Unity Valley & "coil whine"

[oliver09]

Hi guys!

Not sure if this is a good place to ask but lets do it: so I am overclocking my gpu and I am using unity valley to stress test my configs. Everything is working fine but I noticed that whenever I stop and exit the program, I hear a coil whine like sound for 3-4 seconds. I was wondering what this means since I don't experience any coil whine at all while gaming or even when UV is actually rendering. The gpu in question is a factory overclocked 970 from zotac currently running @ ~1530 MHz

[Enderman]

coil whine is random

its not a problem

be glad that it doesnt happen during regular gaming

[boarder2k7]

Coil whine is based on load through the voltage regulators. VRMs are a bucking type PWM (Pulse Width Modulation) regulator. This means that to lower the voltage they actually just turn the 12V on and off really fast. Some of this operation is in the audible frequency range, and if that happens to be a resonant frequency of the inductors on your GPU, it will be audible as a whine.

Nothing to worry about, as mentioned, be glad yours doesn't do it while gaming.

[oliver09]

coil whine is random

its not a problem

be glad that it doesnt happen during regular gaming

 

While I agree the chances of getting a gpu with coil whine are pretty randomized, I was talking about a unique situation that always seems to trigger a coil whine sound. What worries me is the possibilty that I should stop benchmarking and just use conservative settings or the coil whine will become a frequent thing

[Enderman]

no

its random

that means it will happen consistently in odd places such in a menu, when opening something, a certain spot in a game, etc..

 

coil whine will not damage your gpu and it will not spread

[maxrosciano]

It's a common issue with the Valley Benhcmark. When closing you get 3 seconds of coil whine during the black screen. 

 

Nothing to worry about, it's because for a few seconds your GPU is rendering like a thousand fps.