Gpu developed coil whine

[Stridentorb]

Hey, I've had my RX 480 for around 2 years now and haven't experienced any noticible coil whine during that time.

However, after overclocking my Cpu to try and get as much juice out of it as possible before I upgrade it, I noticed that my Gpu made a loud static noise similar to coil whine but much louder than what I've experienced prior.

It only makes this noise during load but I've tried moving it to another system where it didn't make any noise whatsoever. So is it that my PSU or Motherboard is starting to fail?

 

My PSU is a Corsair RM650x and my Motherboard is a Asus Prime Z270-P and I've had both as long as I've had my Gpu.

 

I will be upgrading my Gpu soon but I want to make sure that this only is regular coil whine and not a faulty PSU/Motherboard.

 

Any help is appreciated.

[Jurrunio]

coil whine can develop over time, it's casued by inductor vibration which is what happens when it's no longer constrained onto the PCB as tightly as before.

[Palden]

Most likely your PSU can't support the load on the 12v rail if it's fine in another system. I would suggest replacing your PSU or drop your overclock and see if it still makes that noise

[Vishera]

9 minutes ago, Jurrunio said:

coil whine can develop over time, it's casued by inductor vibration which is what happens when it's no longer constrained onto the PCB as tightly as before.

True,and sound is produced by vibrations.

11 minutes ago, Palden said:

Most likely your PSU can't support the load on the 12v rail if it's fine in another system. I would suggest replacing your PSU or drop your overclock and see if it still makes that noise

It doesn't sound right,the coil whine comes from the GPU,not the PSU,

If the 12v rail can't support the load it will result in an unstable power,which can cause stability issues,but i don't think it causes a coil whine in other components.

[Palden]

@Vishera

 

But an unstable voltage line could cause the inductor to vibrate more than a steady supply, either way, he said it was fine in another system so it's worth a shot if he can scrounge up another PSU to test on.

[Jurrunio]

11 minutes ago, Palden said:

But an unstable voltage line could cause the inductor to vibrate more than a steady supply,

That's nothing compared to the transients caused by the GPU's operation, which can cause say a 2080ti to jump from 100A to 300A, back and forth in milliseconds if not more.

 

34 minutes ago, Palden said:

Most likely your PSU can't support the load on the 12v rail if it's fine in another system.

Coil whine from my 1070 when I moved from CM Extreme Nuclear Power Plus to Seasonic X-660 has not reduced even a slight bit

[Palden]

6 minutes ago, Jurrunio said:

That's nothing compared to the transients caused by the GPU's operation, which can cause say a 2080ti to jump from 100A to 300A, back and forth in milliseconds if not more.

 

Coil whine from my 1070 when I moved from CM Extreme Nuclear Power Plus to Seasonic X-660 has not reduced even a slight bit

Yes, but I don't think it's actually coil whine if, like in the OP's post, he said it wasn't there when he plugged it into his friend's system

[Jurrunio]

2 minutes ago, Palden said:

Yes, but I don't think it's actually coil whine if, like in the OP's post, he said it wasn't there when he plugged it into his friend's system

that will depends on whether the test on different system occured before or after it starts whining on his own system

[Palden]

1 minute ago, Jurrunio said:

that will depends on whether the test on different system occured before or after it starts whining on his own system

It says in the original post that he tried it in a different system after it started happening

[Jurrunio]

7 minutes ago, Palden said:

It says in the original post that he tried it in a different system after it started happening

1 hour ago, Stridentorb said:

It only makes this noise during load but I've tried moving it to another system where it didn't make any noise whatsoever.

not specified. 

 

He could be mishearing the source of whine tho and it could be the PSU. That thing has bigger coils than anywhere else in a system

[Stridentorb]

Well I ran into some issues with my SSD not booting for a while, it magically fixed itself today but I am honestly not sure how stable it actually is.

I do want to clarify as much as I know to help fix my issue that I missed out on in my original post. Firstly, I tested the Gpu in my friend's system after I noticed the noise and did not hear it at all which does point to the fact that it might be my PSU. Secondly, I would really suspect the Gpu to be the one component that actually causes the noise since it starts as soon as the Gpu is under load and stops instantly when the load application is cancelled, not that this doesn't mean that it couldn't be in the actual PSU but it really sounds like it actually is being made inside the actual Gpu. 

 

I will test to insert an r7 370 and see if the problem persists since it's all I currently have myself and my friends Gpu is only a 1050 ti which doesn't actually draw any power from the PSU directly which I would atleast suspect probably wouldn't give me similar results. 

 

If the problem persists with the 370 I might test my friends PSU which has identical Wattage and see if the problem still remains.

 

Hope this info helps.

 

 

Edit: I have now tested the r7 270 aswell and it does have similar coil whine aswell, though this doesn't actually mean that it is the PSU since it's an old card which I had when I probably didn't think much of that sort of noise, it is however not as loud. So what I wonder then is if my Rx 480 just randomly got coil whine or if I just didn't notice it before OR if it actually is the PSU fault. I can certianly say that the sound actually is coming from the Gpu now since it wasn't the same pitch.

 

I any case I'd really just like to know if it's safe for me to buy a new gpu and try it aswell or if there's a chance I might fry it if my PSU is defective. I could just buy a new PSU aswell as Gpu but it would be nice to hold onto that extra money for a bit atleast.

Edited October 17, 2019 by Stridentorb

[Palden]

I know it's a lot of work, but get together with your friend and plug his PSU into your system. If it solves the issue, then you know 100% it's the PSU and all you need is to replace it, saving you tons on a new GPU

[Stridentorb]

2 hours ago, Palden said:

I know it's a lot of work, but get together with your friend and plug his PSU into your system. If it solves the issue, then you know 100% it's the PSU and all you need is to replace it, saving you tons on a new GPU

I went over to him and we managed to switch PSU, though it was pretty difficult since mine was fully modular which his wasn't. Though even after we switched the sound was still there at a similar volume, so that does make the Gpu the most likely culprit but could there be a chance that the PCI-e lane itself has something to do with it?

 

I will be upgrading my mb, cpu, ram, gpu and ssd in a short while anyway so I really just want to make sure that my PSU doesn't fry everything, but if it's only caused by regular old gpu coil whine I have no issue with upgrading my Gpu in the coming week or so.

[Palden]

Hmm, that is a little wierd. I don't "think" your computer is going to give up the ghost just because of that, and ifthe issue exists with both his and your PSU, you're probably fine.

[Stridentorb]

Okay, I have some pretty bad news.

 

I bought a new Gpu, a Rx 5700 XT Rog Strix which I would of bought later on anyway but it was on sale so I went for it.

It did however not resolve the noise and if anything just made it worse. I doubt I got a card with coil whine since it's the exact same sound coming from the gpu as with the Rx 480. I will try to install this gpu in my friends system aswell and see, but I think it comes down to the motherboard giving out on me which really sucks since I was planing on using it for another year or so.