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    Is Loud Coil Whine Worth an RMA Attempt? Or Are There Potential Self-Fixes?

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    nnickers

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    Hey everyone. I bought an MSI 970 a few months ago in large part because all of the reviews described how quiet it is. Unfortunately, the card I received begins outputting a coil whine the instant I open any 3D application.

    This sound is both constant and clearly tied to the application on display (if I alt-tab in and out of the 3D application, the whine starts and stops every time the application comes back on and off the display; even if I'm flipping back and forth within seconds, it will appear just for that half second the game is on-screen and disappear just as quickly when it's gone). It is also very, very loud and annoying (putting an SPL meter atop my tower, with all fans constant, I see a roughly 8dB increase).

    This is the first PC I've built, so I've never gone down the RMA road and reading forum threads on that path is making me a little wary. That said, this coil whine is really unbearable. Does anyone have any advice here? Experience with this situation, or RMA experience, or potential self-fixes...I'd really appreciate any help at all.

    Here's my build, if relevant or helpful. Thanks everyone!

    http://pcpartpicker.com/list/ms8mgL

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    Dave_Tacitus

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    @nnickers: Have a word with whoever you bought the card from.

    I owned a 780 which had noticeable coil whine and when I enquired about it, was told by the store that unless the noise was over a certain decibel level (mine wasn't) that there was nothing they could do.

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    dagas

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    #3  Edited By dagas

    I don't think it is something that most companies accept as an RMA but you can ask.

    I've had probably 20 video cards in 15 years of PC gaming and I don't know what this coil whine is people have starting talking so much about lately. I've had cards that are noisy but just regular fan noise.

    Edit: I looked it up on youtube and now I understand more what it is. Seems annoying as hell. I wonder if this have become more common in recent years or just more reported on because I've not heard of it until the last couple of years.

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    hmoney001

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    If its to the point you can hear it over the ambient noises while playing games, I'd RMA.

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    gundogan

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    You can, but it's a lottery. You might get a new one with just as much coil whine (970's and higher end cards in general are kinda known for it). It could also be an unlucky PSU + GPU match that's causing it.

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    ClairvoyantVibrations

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    I get pretty bad coil whine with my 760, but it's just noise and it only happens with specific games so I didn't RMA. It's a weird thing though. The new DOOM (Which apparently my computer doesn't meet the specs for) ran very well at a solid 60-70fps with no coil whine, and didn't tax my PC nearly as much as I thought it would, but some older games cause an insane amount of coil whine. Oh well.

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    gundogan

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    @clairvoyantvibrations: It's mostly framerate dependent. It can be really loud in a menu where the developers didn't bother to cap the framerate so it runs in the hundreds. It can also be a specific noise on a specific framerate.

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    linkster7

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    #8  Edited By linkster7

    I have the same card and have no coil whine, even on higher FPS. I'm guessing you bought this in the US, I'm not sure of of the rules work over there. Most EU countries have laws that would protect you from getting a product that does match reasonable expectations.

    Have you tried using RivaTuner or a similar program to limit the FPS in 3D applications? That might help in the short term at least.

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    frytup

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    #9  Edited By frytup

    Never with a video card, but I did have a motherboard with that problem. It was annoying enough that I went to the trouble of pulling apart my PC and swapping it. I figured they wouldn't issue an RMA for coil whine, so just made up a BS story about a burning smell coming from the PC. They didn't question it, and the replacement unit was fine.

    I suspect the original had a substandard part or they screwed up the coil dampening during manufacturing.

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    nnickers

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    @dagas: This is definitely separate from fan noise; I've turned up my GPU, CPU, and case fans to max as a test and what I hear during games is an entirely different sound: much more high-pitched and annoying. Frustratingly, all of my fans are largely inaudible even during games, so I'd be in heaven if I could just get rid of this damn whining.

    @hmoney001: The whine is significantly louder than the fans or any ambient noise while I play games, to the point that with my speakers set to any reasonable volume I'm still hearing it over game audio.

    @gundogan: While I have noticed it sounds worse during uncapped moments (the splash screens upon booting Saints Row 4 make it sound like my computer may explode), even during 60fps-capped gameplay it's very loud.

    @frytup: So was the replacement motherboard more quiet?

    I'm definitely leaning toward sending my GPU in at this point. I figure worst-case-scenario they just send my card back to me and best-case they send me a replacement that doesn't produce this awful sound, right? I don't have any older GPU's to throw into my case while this one's gone though, so it would be tough losing my PC in the meantime. How long have people had to wait for GPU RMA processes?

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    frytup

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    @nnickers said:

    @frytup: So was the replacement motherboard more quiet?

    Well, yes. That's what I meant by "fine" and speculating that the original was incorrectly manufactured.

    Of course, there's no guarantee that returning your card will produce the same result. If coil whine is normal for that card, swapping it isn't going to matter much. But since I tore apart my PC to solve a similar problem, obviously I'd recommend giving it a try. Needless to say, you'll want to note down the serial number of the card so you'll know for sure if they send the same one back to you.

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    conmulligan

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    #12  Edited By conmulligan

    Coil whine with new GPUs can often be alleviated by burning it in over a few hours using something like UNIGENE Heaven, but since you've had yours for a couple of months that's unlikely to help. Before RMAing it you might want to check that it's not being caused by your PSU — if that's not supplying a steady voltage across the 12V rail, it may be causing the inductors to vibrate and thus your coil whine. This can be an issue even with high-end PSUs from certain manufacturers like Corsair.

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    nnickers

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    @conmulligan: I used to have GPU-Z installed and think that had some sort of power-draw reading. I'm not home now but later would I be able to check whether the voltage is steady by watching whether that reading remains constant over time or is there another way to test for a PSU issue?

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    conmulligan

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    #14  Edited By conmulligan

    @nnickers: GPU-Z will only show you the GPU's internal voltages. You'd need to use something like HWiNFO because that can read voltage values directly from your motherboard's sensors. Fire that up and in the sensors window look for the "+12V" reading under the header for your motherboard. Even that may be unreliable, though, because motherboard's can be finicky about reporting that stuff. Your best bet would be to boot into the UEFI and see what value is being reported there.

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