Noise from GPUs

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2[H]4U
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Oct 1, 2003
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When my cards are under heavy load or displaying certain things in 3d they make a somewhat high pitched electronic noise. Looking down at the ground or at a wall causes this noise to cease. It sounds something like a noisy chirping NIC on some motherboards, like when you scroll in Windows.

Should this cause any concern? I say this because of another post I made with my problems with a horizontal line flashing sometimes appearing with SLi in some games.
 
I just got an ASUS N6800XT with exactly the same problem. So far it's stable and hasn't given me an visual artifacts or any other indication really that there's a problem other than the damned annoying noise.

It's definitely got something to do with power delivery because if the board is overclocked (and or unlocked) it makes more noise than stock. A shame too because it's rock stable at 415/895 with 12 pipes and 6 shaders.

Not sure what to do myself. If I RMA, it's a hassle. If I don't, what if it hoses the whole system if/when it goes down??

Post if you find out anything.
 
Meh, I had this same problem with my 7800 GTXs when I had them in SLI... my 7800 GTs don't have this though. I wouldn't worry about it, I think it has to do with the power components on the video card's PCB. They're performing within spec, they're just kind of annoyingly noisy... nothing to worry about except your sanity. You might want to try a different PSU because I changed mine out and it seemed to help (a little).
 
Same problem here with a brand new Inno3D 7800GT...

When in games and bench the card produces a high pitched noise from the back of the card. When the graphics change the pitch changes too.

Very annoying problem. Gonna RMA the card
 
dtess17 said:
That is rather odd. I wonder if they are not getting enough clean power?
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I dunno... but here's what I do know. I have an Antec TruePower 330 from a few years back with the board connected to its own 12v rail with nothing else on it. I can vary AGP voltage from the BIOS from 1.5v to 1.7v. It's quietest at 1.5v Overvolting only makes it worse.

I also used a makeshift "listening tube" to try to isolate the noise, and I narroed it down to the squarish black snub circled in the pic.

769_l.jpg


That to me looks like a shielded coil. I could be wrong though, not an ECE grad.
 
Yeah, I've noticed that from various electronic devices as well. Being able to hear such high pitched noises however is something we all lose with age, so consider yourself lucky for now. :(
 
I've also located where the noise comes from on my card...

It's definetly from one or both shielded coils on the card. I didn't realize at first that they actually were coils because of the plastic cover.

The noise is produced when current is passed through the coils and they start to vibrate. I've had a motherboard with the exact same problem.

Inno1.jpg
 
ive had 2 x800 gto's do it, they both preformed with no problems.... i dont think it is cause for a RMA of the card.... besides just turn all your fans up on high and you wont notice it :p
 
turn your fans up loud enough and you won;t hear anything ever...
A buddy of mine has a few Delta's...OMFG soooo loud, i think i lost hearing in my left ear.
 
When you're runnig an alomst silent rig it's a real pain...

When I put a VF900 on the card it's gonna be even more annoying
 
pstang said:
ive had 2 x800 gto's do it, they both preformed with no problems.... i dont think it is cause for a RMA of the card.... besides just turn all your fans up on high and you wont notice it :p
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well, how long did you have them for?

Nexer said:
When you're runnig an alomst silent rig it's a real pain...

When I put a VF900 on the card it's gonna be even more annoying
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ditto.
 
iofthestorm said:
well, how long did you have them for?
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i still have one... runs just fine, sold the other on because i didnt need two cards
 
My 7800GTX does it as well, the only time that I've really noticed it (perhaps because I wear headphones when gaming), is when I run 3dmark05, it will do it when it starts to load a test, and when the test has finished loading... I don't know why, but it doesn't seem to be a problem.
 
My BFG 7800GTX does this as well, although I rarely notice it because I'm either using my earphones or my speakers with the volume fairly loud.
 
Ive got the same issue on my 6800GT and 7800GTX 512, its the coils on the card and it only happens under heavy load.
 
err not poor components, given all manufacturers cards do exactly the same thing.
 
well, given how "mundane" parts are hardly ever engineered for the application, it would make sense that most manufacturers use the same parts from the same catalog. so it would make sense why so many different types of boards and brands have this problem.

I don't know if you guys remember the whole "capacitor plague" from a couple years back. that knocked out a bunch of mobos.. even a few "high quality" boards from various manufacturers too. one of my ABIT boards got hit. before that I used to depend on ABIT.

bottom line, it could still be a "faulty" or "low quality" component, even if it's placed on a "high quality" product.

I'll stick with mine for now. but I guess I'll just have to have a spare board around, in case I have to RMA. :/
 
I just noticed that my video card makes a slight noise whenever I use the scroll wheel to scroll up or down a website or whatever. The sound it makes is a short high pitched sound that kind of sounds like bad bearings or something, it's hard to describe. WIERD!
 
WCES Ryan said:
I just noticed that my video card makes a slight noise whenever I use the scroll wheel to scroll up or down a website or whatever. The sound it makes is a short high pitched sound that kind of sounds like bad bearings or something, it's hard to describe. WIERD!
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That one is because you're using onboard sound, not the power componentry on your vid card. For some reason, onboard sound is really sensitive to any sort of CPU activity... if you turn your speakers up you'll also be able to hear your hard drive "squeaking" when its loading stuff. That's the main reason I got a Sound Blaster.
 
I have an X-Fi Fatal1ty, not using the onboard sound, although I think it is still enabled in the BIOS, though not installed in Windows.
 
i just picked up a 1900xt and have this sound. i can replicate it by hovering my mouse over my buddy list on trillian. it also does it during gaming. interesting thing though. i uninstalled the drivers, and i was unable to replicate the noise.

comments/suggestions?
 
Zinn said:
That one is because you're using onboard sound, not the power componentry on your vid card. For some reason, onboard sound is really sensitive to any sort of CPU activity... if you turn your speakers up you'll also be able to hear your hard drive "squeaking" when its loading stuff. That's the main reason I got a Sound Blaster.
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ive heard that before too, i only hear it occasionally though. ive never noticed any noise from my video card, probably because the sound of my case fans drowns out everything except a faint whir from my harddrives.
 
yeah well, i'm running an almost silent system. i can hear my hard drives writing.
 
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