Is coil whine common for high end AMD graphics card?

[Midiamp]

I bought Sapphire 5700XT Nitro+ last month, happy the performance, even if it's a downgrade from my old RTX 2080, but hey, a full on red and red and to vote with my wallet about my dissatisfaction with the green and blue team.

Anyway, I noticed that on idle and in desktop the card have an intermittent coil whine. like for 2 seconds or so, there's a small coil whine noise. The funny thing is, whenever I move the mouse, or there's an animation like pressing the start button (windows 10), the card makes that slight coil whine noise. On games the coil whine is there, but I didn't complaint about it much since the fan noise covers it up nicely. This is my second Sapphire 5700XT Nitro+ since the first one I returned having an HDMI port issue. The first one also have the same slight coil whine on idle and on gaming. Couple months back I also bought a second hand PowerColor Vega 56 Red Devil, and although I didn't aware about the coil whine on idle, it has coil whine when gaming, especially louder when benchmark or uncapped FPS.

I thought back then, my PSU is not powerful enough, but I just did a slight refresh and using Corsair HX850 from RM650X and still I have this slight coil whine with the 5700XT... So... Is this common?

I use Fractal Design Define C, so when the front panel is closed, the sound dampening material worked its magic and I can't heard the slight coil whine. However I do open the front panel when the room is hot enough with room temp reaching 30-31 degrees C (I live in the tropic). I was planning to do a sidegrade and buy Fractal Design Meshify to max out the air intake potential, but the thing is I can open the coil whines from taking off the Define C front panel, so I'm pretty sure it will be the same for the Meshify C.

By the way, I have hyperacusis, so perhaps it's an isolated incident as I found small repeating noises really disturbing.

 

[Komshija]

I don't know whether it's a very common thing but I've read and heard about such issues. My previous Sapphire R9 390 w/backplate also had coil whine whenever framerates went above 500. Try limiting FPS to max refresh rate of your monitor.

 

[potato580+]

the sounds barely can be hear, i dont bother such coilwhine issue

 

[Vario]

This is a common issue, it isn't specific to Nvidia or Radeon. I don't have sensitivity to this type of thing thankfully, maybe its because I lost some hearing after a perforated eardrum and loud noise.

 

[Sithaer]

This is a common issue, it isn't specific to Nvidia or Radeon. I don't have sensitivity to this type of thing thankfully, maybe its because I lost some hearing after a perforated eardrum and loud noise.

To me coil whine is the most annoying sound a PC can make,even more than loud fans or a HDD.

Luckily I never had GPUs coil whine but if I had one that whines even with capped FPS or even while idle then I would most likely sell it and get a new one cause it annoys me that much.

Currently my PSU has a slight coil whine and it does it as long as my PC is powered on so every time I got to the bed I have to completely power down my entire PC else I can hear it in my bed a few meters away from my PC..
I was considering trying to RMA it and contact the shop where I bough it from and ask them if they can replace it cause of this issue or its more like a 'deal with it' situation.
I bet they wouldn't even hear it and send it back to me..

From what I know/heard from a doctor my ears are more sensitive than the ~average so that could be why.

 

[killster1]

is a 5700xt high end? they are less then 400$ figured amd would something better then that.

 

[TheoneandonlyMrK]

I don't know whether it's a very common thing but I've read and heard about such issues. My previous Sapphire R9 390 w/backplate also had coil whine whenever framerates went above 500. Try limiting FPS to max refresh rate of your monitor.

My vega 64 sometimes does it sometimes not.

 

[DeathtoGnomes]

is a 5700xt high end? they are less then 400$ figured amd would something better then that.

price doesnt make a card high or low end. if i sold you the same card for $600 would that make you happy that its now a high end card?

 

[Keullo-e]

Totally depends on card. I remember only GTX 470 and 780 Ti having coil whine of the cards I've owned.

 

[thesmokingman]

If the coil whine is too intrusive for you just exchange it.

 

[tabascosauz]

Depends on card, and chances are even if you have two of the exact same card, of the exact same model, of the exact same vendor, purchased from the exact same retailer, you can still have one that's silent and one that sounds like a dying animal.

Different people perceive it differently, so some might not even hear it. Sometimes the nature of the coil whine can change subtly or noticeably depending on a whole plethora of factors, including your case layout, your case, the noise emitted by the other components in your case, where your computer is placed, where you are sitting, and where you are facing in regards to your computer. I suspect your hearing condition may make you more sensitive to certain sounds, and the whine just happens to fall into that frequency range.

All in all, if you aren't happy, a lot of retailers will be willing to do an RMA for you. But know that if your luck is less than desirable, you may very well get a replacement card that is just as bad or worse, as there are no guarantees. Even products from the most highly regarded manufacturers like EVGA and Sapphire aren't immune to the problem. On the other hand, there's no harm in trying.

The whine can also change its characteristics or go away entirely as the card is used and broken in. The sort of load you put on the card, down to the game or application you're running, can also have an effect on the noise, as the amount of power put through the VRM will change. I'd just find a comfortable pair of over-ears like DT770s and just wear them when you're in front of the computer, even when no sounds or music are playing. It blocks out my new 2060S that varies between inaudible and a beehive that's just been kicked.

 

[Sybaris_Caesar]

price doesnt make a card high or low end. if i sold you the same card for $600 would that make you happy that its now a high end card?

No. It has to do ray tracing too to become a truly high-end. Overpriced, barely increased performance but slight pinch of ray tracing ability will make the fankids up on arms to defend the price hike.

 

[Grog6]

Take up shooting guns or Loud cars; coil whine won't bother you at all after a bit.

And women even get harder to hear, so it's a win-win. (higher pitched voices)

With Firearms and Gasoline!

 

[Midiamp]

Thanks for the reply folks, so it is a common thing, probably I'll be sticking with my Define C for a while. The sound absorbing material works as intended. I will just take the front panel off during hot sessions.

I did replaced the 5700XT, and this is my second one, from another distributor (since I used to work on components distribution I have some connections). Maybe it's a first batch issue.

The thing is, my old RTX 2080 didn't have any noise outside the fan, but oh well, wallet voting's a bitch.

 

[potato580+]

is a 5700xt high end? they are less then 400$ figured amd would something better then that.

i consider it as highend, for me nonthe less

No. It has to do ray tracing too to become a truly high-end. Overpriced, barely increased performance but slight pinch of ray tracing ability will make the fankids up on arms to defend the price hike.

ray tracing somewhat isnt rly usefull for me, it could be premium feature yes indeed, or at leash it was exclusive rtx, but i found it not usefull on all model, especially 1st gen of rtx, it barely reach constant 60fps, personaly i wont trade quality over smooth gameplay, unless i used 2070s at minimum spec consideration

 

[silentbogo]

Sometimes GPU is not the one causing whine. My culprit is a Samsung monitor and lackluster grounding in the house.

Spoiler

For example, on it's own my monitor whines in desktop, but if i start the game, or if my HDMI output is plugged into a secondary source (I use DP as primary), then it's quiet.
Also, nearly all cards whine on super-high FPS (e.g. 1000FPS in menu screens, 300+FPS in old games etc). It varies from GPU to GPU, but there is no way around it.
One of our local service centers has a youtube channel where they post videos on component level repair and random crazy stuff, and a couple of years ago they did a GPU choke mod to remove whine: took hollow chokes off the donor GPU, filled them with softer epoxy resin and replaced them in the target card ))) I doubt you'd want to go that far with your 5700XT.

 

[Prime2515102]

Interesting... When I had my system connected to a Samsung TV I had a coil whine problem on high GPU load. People suggested it was the PSU but it was so bad I sent the card back (a GTX 1080). The second one didn't whine nearly as much. But...

I hadn't even noticed until I read this thread (because I don't game much these days) but the whine is completely gone. The only thing that changed is the Samsung was killed and I have an Asus monitor connected now (same port, same HDMI cable).

P.S. Please tell me that picture with the little bag of dirt for ground is a joke... lol

 

[Vario]

Take up shooting guns or Loud cars; coil whine won't bother you at all after a bit.

And women even get harder to hear, so it's a win-win. (higher pitched voices)

With Firearms and Gasoline!

for me loud cars, guns, music, and a surfing accident.

 

[eidairaman1]

Might be phasing of the power from the outlet.

 

[Grog6]

for me loud cars, guns, music, and a surfing accident.

Nothing like 50 tons of water landing on you to demonstrate how much Mother Nature Loves and Respects you.

 

[JC316]

My RX580 has had coil whine since day 1. I ignore it.

 

[spectatorx]

To be honest i've never heard coil whine in any of my pc hardware under any conditions. Or other way... i've heard things sounding similar to coil whine but they were coming from speakers or monitor, especially crt monitor.

After reading n-th thread about coil whine from gpu out of curiosity i opened youtube and searched "gpu coil whine" to know how it sounds like and some random video made me sure i've never heard coil whine from a gpu and i had pretty many gpus.

I think i can call myself lucky.

 

[eidairaman1]

To be honest i've never heard coil whine in any of my pc hardware under any conditions. Or other way... i've heard things sounding similar to coil whine but they were coming from speakers or monitor, especially crt monitor.

After reading n-th thread about coil whine from gpu out of curiosity i opened youtube and searched "gpu coil whine" to know how it sounds like and some random video made me sure i've never heard coil whine from a gpu and i had pretty many gpus.

I think i can call myself lucky.

It sounds like a ringing or a squeak but to be frank with you my graphics card initially does it and then it stops

 

[BrainMuncher]

For me it's only happened in certain situations. My old PC with DDR1 ram, during certain operations the RAM would make a very feint squealing noise, could only be heard if I had the case open and my head close to it.

Current build I've only heard coil whine in the menu of Crysis 2 with the framerate uncapped. It runs at over 3000fps and makes quite a loud squeal.

 

[spectatorx]

I think this is a bit harsh example but if i would ever hear anything like that from graphics card i would rma it instantly:

I've never heard anything like this or close to this and i've been using PCs in similar fashion as shown in here, with bare minimum of pc case: without side panels and front and back... hm.. "modified". Nowadays i'm using my case fully closed at it is designed to be.