Clicking noise on a brand new 1080 Ti

[WIGs]

I am not sure whether I am asking at the right place. I have managed to get a brand new 1080 Ti Gaming X for a decent price recently. The card produces some coil whine (especially at high framerates) but it is far from unbearable. What worries me, however, is that the system starts producing a "clicking" noise once the GPU is under load. The noise seems very similar to HDD when writing tons of small files (but I do not have an HDD installed) and it is more pronounced at times (while the GPU load remains the same). I still have a few days to return the card if it was the culprit, so I would like to troubleshoot the problem. Just to reiterate - my issue seems to be unrelated to coil whine (I guess so at least) since the noise seems to be "mechanical".

 

This is my setup:

• ASUS TUF Z-370 PRO
• i7-8700K (running at stock clocks)
• MSI GTX 1080 Ti Gaming X (without overclock)
• Samsung 850 EVO
• Seasonic Focus 750W Gold

 

I have tried several methods to troubleshoot the problem:

• I have set the CPU/chassis/GPU fans to spin at the speed where the clicking was present (without GPU load, just Speedfan+Afterburner) - the system was silent
• Connecting GPU using two power cables instead of one - did not help
• Increase GPU fan speed - did not help (just less noticeable due to being covered by fan noise)

 

Previously, I had MSI 1060 6G OCV1 in my system and I haven't noticed the issue (although, that card was pretty noisy under load, so I might have not noticed that over the fan noise).

 

The only clue I have at the moment is that my PSU seems to be doing a similar ticking sound when toggling the "Hybrid Mode" off. But I do not want to blame the PSU just based on this since the "noise" is then nearly inaudible. But my hypothesis is that the fan on my PSU can be the culprit (and that the inaudible noise gets pronounced when the fan starts spinning faster) - but I do not know how to confirm that.

 

Could you please help me with troubleshooting this? (especially what should I do to make sure that the graphics card is not flawed) Unfortunately, I do not have much hardware I can test with (except for my father's build which is very similar except for using Seasonic Focus 550W Gold and my old 1060 6G).

 

Thank you!

[Jurrunio]

Take out the graphics card and run the integrated graphics, see if the noise still exists.

 

8 minutes ago, WIGs said:

ASUS TUF Z-370 SCAM

corrected

[PingPonguin]

Try rolling up a piece of paper into a tube, and put one end to your ear and point it around your system to see where the noise is coming from.

[hestolemydog]

18 minutes ago, PingPonguin said:

Try rolling up a piece of paper into a tube, and put one end to your ear and point it around your system to see where the noise is coming from.

Genius solution, wish I'd have thought of this years ago when I had a similar issue!

[PingPonguin]

Just now, hestolemydog said:

Genius solution, wish I'd have thought of this years ago when I had a similar issue!

No problem, I got the idea after I was trying to find what was making noise in my brother's PC, and found that it was an Intel stock cooler.

Hope you can find what's making the noise!

[WIGs]

On 10/23/2018 at 12:22 AM, PingPonguin said:

No problem, I got the idea after I was trying to find what was making noise in my brother's PC, and found that it was an Intel stock cooler.

Hope you can find what's making the noise!

 

Thanks a lot for your tips! I managed to locate the source of the noise even closer and become even more suspicious about my PSU. Moreover, I found out that:

• In Unigine Superposition (4K), there is the clicking noise audible for a short while and then disappears (probably the consumption grows even further so that the fan rotates fast enough to overcome the range where it vibrates?)
• When reducing the power limit of my GPU to 65%, the clicking noise is audible for the entire test.

I switched the GPU to the other computer (with a similar PSU, just only 550W) and tried the benchmark with 65% power limit - and there is no clicking!  I haven't attempted running the benchmark without the power limit though  

 

I guess that the PSU is indeed the most likely culprit. Do you think that there is some chance that I can get the PSU RMA'ed successfully due to this clicking noise? It is pretty annoying - but I understand that technically the PSU works "fine".

 

Thanks!

[Turtle Rig]

Yes you have a warranty, RMA it.  They might even take your credit card info charge it and send you a new one.  When you return the busted one you get refunded.  Your responsible for shipping and what not.