GPU whining fix?

[Techy]

As some of you might know from my first PC build thread, I have an Evga 650 Ti SSC. I had the whining for a month or so now and only whines whenever I'm playing games. Most of the time the noise is drowned out by the game's audio, but since my rig is now next to my desk, I can definitely hear it once the game audio goes down. Anyone know a fix for this? I looked up a bit about the whining and I found it to be coil whine, but I couldn't find a definitive fix for it.

 

[NissanSkylineN1]

It is the fan, and it is normal. As far as I remember, it occurs due to the fan design and the mechanics inside it. If you want, use very light weight oil. (sewing machine oil)

 

[Techy]

I see. I'll have to remove the air cooling component off the PCB to get to the fan itself?

 

[NissanSkylineN1]

Depends on the design. Usually you do.

 

[G.T]

Does it only happen in certain games? Usually a "coil-whine" happens when you are running at a high fps (in my experience). This is something you won't be able to fix.

But it could be what NissanSkylineN1 says, but "coil-whine" is a common issue:

http://www.tomshardware.com/answers/id-1654959/gpu-coil-whine.htmlf

 

[Techy]

Playing any game will have the whining noise, regardless of fps. The whining also only happens whenever it is rendering anything, so for example if I exit to the main menu the whining is completely gone. From this it could be some voltage problems but I'm not sure.

Also, that link is broken for me.

 

[dice1998]

Remove the f and it won't be broken.

 

[BobK]

Why would a GPU have a coil in the first place?

One fix for it, though, is apply varnish or clear nail polish to the offending transformer or coil.

 

[NissanSkylineN1]

Its the copper coil in the fan. Electric motors have coils which allow them to move by making magnetic currents.

 

[sesselpupser]

Why would a GPU have a coil in the first place? One fix for it, though, is apply varnish or clear nail polish to the offending transformer or coil.

Coils aren't only found in transformers and motors, there are inductor components which are just coils of wire around a core that are simply meant to provide an inductive load. They're kind of the opposite of capacitors; basically they introduce a phase difference between voltage and current in an AC circuit the opposite to how a capacitor would. They would have the potential to whine, but most of the ones I've seen are sealed so if they are whining, you won't be able to get to the actual coil.

I've noticed coil whine with my card but never knew what it was until now, for me it seems to increase in frequency as the game I'm playing gets brighter; it's usually at its loudest and highest pitch during the pre-game splash screens. I guess this is also why I can hear my iPhone's wall charger. Interesting stuff, I'm surprised that after two years of PC ownership and four years of studying electronic engineering I'm only just finding out about coil whine!

Its the copper coil in the fan. Electric motors have coils which allow them to move by making magnetic currents.

They do, but they wouldn't resonate because they're DC fans. Current passes through the coil which gives it a magnetic field, but as the current isn't alternating the field wouldn't change polarity, so the coil wouldn't move and therefore wouldn't whine either (since all sound is the result of something oscillating).

 

[NissanSkylineN1]

They do, but they wouldn't resonate because they're DC fans. Current passes through the coil which gives it a magnetic field, but as the current isn't alternating the field wouldn't change polarity, so the coil wouldn't move and therefore wouldn't whine either (since all sound is the result of something oscillating).

I was answering Bob's question. Of course they don't resonate, unless they're brushed motors.

 

[Techy]

I don't think the whining is coming from the fans because when I minimize a game while the GPU is under full load, the whining stops.

 

[djinline]

You could try enabling Vsync or somehow limiting your FPS to see if the coil whine goes away. I don't have any other tips to share, unfortunately.

 

[NissanSkylineN1]

I don't think the whining is coming from the fans because when I minimize a game while the GPU is under full load, the whining stops.

It is the fan. The reason why the whining stops is because when the game is minimized, there is not much load on the GPU anymore, thus allowing the GPU to turn down the fan speed while providing adequate cooling. Remember, stock fan profiles are programmed to be as quiet as possible. You can download MSI Afterburner to adjust the settings, or do it through Catalyst Control Centre.

 

[Techy]

You could try enabling Vsync or somehow limiting your FPS to see if the coil whine goes away. I don't have any other tips to share, unfortunately.

V-sync and frame limiters don't really help either. But thanks for your effort

It is the fan. The reason why the whining stops is because when the game is minimized, there is not much load on the GPU anymore, thus allowing the GPU to turn down the fan speed while providing adequate cooling. Remember, stock fan profiles are programmed to be as quiet as possible. You can download MSI Afterburner to adjust the settings, or do it through Catalyst Control Centre.

I see. But I still can't see the fan as a direct problem.

I could perhaps RMA the card since it still has a warranty..

 

[sesselpupser]

If you want to test whether or not it's the fan, get MSI Afterburner and manually adjust the fan speed and see what happens. I bet it is coil whine and it isn't coming from the fans, because as I said, the coils in fans can't whine because they don't oscillate.

 

[Techy]

I tried out various fan profiles, but I couldn't replicate the whine I get when playing games so it's probably coil whine. I already talked to Evga about this and they said I could RMA the card if I want to.

 

[BobK]

Its the copper coil in the fan. Electric motors have coils which allow them to move by making magnetic currents.

Ah, that makes sense. Forgot about the fans. I'm a bit skeptical about them being a source of coil whine, but I'm not going to flatly state they don't, either.

On reflection, yeah, I can see how a brushless motor could be more susceptible than a "traditional" commutated DC motor.

Coils aren't only found in transformers and motors, there are inductor components which are just coils of wire around a core that are simply meant to provide an inductive load. They're kind of the opposite of capacitors; basically they introduce a phase difference between voltage and current in an AC circuit the opposite to how a capacitor would.

Yes I'm quite aware of what an inductor is, when and where they're used, phase angle, ELI the ICE man, power factor, tank circuits, all that kind of thing. But knowing what an inductor is does not explain why it would be in a digital circuit, and that was my question after all. The only time I've ever seen an inductor used in a digital circuit is as a delay line but they don't use them for that any more that I know of.

They do, but they wouldn't resonate because they're DC fans. Current passes through the coil which gives it a magnetic field, but as the current isn't alternating the field wouldn't change polarity, so the coil wouldn't move and therefore wouldn't whine either (since all sound is the result of something oscillating).

You don't know much about DC motors then, do you?

 

[sesselpupser]

Yes I'm quite aware of what an inductor is, when and where they're used, phase angle, ELI the ICE man, power factor, tank circuits, all that kind of thing. But knowing what an inductor is does not explain why it would be in a digital circuit, and that was my question after all. The only time I've ever seen an inductor used in a digital circuit is as a delay line but they don't use them for that any more that I know of.

Perhaps you mistook my tone as an insult to your intelligence, I can assure you it wasn't intended as such; you asked why you'd have coils on a graphics card so I assumed you didn't know that inductors are coils, and inductors are found in digital electronics. On my desk right now I have the motherboard from a PowerMac G5 and just by looking over at it I can see two huge coils wrapped around toroids and three or four more compact SMD coils. I don't know what they're for exactly, but there they are...

You don't know much about DC motors then, do you?

Let's chalk that one up to an early morning brain fart.




You can see in this video (at 2:00 specifically) that the frequency changes depending on what's going on on the screen, I think we can all agree that the fans probably aren't spinning up and down that much that quickly, so it's still most likely not the fans, and as I said my card's whine is at its highest pitch when the screen is all white, regardless of the frame rate because I can hear it during white splash screens before anything 3D is even happening. It's irrelevant anyway though if the OP is getting an RMA.

 

[Wardez]

I had a similar problem. What it ended up being was just bad case heat management. I also was running three hard drives and my huge GTX 570 was right next to them. The drives were carelessly stacked too close together as well. I bought a couple new case fans that were more efficient ($30) and a new CPU fan ($30) although I didn't really need the CPU fan since I wasn't overclocking, it did end up helping.

I was really hoping they would work 'cause I was so bothered by the fan noise that if the new fans didn't work, I was actually going to just say **** it and water cool the whole thing.

Well, anyway, before I started messing with the fans, I bought a new 4TB hard drive to replace the three drives I was running before. Just that alone helped a lot. I also cleaned out the dust completely.

Now I feel like I have one of the quietest PC's ever compared to the "HURRRRRRRRRR I AM COMPUDER" before.

 

[Techy]

I don't think my PC is bothered by poor heat management. Even though I have only one intake & exhaust fans each I think it's plenty to keep the chassis cool (I have only one HDD and stays at 34 C). There's actually one more fan slot at the sides that sits next to the GPU but I haven't got around buying another fan.

 

[BobK]

Perhaps you mistook my tone as an insult to your intelligence, I can assure you it wasn't intended as such

Yes, I'm afraid I did, a bit. Couple that with the fact that you described what a coil was, but ignored the question I was asking: to wit, what the heck is an inductor (big enough to produce audible vibrations) doing on a purely digital circuit. In any case, I apologize for coming across with the tone I did.

you asked why you'd have coils on a graphics card so I assumed you didn't know that inductors are coils, and inductors are found in digital electronics. On my desk right now I have the motherboard from a PowerMac G5 and just by looking over at it I can see two huge coils wrapped around toroids and three or four more compact SMD coils. I don't know what they're for exactly, but there they are...

I think you'll find those coils were chokes in the power circuitry or part of the sound circuitry or some such, not part of a digital circuit at all. What happens when you run a square wave through an inductor? The signal comes out the other side not-so-square. Worse, they can cause overshoot and/or undershoot on the output voltage, I've seen a 50ns delay line (which was nothing more than a couple feet of very fine wire) occasionally produce output spikes of 10 or 11 volts, which is in excess of the absolute maximum of seven volts for the TTL circuit it was used in.

Let's chalk that one up to an early morning brain fart.

Heh, indeed. I've been subject to those on occasion myself

[Youtube clip]

You can see in this video (at 2:00 specifically) that the frequency changes depending on what's going on on the screen, I think we can all agree that the fans probably aren't spinning up and down that much that quickly, so it's still most likely not the fans, and as I said my card's whine is at its highest pitch when the screen is all white, regardless of the frame rate because I can hear it during white splash screens before anything 3D is even happening.

And all I can say to that is, hmm, interesting. So yeah, something other than the fan it would appear.

 

[G.T]

You can see in this video (at 2:00 specifically) that the frequency changes depending on what's going on on the screen, I think we can all agree that the fans probably aren't spinning up and down that much that quickly, so it's still most likely not the fans, and as I said my card's whine is at its highest pitch when the screen is all white, regardless of the frame rate because I can hear it during white splash screens before anything 3D is even happening. It's irrelevant anyway though if the OP is getting an RMA.

My old 5850 used to do it constantly (but quietly) in the same fashion shown in the video. But my 6970 used to do it less but did it more down my microphone for some reason so people on the other side could hear it.

But definitely with my recent cards, the GTX 680 and 7970 Vapor X, they only do it when you are running at a very high FPS, usually in game menus where VSync isn't running. I have never really noticed it at 60fps with Vsync, so maybe I have been lucky with newer cards.