Replacement Power Supply (due to Coil Whine?) Question

[Pool Float]

Hi there,

 

I built my current PC back in late December, and due to my dumb bass misplacing a modular cable and needing to get up and running ASAP, ran to Best Buy and picked up an EVGA 700W Bronze PSU to replace the modular 720W I planned to migrate over. All seemed well with the world (other than unrelated motherboard issues) until I decided to upgrade my GPU from a GTX 1080 to an RTX 2080 Ti. I noticed what sounded like fan noise on the GPU, and RMA'd it back to Zotac.

 

During the 3 weeks they had my card, I used a borrowed RTX 2070 Super, but still heard the same noise (just a little quieter) while the GPU was under load. My replacement 2080 Ti arrived, and the old noise levels came back as well. I then started digging a little deeper into the source, and most people on Reddit seemed to be complaining about a similar sound from the SB fan on my board (ASRock X570 Taichi). Flashed the April 2020 BIOS update meant to address SB fan noise, and although it did in fact improve the fan curve, it also made it clear that the sound I was hearing was not coming from the SB.

 

I then went down the rabbit hole of random forums, LTT and JayzTwoCents videos, and arrived at the conclusion that I was dealing with coil whine. It seems to be hit or miss on if replacing the power supply with a better quality one would fix the problem or not, and so here I am. I was able to vary the noise levels by adjusting the power limit on my card in Afterburner. I was running it at 115%, with a +90 Core and +750 Memory OC. Lowering power limit back to 100% did lower the noise somewhat, but not a lot. Thinking back to my GTX 1080, I don't recall ever hearing this sound.

 

As already mentioned, my current PSU is an EVGA 700W Bronze. I'm looking at a 1000W EVGA Gold or 1000W SilverStone Technology Platinum to replace it, and wanted to get some thoughts/opinions on if it's worth it.

[CommanderAlex]

I have a EVGA SuperNOVA P2 850 Platinum and an RTX 2080 and noticed last night I have coil whine while trying to investigate a metal expansion sound (The case is not leveled and the side panel when screwed all the way in plumbs the case up)  There's nothing you can really do about coil whine. I even had coil whine with my MSI GTX 1070 Gaming X.

[Pool Float]

2 hours ago, CommanderAlex said:

I have a EVGA SuperNOVA P2 850 Platinum and an RTX 2080 and noticed last night I have coil whine while trying to investigate a metal expansion sound (The case is not leveled and the side panel when screwed all the way in plumbs the case up)  There's nothing you can really do about coil whine. I even had coil whine with my MSI GTX 1070 Gaming X.

Based on what I read/saw on the topic so far, I was wondering if the power supply not having the second 8-pin CPU plug could potentially be causing less stable power delivery to the board, and therefore possibly exacerbating the issue when the GPU pulls more power.

[LukeSavenije]

what those videos don't note is that your PSU is a double forward. these units use hard switching, and can when the transformer is overloaded start to whine at certain frequencies

 

the only way to get out of this is not going even higher and higher with wattage, but instead grabbing something with a half/full bridge LLC resonant converter instead of a double forward

[LFreeman]

3 minutes ago, LukeSavenije said:

what those videos don't note is that your PSU is a double forward. these units use hard switching, and can when the transformer is overloaded start to whine at certain frequencies

 

the only way to get out of this is not going even higher and higher with wattage, but instead grabbing something with a half/full bridge LLC resonant converter instead of a double forward

Nice! What does it mean in layman's terms and can you recommend one?

[LukeSavenije]

2 minutes ago, LFreeman said:

Nice! What does it mean in layman's terms and can you recommend one?

you have a high chance of budget PSUs whining with higher end GPUs (~1070+, vega and so on)

 

everything from tier A and higher is LLC resonant, around 550-650w will do

[LFreeman]

15 minutes ago, LukeSavenije said:

you have a high chance of budget PSUs whining with higher end GPUs (~1070+, vega and so on)

 

everything from tier A and higher is LLC resonant, around 550-650w will do

Thank you sir!

[Pool Float]

3 hours ago, LukeSavenije said:

you have a high chance of budget PSUs whining with higher end GPUs (~1070+, vega and so on)

 

everything from tier A and higher is LLC resonant, around 550-650w will do

Thank you for the very detailed answer above. I found your PSU list, and if I read it correctly, I believe this PSU would work for my setup. Is that correct?

 

https://www.bestbuy.com/site/corsair-rmx-series-850w-atx12v-2-4-eps12v-2-92-80-plus-gold-modular-power-supply-black/6229601.p?skuId=6229601

[LukeSavenije]

31 minutes ago, Pool Float said:

I believe this PSU would work for my setup. Is that correct?

correct, but it's 650w version would easily do here

[Pool Float]

5 minutes ago, LukeSavenije said:

correct, but it's 650w version would easily do here

Best Buy only carries the 850W, and I can get it for $110 with my accrued rewards. I've also been striking out on most others on your list, either in inflated prices or stock issues.

 

As long as the 850W isn't a step down in reliability, I'll go with that one.

 

Thanks again for your help.

[Hilltrot]

4 hours ago, Pool Float said:

Based on what I read/saw on the topic so far, I was wondering if the power supply not having the second 8-pin CPU plug could potentially be causing less stable power delivery to the board, and therefore possibly exacerbating the issue when the GPU pulls more power.

Unlikely, but possible.  The 2000 series reference cards have coil whine and those that say they don't have it usually have fan speeds turned up high enough so that it can't notice.

 

Coil whine is cause by the vibration of the inductors.  Getting a card which doesn't use Nvidia's reference design might dissipate coil whine problems.

[Pool Float]

Just wanted to update everyone real quick. I installed the new PSU last night, and although the coil whine did not go away completely, it's at least 70-80% quieter now. As soon as the fans kick up a bit, you can't even hear it anymore.

[Jared J]

On 4/27/2020 at 6:49 PM, LukeSavenije said:

correct, but it's 650w version would easily do here

is the RM 750 a good one to go with to help with this GPU coil whine? 

 

I know this threadis old but i just built my PC and i am experiencing this whine 

 

[Guest]

23 minutes ago, Jared J said:

I know this threadis old but i just built my PC and i am experiencing this whine 

 

Then why didn't you just start a new thread?