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the gtx 970/980 coil whine thread.


been seeing alot of talk about fairly audible coil whine from the various gtx 970/980 cards, out of curiosity i figured we could have a look at just how bad it is or isn't, hopefully the poll will make sense, yes it is gigantic, but hopefully pretty straight forward. For clarification, when i ask if it has coil whine or not, i mean if it is audible enough that you can hear it if you stand next to the pc, or have your head close to it when the gpu is under heavy load, meaning preferably not a gaming load. A stress testing program or something like boinc/folding.

 

i might make a spreadsheet or something more visually systematic if i get enough responses.

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It could just be the power efficient design of the reference card to accompany of the Maxwell core and bad/cheap PSUs could cause the caps to whine.

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It could just be the power efficient design of the reference card to accompany of the Maxwell core and bad/cheap PSUs could cause the caps to whine.

there could indeed be several reasons, and the psu is a variable that this poll does not take in consideration, i just want some statistics to see the ratio to silent/whine, even if those number will lie abit, right now there isn't nearly enough responses though, hopefully i will get alot more responses, although some people seem to either have used the poll incorrectly or just answered wrong to mess with the numbers.. either way, coil whine seems to be quite a substantial issue with the first batches of maxwell gpu's. Hopefully some of them will "burn in" eventually.

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I have msi gtx 970, and i have played Bf4 and WRC4. Battlefield 4 does not cause coil whine, but in WRC4's menus i can hear some whine if i mute sounds. But the coil whine is most bad if running folding@home, like some old power supply dying, so annoying.

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I have msi gtx 970, and i have played Bf4 and WRC4. Battlefield 4 does not cause coil whine, but in WRC4's menus i can hear some whine if i mute sounds. But the coil whine is most bad if running folding@home, like some old power supply dying, so annoying.

so in other words, you have a pretty bad case of coil whine :P, not really looking for results based on running games, games are optimized differently and the load will vary, might not be that bad. Really looking for coil whine when it's at 100% load running an artificial stress test or a compute application like folding.

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yeah this poll is going nowhere, anyone can put some random results

yea same goes for any poll or survey ever created, how do you expect to get information from people without relying on people? 

multiple choice on the various cards are allowed incase people own or have experience with more than one brand. Although the numbers seem way too skewed for that to be the case..

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MSI GTX 970 coil whine when in a game. Never buying MSI products ever, got DOA brand new mainboard (z97m gaming), even replacement came with minor cosmetic defect. I recently bought MSI 780 ti, which had coil whine and intermittent graphical artefact problem, and now this... I'm returning these shit cards and getting gigabyte or something.

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MSI GTX 970 coil whine when in a game. Never buying MSI products ever, got DOA brand new mainboard (z97m gaming), even replacement came with minor cosmetic defect. I recently bought MSI 780 ti, which had coil whine and intermittent graphical artefact problem, and now this... I'm returning these shit cards and getting gigabyte or something.

that's a shame :/, my msi 970 coil whines aswell, pretty bad actually.. been considering if i should buy 1 or 2 more 970's, but there's no way i'm doing that with more than 50% chance of getting bad coil whine, infact i want to return this one.. i have constant ringing and squealing through my headphones, even among the people who don't notice it that might be because they take it from a gaming load as opposed to a proper 100% load test.

 

i brought the coil whine up with msi support, asked if they had any input if it would become better with time. They replied "yes we are aware of the issue, we are looking into it, currently don't know if it will become better or worse with time" so it must be pretty bad.. 

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I'm running a GTX980 2way SLI with reference cards and I do not have audible coil whine. In fact it was more present with my GTX780 2way SLI before.

 

I think this is very subjective because Maxwell runs quieter and cooler so the fans don't produce that much noise, and not to forget it depends also on the PSU that people are using. Coil whine is annoying when it's getting too loud, but in all reality most cards have it, it's just a qustion of how much.

 

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I have said this time and time again there is a very CLEAR distinction between coil whine & power noise. THIS is coil whine - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HP73edpQwgc,

unless its nails on a chalkboard screeching you are fine. Any other kind of "noise" is known as power noise which is perfectly normal and its what happens when current is coursing through the components of your gpu/ your gpu is under an enormous amount of stress at full load. 

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My GTX 980 runs dead-silent.
No coil whine, no nothing. Not even when I put my head against it, even when overclocked.

For the most part it seems like it's like the OC lottery, when it comes to coil whine - some have a great OC'er, some have a terrible OC'er.
Also, I've never heard of any RMA case because of coil whine - Never seen a warrenty cover it either.. sooo yeaahhh

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I have said this time and time again there is a very CLEAR distinction between coil whine & power noise. THIS is coil whine - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HP73edpQwgc,

unless its nails on a chalkboard screeching you are fine. Any other kind of "noise" is known as power noise which is perfectly normal and its what happens when current is coursing through the components of your gpu/ your gpu is under an enormous amount of stress at full load. 

SORRY I CAN*T HEAR OVER THE COIL WHINE OF MY GTX 970. perfectly fine? yeah the card might not break but listening to that shit 24/7 can be enough to break you, it's even coursing through my audio equipment. it's a constant high pitched scream that pierces through everything.

I'm running a GTX980 2way SLI with reference cards and I do not have audible coil whine. In fact it was more present with my GTX780 2way SLI before.

 

I think this is very subjective because Maxwell runs quieter and cooler so the fans don't produce that much noise, and not to forget it depends also on the PSU that people are using. Coil whine is annoying when it's getting too loud, but in all reality most cards have it, it's just a qustion of how much.

more than 1/2 people say that they have audible coil whine, there are heaps of comments about it everywhere, msi said they were aware it is a problem, surely they have received feedback about it, i'm pretty confident we can say it's an issue at that point, it is pretty much a statistical certainty that several people out there are going to have sli 980/970 without much problems, every card doesn't have it to a bad extent. Maxwell nowhere near quiet or cool enough that the supposed benefits will make coil whine stand out more, most good aftermarket coolers are near dead silent regardless.

 

Coil whine in folding is pretty normal though, or at least very common

possibly more common than other applications, but i have never had coil whine this bad before, and i haven't had coil whine with folding, that might just be luck though.

i don't like giving case specific examples based on personal experience, as it's pretty much worth nothing.

 

 

I'm not sure why i am even jumping at the discussion as that isn't the purpose of this thread, at all. Just gathering some data.

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My GTX 980 runs dead-silent.

No coil whine, no nothing. Not even when I put my head against it, even when overclocked.

For the most part it seems like it's like the OC lottery, when it comes to coil whine - some have a great OC'er, some have a terrible OC'er.

Also, I've never heard of any RMA case because of coil whine - Never seen a warrenty cover it either.. sooo yeaahhh

When your card is running do you not even have power noise while gaming. Basically its sound like this very faint electrical buzzing noise, I've had it with every single card ive ever owned. 

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SORRY I CAN*T HEAR OVER THE COIL WHINE OF MY GTX 970. perfectly fine? yeah the card might not break but listening to that shit 24/7 can be enough to break you, it's even coursing through my audio equipment. it's a constant high pitched scream that pierces through everything.

 

I'm not saying you dont have coil whine. if its unbearable high pitched screeching the yea thats most certainly coil whine. I'd probably go nuts too lol. :P

 

edit: Btw Slick is in Oslo in case you didn't know. 

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I'm not saying you dont have coil whine. if its unbearable high pitched screeching the yea thats most certainly coil whine. I'd probably go nuts too lol. :P

 

edit: Btw Slick is in Oslo in case you didn't know. 

really? i remember him asking about the currency on twitter, that's pretty cool i guess :P.

EDIT: and yeah, you clarifying the difference certainly doesn't damage the validity of the responses.

Second edit: heh, after reading my own title and poll naming i totally see why you feel the need to post that reply.

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I'm surprised to see so many suffering from coil whine. I've had absolutely none whatsoever with my Gigabyte 970.

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I recieved Gigabyte GTX 970 G1 gaming today

and it has horible coil whine, when fps is somewere 60-70

i'm not talking about extremely high fps like 2000-3000

 

so to have coil whine on 60-70 fps is normal?

it is audible as well.

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I have a Gigabyte G1 Gaming 970 and it doesn't whine at all (idle or load).

 

I just ordered another one for SLI and I will report in if that one starts whining.

 

Great card so far  :)

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that's a shame :/, my msi 970 coil whines aswell, pretty bad actually.. been considering if i should buy 1 or 2 more 970's, but there's no way i'm doing that with more than 50% chance of getting bad coil whine, infact i want to return this one.. i have constant ringing and squealing through my headphones, even among the people who don't notice it that might be because they take it from a gaming load as opposed to a proper 100% load test.

 

i brought the coil whine up with msi support, asked if they had any input if it would become better with time. They replied "yes we are aware of the issue, we are looking into it, currently don't know if it will become better or worse with time" so it must be pretty bad.. 

Every GPU has coil whine, just needs to operate out of your hearing range. Could be that you hear it, but someone else wouldn't even hear it from an inch away.

Few things you can do about it; lets say you have 60 FPS in BF4 with a 970 at 99% load and it whines. Put gametime.maxvariable fps 30 so the GPU dials down to 50%. Is it gone? Get yourself a 2nd card so you can have 60 fps on 50%/50% instead of having a single card at 99% load so you don't have the card whining. The higher the load the harder it's going to whine.

Other things you can do about it; torture the card for 24hours, overvolt the GPU, overclock it, bump the TDP, perhaps mod the bios -> just make the card consume more power. Glue could break in and the noise could go away. The chance that you'll get another card whining is pretty high, I probably touched like 20 gpu's last 3-4 years all of them whined except 1. It's more seen on high power consumption cards, gl getting a 295x2 without coil whine. Avoid cards with a bunch of chokes or in other words vrm phases, the physical count (chokes) is your marketings vrm count. Inside chokes you have copper wires aka a coil, they are vibrating and making the noise.

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Every GPU has coil whine, just needs to operate out of your hearing range. Could be that you hear it, but someone else wouldn't even hear it from an inch away.

Few things you can do about it; lets say you have 60 FPS in BF4 with a 970 at 99% load and it whines. Put gametime.maxvariable fps 30 so the GPU dials down to 50%. Is it gone? Get yourself a 2nd card so you can have 60 fps on 50%/50% instead of having a single card at 99% load so you don't have the card whining. The higher the load the harder it's going to whine.

Other things you can do about it; torture the card for 24hours, overvolt the GPU, overclock it, bump the TDP, perhaps mod the bios -> just make the card consume more power. Glue could break in and the noise could go away. The chance that you'll get another card whining is pretty high, I probably touched like 20 gpu's last 3-4 years all of them whined except 1. It's more seen on high power consumption cards, gl getting a 295x2 without coil whine. Avoid cards with a bunch of chokes or in other words vrm phases, the physical count (chokes) is your marketings vrm count. Inside chokes you have copper wires aka a coil, they are vibrating and making the noise.

thanks for the tips and information. There is a reason i have been specifying "audible" all this time, that is subjective of course. I myself haven't had any problems with coil whine in the past, but this card is a disaster. This thread is just for getting a broader view, and it does not look good. Most of what you said doesn't apply to me at all because my card is running at 100% 24/7, and i'm certainly not using it for gaming. I could potentially try some temporary high overclocking though.

 

if you ask me, buying a second 490$ card and twice the computing power to only use half of it, all for the sake of reducing coil whine is utter insanity, and yes the 970 costs around 500$ in Norway.. some are abit cheaper though.

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thanks for the tips and information. There is a reason i have been specifying "audible" all this time, that is subjective of course. I myself haven't had any problems with coil whine in the past, but this card is a disaster. This thread is just for getting a broader view, and it does not look good. Most of what you said doesn't apply to me at all because my card is running at 100% 24/7, and i'm certainly not using it for gaming. I could potentially try some temporary high overclocking though.

 

if you ask me, buying a second 490$ card and twice the computing power to only use half of it, all for the sake of reducing coil whine is utter insanity, and yes the 970 costs around 500$ in Norway.. some are abit cheaper though.

Folding? The card I had that didn't have any whine when gaming (even when putting my ear on the side of the plastic) had some whining in folding. Just to prepare my point; my motherboard VRM actually whines when using offset voltage only at idle, if there's an app that makes my cpu bounce between 1200MHz & max turbo like 500 times in 5 sec time the whining is so bad. PWM Frequency is switching so fast making the coils whine. If I force manual vcore, whining is completely gone. Same thing with high fps but on the GPU. Coil whine really depends on the application as well, so you should include that in your poll. With overclocking you might be able to change the frequency so that it would go away.

 

 

if you ask me, buying a second 490$ card and twice the computing power to only use half of it, all for the sake of reducing coil whine is utter insanity, and yes the 970 costs around 500$ in Norway.. some are abit cheaper though.

 

Yeah agreed but what else can you do if you rma'ed over the 30 times (even tried different manufacturers) and they all whined? You can reduce the settings to have a lower gpu load at 60 fps but what was the point of upgrading your old GPU like a 660 if that one didnt even whine?

Also watching at many 970's pcb, they all use different chokes apparently, it just boils down to how the manufacturer glues them. Have you tried rma'ing yours with a 970 Strix? I haven't seen many people complaining their motherboards whining. Even their GPU's that whined, I didnt find them horrible at all.

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Folding? The card I had that didn't have any whine when gaming (even when putting my ear on the side of the plastic) had some whining in folding. Just to prepare my point; my motherboard VRM actually whines when using offset voltage only at idle, if there's an app that makes my cpu bounce between 1200MHz & max turbo like 500 times in 5 sec time the whining is so bad. PWM Frequency is switching so fast making the coils whine. If I force manual vcore, whining is completely gone. Same thing with high fps but on the GPU. Coil whine really depends on the application as well, so you should include that in your poll. With overclocking you might be able to change the frequency so that it would go away.

there are indeed several variables, and neither this poll nor the poll function of this website is sophisticated enough to account for them, software psu etc etc.. the best thing to do would probably be to give a link to a third party website with a proper poll and allow people to type in certain conditions. But i think this poll ir accurate enough to give us a rough idea even if the number might lie abit. I could specify the software, but that would likely yield less replies, and it would go against the idea of giving a general overview. 

 

using folding as an example, even within folding there are more variables.. some experience coil whine with core 15's but not on core 17 projects on the same card.

 

Yeah agreed but what else can you do if you rma'ed over the 30 times (even tried different manufacturers) and they all whined? You can reduce the settings to have a lower gpu load at 60 fps but what was the point of upgrading your old GPU like a 660 if that one didnt even whine?

Also watching at many 970's pcb, they all use different chokes apparently, it just boils down to how the manufacturer glues them. Have you tried rma'ing yours with a 970 Strix? I haven't seen many people complaining their motherboards whining. Even their GPU's that whined, I didnt find them horrible at all.

at 30 rma's i would be more worried about affording food after the thousands of nok spent on shipping than living through the coil whine :P, i would forget about maxwell altogether long before that, potentially try a different psu, or maybe become a forest hermit. Now that you mention it i haven't seen many complaints about the Asus model. 

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well so i've got the strix 970 yesterday and if the side panel is not removed there is a wierd buzzing noise (only under full load) but if the side panel is on i can not hear anything

 

well as it seems (at least its my thought) that the gpu is getting more power then it should do so thats why its making that wierd electricity sound which is fine as long as its not gonna "blow up"

 

btw i can say that my gpu got quieter after i started using it cause there is almost no buzzing anymore or electricity sound stuff, wierd

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