GTX 970 and coil whine?

[Lamb Mine]

I've been reading a lot of reviews lately about the various models of GTX 970s available and many seem to suffer from coil whine. Is this a luck of the draw thing with whoever manufactures these cards, or is it across the board for a manufacturer? (Similar to CPU chips for overclocking)

[potis]

Its both.

Some cards do it, some dont, despite the manufacturer, just some have a bigger chance, search around..I think the first batch of MSI had an issue like that? And EVGA? Dont remember well.

[paidhima]

I heard read the same about a number of models. I have also seen responses from nvidia, MSI and EVGA that they are/were monitoring reports closely so they can resolve any issues. Whether the issue occurs across the board or not is mainly up to whether the particular manufacturer used a reference design or modified it in some way. If, for example, nvidia's reference design uses inductors that exhibit coil noise and the manufacturer sticks to a strict reference design it seems likely that the issue will cross product lines.

All I can say is that I have an EVGA 970 FTW edition (ACX 2.0) and have not had any coil noise to speak of.

[Deleted]

I have an ASUS STRIX 970 that very occasionally whines, but to be honest it's barely noticeable. Nowhere nearly as bad as my old GTX 580 used to be.

I run my Antec 1200 v3 case with all fans at lowest speed, and I can only just hear the coil whine from my card occasionally, when I'm playing with the sound turned very low/off.
Also, the coil whine sound itself is much less intrusive than it was with my 580. When my 580 began to whine it honestly sounded like a kitten was slowly dying inside the case. My 970 on the other hand produces a much flatter constant tone.

I to be honest, I think it's a design flaw with all the 970's at the moment. But if the whine others are experiencing is anything like the whine my card makes, they're totally overreacting.

[Saithes]

I bought two GTX 970's (both EVGA) and both had coil whine. Here's a video with it occuring:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0C_6...ature=youtu.be

From what I have seen on Overclock.net, Anandtech, etc it varies and is completely random by manufacturer but 970s do seem to have more people complaining of it than most other cards did at/around release. Nvidia, MSI, EVGA, Asus all have agreed to let people RMA GTX 970's if the coil whine they have is deemed bad enough.

[Lamb Mine]

So it's basically luck of the draw and make/model don't really matter as far as getting a whining card?

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I bought two GTX 970's (both EVGA) and both had coil whine. Here's a video with it occuring:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0C_6...ature=youtu.be

From what I have seen on Overclock.net, Anandtech, etc it varies and is completely random by manufacturer but 970s do seem to have more people complaining of it than most other cards did at/around release. Nvidia, MSI, EVGA, Asus all have agreed to let people RMA GTX 970's if the coil whine they have is deemed bad enough.

I couldn't hear it in that video, just sounded like ambient background static.

Also, what fps you getting in typical wow scenarios like raids and questing with that rig in your sig?

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Oh, and is there any issues with a whining card aside from the noise?

[Deleted]

EVGA had big issues with coil whine, MSI had some aswell. I would expect that those problems should be fixed now though.
I bought an early Asus 970 and only time I have some slight problems is during some menues where the game is rendered in ridiculous high fps.

[Saithes]

So it's basically luck of the draw and make/model don't really matter as far as getting a whining card?

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I couldn't hear it in that video, just sounded like ambient background static.

Also, what fps you getting in typical wow scenarios like raids and questing with that rig in your sig?

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Oh, and is there any issues with a whining card aside from the noise?

That essentially is what coil whine is. Coil whine is oscillation of the coils/plates in a cap, inductor, etc from magnetic and electrical resonance (Higher current tends to mean a bigger/stronger magnetic field). In most scenarios where there's coil whine there isn't any danger to anything on the card itself.

My 970's Coil Whine could be heard over my case fans, while my 980 has no coil whine and I can't even hear it.


Raiding wise I was pulling about 55+ fps on Heroic Garrosh with about 15-20 people at 2560x1440 and ultra minus shadows (Shadows on high).

[Afrospinach]

I also have the EVGA 970 FTW, no coil whine. Think it is still just using the acx 2.0 cooler same as the rest.

[Deleted]

I have 2x 970GTX and starting from 500FPS you can hear it, and 1000+FPS you can clearly hear it, 2000FPS is purely annoying.