Dreaded coil whine

[SmartBoomer]

Hi everyone,

 

I finally finished building my new system. From the start, I have been experiencing the well-known coil whine on my GPU whenever I start a benchmark/game.

Long story short, i'm on my 3rd card after going through RMA. First one was a 3080 Ti Founders Edition, second one was an EVGA 3080 Ti XC3, and now i'm back on another (new) 3080 Ti Founders Edition.

 

I have been looking into this phenomenon online, and in an article they suggested that changing the PSU can sometimes solve this.

As I have swapped cards a few times now, I wonder if I might be able to fix it this way. 

 

Is there someone here who has hands-on experience with this ? I mean, how big is the chance of me getting 3 cards in a row with the same amount of coil whine ? 

 

This is what the article states : 

 

"Regardless of which component is causing the coil whining, replacing the power supply of the computer has the potential to fix the issue. Dirty power from

a low quality of faulty PSU can create problems further down the chain, like in the GPU or motherboard.

 

Similarly, a different PSU might output a slightly different voltage on the rails, causing the coils to vibrate at a different frequency"

 

What do you think ? 

Thanks !

 

PS : my power supply is a Seasonic Prime GX 1000

 

 

 

 

[DANK_AS_gay]

7 minutes ago, SmartBoomer said:

my power supply is a Seasonic Prime GX 1000

I believe that this power supply is on the higher end of power supplies. Coil whine is not dangerous, and is not caused by damage to the card (usually). It is annoying, but there is no reason to RMA it. You could try another of the same model power supply, and see if that helps, or get another power supply from a different brand.

[Pandur]

Your PSU can have coil whine as well. Have you had a proper listen to verify it is indeed the GPU that has it?

[Pixelfie]

Can also come from motherboard or PSU. If it's annoying you could try replacing one of them, with the PSU being more likely to cause it. I would recommend carefully checking where it's coming from: top left on motherboard (VRM), GPU or PSU. The best way to do so is to use your phone to record or use a piece of paper.

 

I have something similar and just can't get rid of it, it's so annoying. I gave up on it as I went through 2 motherboards (both Asrock B460M Pro), 3 PSU's (2x Be Quiet System Power 9, 1x Corsair RM650x) and 3 GPU's (Sapphire 5500 XT, MSI 5500 XT, Palit 2060). It only seems to get worse. First it sounded like this under load. Then after having replaced everything it sounded like this. A month later it sounded even worse, I've never heard such a bad coil whine. Now it still makes that noise under load, but since about 2 weeks ago it also started making some terrible noises at idle, and it's coming from both the motherboard and GPU.

 

I think this is pretty difficult to get rid of, and the only fix if replacing components doesn't help would be to get a case that isolates noises like this.

[SmartBoomer]

2 hours ago, Pandur said:

Your PSU can have coil whine as well. Have you had a proper listen to verify it is indeed the GPU that has it?

I have a Fractal Design Meshify 2 case. The PSU is indeed located near the GPU, but to be honest..I haven’t checked. I always thought it to be the GPU as everyone says that is the most common culprit.
 

i’ll have to use a piece of paper as Pixelfie suggested, I really hope I can isolate the noise (fan of the psu is pointed downwards)

[Pixelfie]

1 minute ago, SmartBoomer said:

(fan of the psu is pointed downwards)

You don't have to listen to the fan. On the back of the PSU there are holes, which you can probably hear more coil whine coming from then from the fan.

[SmartBoomer]

I checked and there is also coil whine coming from the PSU. I’m about to buy a new one, but i’m hesitant as to which brand/model.

 

My current, new psu isn’t cheap by any means and considered fairly premium (€230 Seasonic Prime 1000W Gold), yet it still makes coil whine.
 

Makes me wonder how much more I have to spend to get one with a lower chance of coil whine, if even some higher end models experience this. Or maybe I just got a ‘bad’ unit, I don’t know..

[Pixelfie]

12 minutes ago, SmartBoomer said:

I checked and there is also coil whine coming from the PSU. I’m about to buy a new one, but i’m hesitant as to which brand/model.

 

My current, new psu isn’t cheap by any means and considered fairly premium (€230 Seasonic Prime 1000W Gold), yet it still makes coil whine.
 

Makes me wonder how much more I have to spend to get one with a lower chance of coil whine, if even some higher end models experience this. Or maybe I just got a ‘bad’ unit, I don’t know..

I would try an RMA first. A high end model like this shouldn't get coil whine, or at least not loud and I've heard Seasonic is good.

 

From what I've heard (not sure if this is true) Be Quiet uses components that whine less, so something like a Straight Power 11 or Dark Power 12 could do.

[SmartBoomer]

58 minutes ago, Pixelfie said:

I would try an RMA first. A high end model like this shouldn't get coil whine, or at least not loud and I've heard Seasonic is good.

 

From what I've heard (not sure if this is true) Be Quiet uses components that whine less, so something like a Straight Power 11 or Dark Power 12 could do.

I would love to try out Be Quiet, except I "have" to stick to Seasonic as I have bought a complete custom cable set from Cablemod for this PSU. 

(I tried the included cables as well to rule out the custom cables for the coil whine)

 

I'll apply for an RMA