[Various]R9 Nano cards plagued by Coil Whine/High Pitch noise - Poor quality components used?

[Cloudfire]

Looks like there were many reviewers that had very noticable Coil Whine/High Pitch noise concerns with the R9 Nano. They say its even worse than the Fury X that had high pitch noise coming from the faulty fans when it launched. But this time its something else since R9 Nano doesnt have pumps.
I noticed the issue being raised by Eurogamer but after searching around there are many sites that had this issue with their review card.

This is very bad AMD

Techspot

It's worth noting that AMD's Nano reference sample generated a serious amount of coil noise. People complained about the Fury X coil noise but for us it wasn't that bad. The Nano really screams, however.

http://www.techspot.com/review/1061-amd-radeon-r9-nano/page12.html


PCPer:

When AMD launched the AMD Fury X card, one of the difficulties that AMD had was the annoying pump whine that permeated through the initial run of testing samples as well as the first batch of retail samples. AMD claims that a fix has been put in place for this but honestly we haven’t been able to get a hold of any other product from later production runs to validate that claim.

Because of that calamity I was disappointed to power on the R9 Nano for the first time on our test bed and hear the sound of coil whine from the card. This wasn’t the same problem as the Fury X, obviously, but instead the clear sound of inductors generating a buzzing sound that varies as the frame rate in the game changes. In a loading screen that is hitting 400 FPS? You are going to get a high pitched whine from the card. Playing a game at a modest 45 FPS? The sound will be a much gentler, lower pitched buzzing similar to that of a bumblebee.
The annoyance of this coil / PWM noise is going vary from user to user I’m sure, but the consensus in the office is that because the noise varies with the frame rate of the game it is MORE noticeable than the pump whine we found on the Fury X cards earlier in the summer

http://www.pcper.com/reviews/Graphi...w/Noise-Testing-SFF-System-Build-Temperatures


Eurogamer:

Our only gripe comes from the dreaded 'coil whine' - the R9 Nano is much louder here than the Fury X, a card we re-tested during production of this feature. It sounds akin to a constant buzzing, something that may be unique to our particular review sample.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-2015-amd-radeon-r9-nano-review


Bit-Tech

In the acoustic department, our main gripe with the R9 Nano is actually the coil whine we experienced throughout testing which was often considerably more obvious than any system fan noise. For such a premium graphics card, we would expect the use of better components and greater quality control to prevent coil whine, or at least to dampen it to some extent, and we hope that when retail availability proliferates AMD ensures coil whine is fixed, or at least minimised

http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/graphics/2015/09/10/amd-radeon-r9-nano-review/12

HardwareHeaven

Coil Whine/Noise as it is commonly called is very much an issue on the R9 NANO. At above average framerates its almost a rattle and then as the FPS escalate it really turns into a near whistle. It’s the worst case of this phenomenon we have heard to date and it was close to causing the R9 NANO not to get any sort of award/recommendation.

https://www.hardwareheaven.com/2015/09/amd-radeon-r9-nano-review/


LegitReviews:

AMD has only sent us two Fiji based cards and the Fury X has really bad pump whine and the Nano has choke whine. We know that AMD put a ton of time and effort into making the build quality on this card one that was said to be premium, so it’s really shocking to see that another noisy card was delivered to us by AMD to review. The choke noise on the AMD Radeon R9 Nano isn’t nearly as bad as the pump whine on the Fury X, but it’s something we don’t expect to see on a $649 video card here in 2015 where premium components are readily available.

http://www.legitreviews.com/amd-radeon-r9-nano-4gb-video-card-review_171995/9


TweakTown:

Major Coil Whine: This is seriously annoying, but only in an open test bed. Inside of a system it will be much better, but I need to question this. Is AMD having issues with the Fiji-based cards? Because the Fury X had serious whine from the cooler too, but the R9 Nano doesn't have a watercooler or a pump. What gives?

http://www.tweaktown.com/reviews/7335/amd-radeon-r9-nano-video-card-review-fury-dead/index12.html


Hexus:

However, we noticed significant coil whine across our suite of games, particularly in Total War: Rome II. This may be sample-specific, but it would grate us long term if this was the case with all cards.

http://hexus.net/tech/reviews/graphics/86042-amd-radeon-r9-nano/?page=12


KitGuru own video showing the whine

JayzTwoCents documenting the whine (15min 6 seconds)

HardwareCanucks

 

[BiggieShady]

I suggest you insert "SENSATIONAL" somewhere in the thread title.
But seriously, when you pay 650 bucks you expect every feature imaginable and that includes some first class coil whine.

 

[tabascosauz]

Isn't Cooper Bussmann one of the top makers of chokes?

I wonder if the coil whine on the 295X2, Fury X and Nano have something to do with cheapening their approach and ditching Cooper Bussmann. Those chokes were in the Tahiti reference and Hawaii reference design, but not in the more recent cards.

EDIT: Never mind, the 7990 reference design had CB and it had horrible coil whine. I guess it all comes down to either CB being POS or AMD just doesn't know how to design quiet VRMs. Add some glue, for god's sake.

 

[RejZoR]

Surprisingly, people complain over coil whine and it just hit me that my GTX 980 doesn't make any noises. HD7950 did whine here and there in really old games where framerate has gone to insane heights and I did get some whining in game menus where framerate skyrocketed again, but GTX 980 that i have doesn't make any noises. And I know GTX 970's were a whine fest, remember how people complained over them for constant coilw hine.

 

[dorsetknob]

"" i can say emphatically that there was no coil whine on the card tested on this site"

No Anti AMD Bias in that reply @AMD_ROY

Oops we didn't get a Card to Test ................

 

[Cloudfire]

Added Techspot to the list
Techspot

It's worth noting that AMD's Nano reference sample generated a serious amount of coil noise. People complained about the Fury X coil noise but for us it wasn't that bad. The Nano really screams, however.

http://www.techspot.com/review/1061-amd-radeon-r9-nano/page12.html

 

[Aquinus]

"" i can say emphatically that there was no coil whine on the card tested on this site"

No Anti AMD Bias in that reply @AMD_ROY

Oops we didn't get a Card to Test ................

O rly? I think 30 pages of "WTF AMD" got them to change their minds.

AMD is sending a card on Monday, and I also bought a Sapphire retail card for €699, which will be sent off on Monday too.

 

[dorsetknob]

O rly? I think 30 pages of "WTF AMD" got them to change their minds.

"And maybe the fact that so many other sites both tech and non tech also mentioned in so many posts "" That little slip up""

 

[truth teller]

there are the issues they were trying to sweep under the rug, i knew they were trying to hide something about the cards

once again, good job @roy_amd, your little marketing stunt has only drawn more attention to the issues instead of the cards themselves
next time "be fair"... wait... there is probably not gonna be a next time for you

 

[Cloudfire]

http://wccftech.com/amd-radeon-r9-n...ine-issues-poor-quality-chokes-blamed-reason/

 

[dorsetknob]

http://wccftech.com/amd-radeon-r9-n...ine-issues-poor-quality-chokes-blamed-reason/

Ya even got a credit there
(Thanks to CloudFire for the tip!)

 

[the54thvoid]

This is why I prefer custom cards. Nvidia has it too (all gfx cards can have it) but it grates that when selling a card like Nano for it's 'library' quiet properties they choose to ignore any manufacturing issues resulting in 'coil whine'.

My expensive Kingpin no longer feels so 'expensive'. I bought it for the surety of zero to minimum component noise, single slot output design and guaranteed OC ability. Got a pretty card, single slot and game at 1500Mhz no sweat. It's a bummer running BF4 on ultra at 1440p at 100-120fps. Sorry, couldn't resist - for all the heat Nvidia takes for it's pricing, some of that shit has to fly back at AMD.

As for SFF? Hell, Who wants small and squeaky when you can have 15Kg whisper of death...

 

[buildzoid]

Chokes are a block of ferrite with a coil of wire in them. You can't really make bad ones. The chokes AMD uses are commonly used on server motherboards.

An easy way to fix the coil whine would be to just cram some kind of heat resistant adhesive into the chokes. That could dampen the vibrations enough to make them inaudible.

 

[F-Zero]

This really doesn't look good for AMD hope they can snap out of it.

 

[qubit]

As for SFF? Hell, Who wants small and squeaky when you can have 15Kg whisper of death...

Great post, but I especially love the small and squeaky.

 

[SaltyFish]

I suggest you insert "SENSATIONAL" somewhere in the thread title.
But seriously, when you pay 650 bucks you expect every feature imaginable and that includes some first class coil whine.

It's an AMD thread on TPU. "Sensational" is already implied.