Does the quality of power delivered by a PSU (noise/oscillation) supply affect GPU coil whine?

[Syntaxvgm]

It seems to for me.

I've never really been one to use a cheap power supply if I can avoid it, and generally look at places like hardwaresecrets before buying a psu to know what I'm dealing with.

 

So I just bought a RM650 with zero research...

So far I've been pretty damn happy with it. The wattage is a bit excessive, and I can't get the fan to spin up at all, which is awesome, though I'm sure that will change when I put it in the 380t I just ordered. 

Before I was running a 400w dynex old as hell power supply. Like I think I got it around the launch of the NVIDIA 9xxx series. 

The reason was I was out of PSUs, and I hadn't got around to buying something new yet. I stuck a 970 in one of my desktops, and it actually delivered plenty enough power.

 

The reference 970 I have does have coil whine, but very mildly and only on games like CSGO obviously. However, when folding, as some of you may know, core 15 takes all coil whine to a whole new level. Almost unbearably loud on core 15 units, with all of the usual coil whine traits pitch like changes when you move things on your screen. 

I have not been folding in a while, and now that I've slapped this PSU in my machine, fire up core 15, it still whines, but very very mildly. It does not whine in easy to run games without vsync like csgo now at all. 

 

In the past I've sold GPUs to people who complained there was coil whine when there was none when I tested it. 

This prompts me to reason that a cheap power supply with more noise/oscillation contributes to coil whine, not just the GPU itself. 

I don 't know how good of a PSU my RM650 is, as I have not looked at any good reviews yet, but I know the dynnex one I have is a Huntkey Green Star 400w rebrand. Great name, as this is not a very efficient PSU, about 70% at some load points. It has high noise and ripple, but technically within ATX specifications...barely. 

Even better, the Huntkey Green Star 450w is the 400w unit with a different sticker and is known to explode sometimes at 450w or just above, which is why I've always called this PSU my "430 w" unit- bout as high as itll go safely without blowing up I think

I've noticed though that this PSU has gotten really wonky over the years, which is what prompted me to replace it immediately recently when it got worse, and I was already cringing that I was using this POS in a system with important hardware in. I stopped at an Indianapolis Fry's hoping they carried a 380t (Worst fucking customer service I might have ever experienced.) and picked up the RM650 with little decision simply becuase 160mm length (for the 380t), modular cables, and the cables where black, and without that hard-to-wrangle ugly sleeving that a lot of lower end PSUs have. Great decision process ...I was eager to get out of there before I went off on a Fry's employee. 

 

Anyway my thought is the quality of power delivered has a lot to do with the severity of coil whine, (which may be why I've never experienced it much) and people complaining about strong coil whine in some cases may simply be using a cheap PSU. 

How accurate is that conclusion? Cause I honestly don't know. 

[Dabombinable]

In my experience yes, as soon as I switched out the VS650 for a new CX850 I found that my 970 needed to be loaded higher to have coil whine.

[Enderman]

it actually varies by PSU and by GPU and by type of work being done by the GPU

there are so many different cases that you can never know if one is causing the coil whine or the other, so its not really preventable.

[Syntaxvgm]

it actually varies by PSU and by GPU and by type of work being done by the GPU

there are so many different cases that you can never know if one is causing the coil whine or the other, so its not really preventable.

Which is right, but I was so surprised by this that I paused the core 15 WU it was on, turned the system off, and plugged the old PSU in, restarted it, coil whine like a mofo. The core 15 WUs just are consistent coil whine nightmares that cause GPUs to have sever coil whine that don't have it otherwise at all or not as severly. 

I don't even think the RM PSU is that good looking over a few thoughts of owners compared to the praise it gets from some of the basic reviews (The ones where people go yah it works, and yea it's quiet. Here's what it looks like inside. And do nothing else useful in terms of a thorough review)

At least most say there are much better seasonic, CM  and other options out there for the price, a lot of OCN frequents to PSU topics calling it a "ripoff" even. I rather think it's how bad that dynex was in comparison. Thankfully, it does not have any of the noise issues a lot of RM650 users are complaining about, I must just have gotten a good unit. 

[Thebman712]

In my experience yes, as soon as I switched out the VS650 for a new CX850 I found that my 970 needed to be loaded higher to have coil whine.

cx850? what i thought cx topped out at the cx 750m

[ANewFace]

In my experience yes, as soon as I switched out the VS650 for a new CX850 I found that my 970 needed to be loaded higher to have coil whine.

They don't make a CX850

[ANewFace]

cx850? what i thought cx topped out at the cx 750m

Same I just asked this to.

[Dabombinable]

cx850? what i thought cx topped out at the cx 750m

 

They don't make a CX850

 

Same I just asked this to.

http://www.scorptec.com.au/product/Power_Supplies/ATX/57516-CMPSU-850CXM

$165 says they do. (And so does my i5 dual GPU rig)

[Syntaxvgm]

http://www.scorptec.com.au/product/Power_Supplies/ATX/57516-CMPSU-850CXM

$165 says they do.

850m, the lack of the m is why I was getting motorbikes when googling. One of the options I had at fucking Fry's, but I chose the lower wattage rm650 at a likely higher price with little research because of the 24 pin cable on the 850m. All of the other cables are a nice respectable black that's cheap to make, but the 24 pin one is a fucking gay pride rally with that shitty sleeving I've heated since the day it was invented. WTF corsair. All of the other cables are nice and subtle, why not that one? I can figure it out, I don't need pretty colors if I'm going to void my warranty and modify it. I don't trust cables colors because of the horror known as OEM dell PSUs. 

[ANewFace]

850m, the lack of the m is why I was getting motorbikes when googling. One of the options I had at fucking Fry's, but I chose the lower wattage rm650 at a likely higher price with little research because of the 24 pin cable on the 850m. All of the other cables are a nice respectable black that's cheap to make, but the 24 pin one is a fucking gay pride rally with that shitty sleeving I've heated since the day it was invented. WTF corsair. All of the other cables are nice and subtle, why not that one? I can figure it out, I don't need pretty colors if I'm going to void my warranty and modify it. I don't trust cables colors because of the horror known as OEM dell PSUs.

Oh we don't have this in the US. And IMO if you have a system that requires the much wattage you probably shouldn't have a 80 plus Bronze PSU.

[Syntaxvgm]

Oh we don't have this in the US. And IMO if you have a system that requires the much wattage you probably shouldn't have a 80 plus Bronze PSU.

Idk I like to low-load PSU, it allows me not to worry about expansion like second GPUs and drives and whatnot, and usually results in less chance of PSU coil whine and some of them not even spinning up the fan. I know that's kinda silly to do that, but efficiency is not way too important to me unless I'm making something like a server or a folding/mining rig or something along those lines that runs constantly at high power draw, and I'd rather have a great flexible PSU lying around for whatever I need it for in the future instead of what was needed for one particular system. It's unlike me to not research a PSU like with the RM650, I generally really put a lot of thought into it, IMO it's the most important part in a build to a degree 

[Aniallation]

Eh, it shouldn't have to be said with my presence, but it shall be said anyways. 

 

Eww, Corsair RM.

 

Anyways though, the actual performance of a PSU such as voltage regulation and ripple are not directly related to coil whine. It's just that higher quality PSUs tend to have less coil whine, and also have better performance in terms of these factors at the same time. 

 

The Dynex/HuntKey though isn't that bad... it gets better 12V voltage regulation then the (for some godforsaken reason, highly regarded on this forum) EVGA NEX650G. lol

[Dabombinable]

Oh we don't have this in the US. And IMO if you have a system that requires the much wattage you probably shouldn't have a 80 plus Bronze PSU.

I don't, it was the only PSU I was able to get within a day, and there is the small fact that I can't overclock a 650ti and 970 on a 650W PSU.

[quan289]

This may be an interesting thread to read for you. http://www.jonnyguru.com/forums/showthread.php?t=11859

It talks about the nature of coil whine and its relations between the PSU, motherboard, and GPU.