About that "electrical squealing" noise your video card makes.

[Dankk]

I've had multiple computers with video cards exhibiting this strange noise. It's not uncommon, and when I see threads about it, many people are quick to pin it on a bad power supply or insufficient power.

Then I learned that it's usually just the sound of voltage flowing through the capacitors or something, particularly in some games or applications where the framerate is uncapped and you're being shown simple menus or logo graphics. When the framerate spikes up to sometimes over 1000frames/second in these cases, the funny voltage noises become more prominent.

My current computer is not an exception. Games like F.E.A.R. and Just Cause 2 (just to name a couple off the top of my head), with vertical sync turned off, definitely create a noticeable video card noise in the main menus before actually playing the game. My computer is up on top of my desk and pretty close to my head so I can easily distinguish different noises coming from the tower.

My question is why am I actually beginning to notice the same noises when I'm not even in a game, but just doing simple stuff on my desktop?

While doing homework, I had 3 windows open that I was resizing so they could all fit on the screen at once. I noticed, for two seconds, that I would hear noises when I was resizing windows. I let go of the mouse, and the noise went away. Curious, I grabbed the corner of the window again and resized it. While dragging, the video card again made a noise (not really squealing, but more of a tiny "beeping"). It beeped in rhythm to me dragging the corner of the window off-and-on. I went into Catalyst to see if overclocking made a difference, or setting it back to normal clocks, and it doesn't seem to matter. In case anyone's wondering I use CCC to do relatively minor and simple overclocks.

So, are there any other people who have experienced this, are knowledgeable, and can shed some light on it? These are *very* minor electrical noises we're talking about here, but when you're OCD like me and you have your computer close to your ears, it kind of makes you worry. My computer's specs are in my signature, but I had a Nvidia card too that would exhibit electrical squealing.

However, this is the first time I've heard it while just sitting on the desktop and moving things around. Again, any input would be helpful. Also, correct me if I'm wrong anywhere... I'm not really electrically oriented. Thanks.

 

[MJinZ]

Some are caused by Power supplies alone. Some are from GPU load. Some are a combination. Few are motherboard related.

In any case, it sounds like yours is from your PSU.

 

[pcgeek11]

Shitty PSU and Power Circuit filtering.

 

[Dankk]

I have an Antec BP550 Plus 550W Continuous Power PSU. I was under the impression that this is a good-quality power supply, but from what you're saying, maybe not so much?

Can you guys elaborate on the implications of having a PSU that does this? Am I in trouble? Also the "power circuit filtering" that pcgeek mentioned I'm not really sure of.

As a sidenote, I tried opening another IE window and resizing it while listening closely. I think it must've been a fluke, because after shutting down and getting back on my computer a little later it wasn't there, or maybe it was just in my head.

With the games - I decided to run F.E.A.R. with FRAPS open to look at my framerate while viewing the menu. Sure enough, I was seriously getting ~1496 frames per second. This tells me that there's definitely something about huge framerates that make your video card go a bit haywire.

Do you at least admit that video cards in general are prone to making noise in these sorts of situations? Is it a coincidence that 2 of the computers I've built in the past, with totally different hardware, have had the same issue?

 

[MJinZ]

I have an Antec BP550 Plus 550W Continuous Power PSU. I was under the impression that this is a good-quality power supply, but from what you're saying, maybe not so much?

Can you guys elaborate on the implications of having a PSU that does this? Am I in trouble? Also the "power circuit filtering" that pcgeek mentioned I'm not really sure of.

As a sidenote, I tried opening another IE window and resizing it while listening closely. I think it must've been a fluke, because after shutting down and getting back on my computer a little later it wasn't there, or maybe it was just in my head.

With the games - I decided to run F.E.A.R. with FRAPS open to look at my framerate while viewing the menu. Sure enough, I was seriously getting ~1496 frames per second. This tells me that there's definitely something about huge framerates that make your video card go a bit haywire.

Do you at least admit that video cards in general are prone to making noise in these sorts of situations? Is it a coincidence that 2 of the computers I've built in the past, with totally different hardware, have had the same issue?

Video cards will almost certainly make whining noises under GPU load. It's rarer to have a silent card than a not.

GPUs will never make whining noises on desktop from scrolling through windows or resizing them. I had that issue on a Seasonic X750, one of the best touted power supplies ever.

And out of the two Corsair HX850s, the one I use now is flawless, the other one made an annoying IDLE whine.

All while the rest of the system remained the same.

So in actuality, the tolerance for the manufacturing is just shitty. For both PSus and GPUs.

 

[Dankk]

Thanks MJinZ, that was informative.