabyte is really beating every other card on the 9xx series with cooler performance, factory OC and looks (thoug it's something personal).

 

Would like to see which's the best overclocker though. Maybe Windforce will give Gigabyte a win here as well?

CPU: Intel Core i7-4790k | CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-D15 | Motherboard: ASUS Sabertooth Z97 MARK 1 | Memory: Kingston HyperX FURY 16GB 1866MHz | GPU: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 770 4GB Windforce


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At what FPS was Diablo 3 running? GPU's coil whining at 300 FPS is normal, every card whines at that much fps because the frequency is switching at that point just so hard that the coils vibrates which causes the whining noise. 

Hi Faa, I guess you are "PS3slimComparison" on youtube. :) It coil whined with or without v-sync.

 

 

 

So, the store asked if I wanted to give the MSI GTX 970 Gaming a go, and I though - I'd give it a last chance... But, it's to my regret that this card coil whine just as much a the other two Strix cards - what are the chances...  <_<

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Hi Faa, I guess you are "PS3slimComparison" on youtube. :) It coil whined with or without v-sync.

Who's that? Why would I bother with PS3's >.> lol

 

 

So, the store asked if I wanted to give the MSI GTX 970 Gaming a go, and I though - I'd give it a last chance... But, it's to my regret that this card coil whine just as much a the other two Strix cards - what are the chances...   <_<

Well I've owned many cards, and all of them have been whining except one. Coil whine is always there, it depends on which frequency and how good your ears are. Lets say you can hear max 24K, if the whine noise is at 30K you won't hear it, if its below 24K you'll hear it. You might hear it but someone else in your family won't.

 

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@Faa, I was just because you asked the same thing as that guy on youtube he he. 




Oh well, so yesterday I got a brand new MSI GTX 970 Gaming from the store in hope that this would be better... It turned out that this card had coil whine that was even louder than the two previous Strix cards - amazing huh..? "Limit the fps" people say, "it will fix the coil whine" they say - LIES..! All three of the cards had coil whine even down to 30 FPS!

I can't recommend the MSI 970 card, the materials used for this card is dreadful. The card is bending - a lot - in the case, because of the lack of a backplate, and the whole cooling shroud as made of flimsy plastic which doesn't help either. I'm DONE with the 970 GTX cards, at least for now - it looks like the manufacturers isn't capable of making a card that doesn't tear your eardrums when gaming - VERY DISAPPOINTING. I never had ANY coil whine on my 460, 560, 660, 670 or 770 cards! But it seems like the coil whine is a plague on the 970-cards (Some 980 has it as well, and alot of 780Ti has it too). Just take a look on the manufacturer forums...  :rolleyes: 

My MSI 970 coil whine: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RwF4-fTPf_k


But hey, I got my money back which is good - but I don't have a graphics card now, that sucks... <_<  
  

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Just stabbing in the dark here... could it maybe be your PSU? 

 

Even if your previous GPU didn't have coil whine, maybe it has something to do with Maxwell being so much more energy efficient and the VRM components reacting to unclean power delivery? (Just thinking out loud, I could be totally wrong here.)

 

Thanks for sharing your thoughts on the MSI gaming. It looks really nice and is, thus far, one of the best overclocking 970's (next to the Gigabyte G1), but it's also one of the most expensive ($410 here in Canada). Not many reviews talk about the build quality and strength of the cards and focus more on just performance and temps. I was considering the MSI, but I'm not so sure now. 

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F@H Rig:

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Just stabbing in the dark here... could it maybe be your PSU? 

 

Even if your previous GPU didn't have coil whine, maybe it has something to do with Maxwell being so much more energy efficient and the VRM components reacting to unclean power delivery? (Just thinking out loud, I could be totally wrong here.)

 

Thanks for sharing your thoughts on the MSI gaming. It looks really nice and is, thus far, one of the best overclocking 970's (next to the Gigabyte G1), but it's also one of the most expensive ($410 here in Canada). Not many reviews talk about the build quality and strength of the cards and focus more on just performance and temps. I was considering the MSI, but I'm not so sure now. 

I've got a Corsair RM750, never had problems with it before and it should be of decent quality -  but hey! It could be, but I doubt it. I don't know what PSU the store test-rig has, but they could hear it too. The cards from Gigabyte looks pretty neat, but there's people complaining about coil whine on those as well.  :unsure:

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