Asus Strix GTX970 DC2OC coil whine

[Stonedfish]

Hello there.
First, let me introduce myself. My name is Valentino, I come from Croatia and I am 18 years old. I love everything related to electronics and my isp sucks.

My PC specs:
PSU: Corsair RM850
MOBO: Asus Maximus VII Ranger
CPU: Intel Core i5 4690k @stock speeds atm
RAM: 8gb G.Skill Sniper 1866MHz dual channel kit
GPU: Asus Strix GTX970 DC2OC
HDD: 1tb WD Blue 7200
SSD: Need some help with a choice, but more about it in another thread
Case: Custom made, modified case from my i5 setup many many years ago....ghetto look with zipties and no room for side pannels...just something linus style, but hey, I actually did a really nice job with cable management and I take care about my components.

So, here it is, my biggest concern of all the times...will my gpu make buzzing noise??? First time I've got a whining gpu was when I was 10. I didn't work for my parts back then so I didn't care too much. I ended up with a sound dampening side pannel and that was it, it was somewhat acceptable. Also, back in time, I didn't really have much choice, nor I knew anything except what my dad told me. First time I bought a gpu with my own money was when I was 16. It ran perfectly until ati released some new weird drivers. Over the past two years I've built 4 systems, one for me, with AMD gpu, and every one of them had issues with driver updates and display driver crashing. So I decided to go with Nvidia, once again, this one won't whine, I told myself. I googled for coil whine proof cards and I came across asus strix and rog series, which asus stated for are coil whine proof. Bad luck, I didn't google for 970 buzzing noise back then....

Anyway, I really need your help guys...first question is, although for me it is obvious it's not true, but is there a chance that cad/cam, cad programs demolish gaming gpu's? I don't see a reason since I am working with assemblys of parts that are up to 100 parts, and I don't find them very complex, yet very easy to drive with this kind of hardware. I have noticed buzzing noise when playing on my ips, while on tn it's already whining for some reason. IPS - 50fps, there is buzzing noise; TN - 31 and above, in 60's there is whine, on 120 it's unplayable due to the gpu whining, it just gets on my nerds. My main game is world of warcraft, in which I don't want to enable v-sync because of the impunt lag, and I want it to look crisp so I tend to stick to ips pannel for this one. Then, gta, 50 and above, it whines, I hate that noise. CS works fine, just a slight buzzing noise. But in general, although I don't see a reason, on tn 31 and above it sounds retarded, ips 30-50 it's buzzing, 50-60 whining, and when I disable v-sync it tends to go up to 200, where it sounds retarded.
I've checked all my components, vents and everything, and I am 100% sure gpu is what makes the noise.
Now, I wouldn't even bother with this, I would end up soundproofing my case and that's it. But since I've paid this much for my hardware, paid more for asus one than I would for msi one, just because asus claimed it is whine-proof and I would like to get a side windowed case to display my hardware, I don't want my pc to make any noises at all, specially because today it doesn't have to be noisy. I tried to kick the gpu fans to 55%, whine is louder than fans at that speed. I am trying to build a near silent pc, which would stand on my desk, and only noise I am expecting is to be the one coming from fans, maybe even hdd to be the loudest part when under load, but not my gpu.

I don't know if there is any possible fix for this, or should I try to RMA it, will I get the whining one again? I would personally prefer to go with reference design cooler and reference card which would be louder, just to eliminate the whine. I am fine with the sound of air, as long as fans aren't on 100%, but not with the random electrical noise, specially if I paid not to get it. What should I do?

[Bouzoo]

Hey there from motherland   Živio! 

As far as I remember, the Asus 970 has a coil whine problem so your best bet would be to RMA it. Also just to be sure, can you put the GPU in another system and check just to be sure it's the GPU?
Also @Stonedfish, follow your topics so you can get notifications when someone responds. And never reveal your personal info. Welcome to forum. 

[Castdeath97]

Watch this video

 

[Stefan1024]

Wellcome to the forum Stonedfish!

 

First of all a CAD programm can't hurt your GPU at all. I use my GTX 970 Strix for Solidworks and it works fine.

 

Coil while is very annoying, and it's very hard to get rid of it. The 970 series is very likely to have whine, so RMA migth not solve the problem. Only when it's really bad you have a chance for RMA.I had to glue my coils tegether to get rid of the whine:

 

 

But this will void your warrenty and I do NOT recommend to do it.

 

You can try to use an other PSU, becasue the combination of (cheap) PSU and the GPU can cause the whine. Also try to trun off GPU boost if you are willing to sacrifice some performance.

[Stonedfish]

Hey there from motherland   Živio! 

As far as I remember, the Asus 970 has a coil whine problem so your best bet would be to RMA it. Also just to be sure, can you put the GPU in another system and check just to be sure it's the GPU?

Also @Stonedfish, follow your topics so you can get notifications when someone responds. And never reveal your personal info. Welcome to forum. 

I've checked this video: 

I have to say that is nothing compared to my noise, and I believe above 300fps it's normal to whine. Mine sounds more like the one on linus's video....

[Bouzoo]

You can try to use an other PSU, becasue the combination of (cheap) PSU and the GPU can cause the whine. Also try to trun off GPU boost if you are willing to sacrifice some performance.

I wouldn't call that PSU the problem this time.

Also kudos on your solution. 

[Stonedfish]

Wellcome to the forum Stonedfish!

 

First of all a CAD programm can't hurt your GPU at all. I use my GTX 970 Strix for Solidworks and it works fine.

 

Coil while is very annoying, and it's very hard to get rid of it. The 970 series is very likely to have whine, so RMA migth not solve the problem. Only when it's really bad you have a chance for RMA.I had to glue my coils tegether to get rid of the whine:

 

CIMG5198.JPG

 

But this will void your warrenty and I do NOT recommend to do it.

 

You can try to use an other PSU, becasue the combination of (cheap) PSU and the GPU can cause the whine. Also try to trun off GPU boost if you are willing to sacrifice some performance.

GPU boost is already off and any kind of oc was reverted to stock settings. I guess I'm gonna freak out if I RMA it and get another one whining again...

[Stefan1024]

I wouldn't call that PSU the problem this time.

If you are unlucky enougth to hit the resonance frequency, even a high qualitiy PSU is struggling.

But yes the 970 has bad coil whine, even with a perfect PSU. But a bad set-up can amplifie it.

 

@Stonedfish

If you have more significant more noise than this blow 60 FPS you have a chance to RMA it. But the noilse level from a video is hard to define without a reference.

[Stefan1024]

GPU boost is already off and any kind of oc was reverted to stock settings. I guess I'm gonna freak out if I RMA it and get another one whining again...

There is hardly any 970 out there with absolutely no coil whine. But with a "normal" card you get away with noise dampening in the case. Also most fans will overpower the whine.

[Bouzoo]

I have to say that is nothing compared to my noise, and I believe above 300fps it's normal to whine. Mine sounds more like the one on linus's video....

The number of FPS doesn't make a difference, who's to say the whine wouldn't be worse in Crysis 3 at ultra on 30 FPS than Unreal Tournament GOTY at 200 FPS.

As I said, I'd check the GPU in another system just to be sure it's the GPU. If it is and it's really that bad I'd RMA it. Can you upload a video of it?

[Bouzoo]

If you are unlucky enougth to hit the resonance frequency, even a high qualitiy PSU is struggling.

But yes the 970 has bad coil whine, even with a perfect PSU. But a bad set-up can amplifie it.

I agree. That's why I think it would be the best to test it in another system.

[Stonedfish]

If you are unlucky enougth to hit the resonance frequency, even a high qualitiy PSU is struggling.

But yes the 970 has bad coil whine, even with a perfect PSU. But a bad set-up can amplifie it.

 

@Stonedfish

If you have more significant more noise than this blow 60 FPS you have a chance to RMA it. But the noilse level from a video is hard to define without a reference.

As I said, the noise in video is above 300fps, and is not even 10% of mine. It's the same buzzing sound I get while playing csgo and which I am able to neglect, I would describe it like that, so I believe the guy on that video is whining more than the gpu  

[Stonedfish]

I will try the gpu in a friend's system, I'll be back later

[k4p84]

If it annoys you RMA it but since the card does work and 'coil whine' is just parts resonating under use one could not guarantee a replacement. I think of it like dead pixels in a monitor, it's annoying but most manufacturers will not replace it.