R290x Coil Whine

[Adampa1006]

Never had this in a card before, but it's real bad with this one, XFX. I enabled Vsync in a lot of games and it helps a bit, but it's mostly the worst on menus (ex. I pause a game) what should I do? Is RMA my only choice? Just hope the next one doesn't do it? Like I said, never had a card with the whine before. And I'm 100% sure it's not the fan.

 

[Silverforce11]

Its random when you buy any GPU, because all the components vibrate on a micro level causing resonance, usually beyond the human hearing but sometimes the resonance falls into the range where its audible. Changing the GPU load (vsync or maxing graphics & AA) pushes this up or down, sometimes beyond the range and its suddenly silent again.

If its intolerable your only option is to RMA the card, period. Don't put up with it hoping it goes away, it wont. MSI have stated they consider coil whine to be normal for electronics and will not accept RMAs, but as far as I am aware, other AIBs will accept it.

 

[leeb2013]

It can also depend on whether they use encapsulated coils or not. It's down to the quality of the components used, the loading on them and switching frequency of the VRMs. A properly engineered product would be designed and tested so as not to emit that noise. But cost cutting measures would negate this.
I had a Zotac GTX 670 which as well as the fan making a grinding noise, whined like hell under any load.
My two XFX 7950 weren't too bad, but overheated like hell and my HIS ICEq 7950s are great and only buzz if I push them to 1200MHz @ 1.3v.

 

[lavaheadache]

you may seriously want to isolate the sound and make sure it's not your psu. I'm not saying it's not your card but just to weigh the options

 

[JBT]

Leave it on one of these menu's over night. Most Coil while occurs at super high FPS on menu's (Like 800-900) .

Try this and report back.

 

[LittleNemoNES]

whiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii

Yeah, I get it too.

Because of the cooling weather I turned off the AC and opened the windows. Naturally this is not as cold as A/C at full blast so now I get to hear the loud fan, the coil whine -- and now you get to hear ME whine

 

[ChippyUK]

It might be worth going into the BIOS and turning off energy saving features for the CPU (e.g. C3State) to see if that makes a difference.

 

[Adampa1006]

It appears that if I force V sync in all my games, then there is no whine. It's just the high FPS in menus and stuff causing the problem

 

[OCGuy]

Reviews show multiple coil whine/black screen issues, although they seem to suggest the black screens are due to a certain branded memory.