Should I rma my gtx260 core216?

[plion]

Hey guys, not sure what to do here. Evga gtx260 core216 @ stock settings. Should I rma?


-High pitch whine/noise only when using folding@home gpu, does not happen in furmark or tf2/coh/dawn of war2.

-Idles @ 59cº load@ 85cº room temp 21º

-Case side panel is off (antec p180)

 

[error8]

Why would you RMA it, if it doesn't displays artifacts or crashes in applications?

The high pitch noise is common to quite about every modern videocard today. It's made by a coil and it probably became more evident with the increase in the cards power consumption.

59/85C are not that high, but I would advise you to increase the fan speed so that you should stay bellow 80C under load. Even at 85C, the card should work and live with no issues.

 

[plion]

Ok, that's what I wasn't sure of. Thanks. I was afraid it was starting to die or something

 

[LOUISSSSS]

there is no whine coming from my 8800gt which is fairly modern (2008) even at full fan speed and running F@H.

 

[error8]

Originally posted by: LOUISSSSS
there is no whine coming from my 8800gt which is fairly modern (2008) even at full fan speed and running F@H.

My 8800 GT had the whine sound and now my 4870 whines like hell. Is your model a non reference one?

 

[LOUISSSSS]

its a BFG refence. are you confusing 100% FAN SPEED with whining?
100% fan speed spins at some pretty high rpms and is pretty loud compared to my old x1900xt which wasn't so bad

 

[error8]

Originally posted by: LOUISSSSS
its a BFG refence. are you confusing 100% FAN SPEED with whining?
100% fan speed spins at some pretty high rpms and is pretty loud compared to my old x1900xt which wasn't so bad

The whine is one thing and the leaf blower sound made by the cooler is another. I guess the OP refers to the first whine sound that has nothing to do with the cooler, since it's produced by a coil from the card and not by the fan.

 

[polarbear6]

i think u should always run music in the bg or always use ur pc for gaming and play only those games which have a loud background music

 

[LOUISSSSS]

well a whine not due to high rpm fan speeds is a PROBLEM with the card. if my card had a problem, i'd RMA it. thats what i paid for with the warranty.

 

[error8]

Originally posted by: LOUISSSSS
well a whine not due to high rpm fan speeds is a PROBLEM with the card. if my card had a problem, i'd RMA it. thats what i paid for with the warranty.

No, it's not a problem with the card, is just the way it works! Put your fan on the minimum and start ATi tool or a 3d application and then put your ear close to the card and you will notice a high pitch noise. That is the whining the OP is talking about. It's probably more pronounced at his GTX then it is at your GT.

My 4870 does it and some time is very annoying, especially when watching movies that use the hardware acceleration, because the GPU doesn't heat up and the fan spins slowly and I only hear that very annoying high pitch sound. It has nothing to do with RMA.

 

[cusideabelincoln]

I don't think some people can make out, or at the very least recognize, some high pitch frequencies. For instance, whenever a good 'ol CRT TV was turned on, even with no sound or video showing, I can make out a certain high pitch, low decibel sound whenever I walk into the room. With sound on, though, the high pitch was not descernable. However, if I'd ask anyone else, like my mom, if they heard it, they would say they didn't.

 

[Qbah]

The only time my HD4870 whined was during the loading screens in Crysis. And man, did I hate it. I have a pretty good hearing, so it was extra annoying. Luckily those lasted only a few seconds. I'm afraid there's not much you can do except RMA it (is that a valid reason?) and hope you'll get a replacement that doesn't have whiny coils.

 

[fleshconsumed]

Sadly, the high pitch noise is typical of most of the current cards, both nVidia and ATI. It's not the fan that's making the noise, it's one of the coils in the power regulation circuit. Even if you RMA it, there is a very good chance you'll get another whiner back.

Your temps are about 10 degrees too high though, not sure why is that.

 

[plion]

Ok, why does it happen only in folding@home gpu version, not in furmark, 3dmark, tf2, dawn of war 2, coh, fear 2 demo. I don't have crysis so I can't test that. And yes it is completely sound different from the fan rpm. It sounds something like this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C4d23F2jehQ

 

[error8]

Originally posted by: plion
Ok, why does it happen only in folding@home gpu version, not in furmark, 3dmark, tf2, dawn of war 2, coh, fear 2 demo. I don't have crysis so I can't test that. And yes it is completely sound different from the fan rpm. It sounds something like this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C4d23F2jehQ

Maybe because in folding@home the fan doesn't spin to fast and lets your ears hear that whine and in all those others games and 3d applications the fan is rotating faster and covers up the whine. I'd say don't worry about it. As long as the card works flawlessly, you should just leave it alone.

 

[betasub]

This sort of high-pitched noise seems to be more of a problem to the (still) developing eardrums of the young. It's becoming less of a problem for me as I age.

 

[alcoholbob]

Whine is NOT an issue of defective hardware. It's about a choice of components that the manufacturer of your card used.

If you've ever looked on the inside of your standard TV these days, there's a ton of insulation, tape, dampening material, etc just lumped onto the internal transformer. Additionally many brands will use very high end pezoic (sp?) capacitors. Noise dampening is something that engineers are very aware of when dealing with PWM amplification. The question is, how much money does the company want to apply their money towards it?

PWM amplifiers are making their way into speaker amplification. For years, PWM noise was a huge concern until a variety of very expensive chipsets were developed "eat away" the noise. PWM amplification is very efficient compared to traditional Class A/B amplification but is noisy as hell which is why it took decades before these amplifiers made their way into audio.

If you have noise with your video card, there's no use RMAing. There are other brands that likely won't exhibit the noise, or in a few years a new batch might be manufactured with better components (not likely).

As far as noise, the answer is fairly simple I assume. Folding@Home is giving off signals for your GPU to throttle up into full 3d mode but the majority of actual GPU functionality is not being used. The capacitors are likely being overloaded causing the coils to start chirping at their resonant frequency.

This is the same as some LCD screens that exhibit the same issue when the backlight is not at 100%. The cheap capacitors become overloaded and start whining.

 

[alcoholbob]

This is from personal experience.

None of the video cards I've ever owned have had this noise (including 8800GT) until I got evga 285 ssc.

Got a Philips TV that exhibits this noise when the backlight is under 93%. The sound is pretty much identical to what I'm hearing on the video card during non-load 3d conditions.

 

[nitromullet]

Are all of you guys sure it's the card itself? I had a similar issue when I got my GTX 280 (especially on the Crysis loading screen), so I thought it was the card. However, after some advise from the EVGA forums and a lot of careful listening, I eventually isolated the noise to my PSU. At the time I was using a PCP&C 750W PSU, which I subsequently replaced with the Corsair in my sig. The Corsair also makes the same noise, although at a slightly different pitch. The guys as jonnyGURU.com explained this as coil whine. Essentially, it is the wires in the coils vibrating that causes the noise. It can be annoying, but ultimately nothing to worry about.

nineball9 explains coil whine more eloquently in this thread: http://forums.anandtech.com/me...id=27&threadid=2243618

Originally posted by: nineball9
Coil whine is mechanical resonance of the coil with the frequency of the signal passing through it. Physically, a coil is just loops of wire, sometimes with a core other than air. If the frequency of the signal is in resonance with the physical wires of the coil, the coil may vibrate. Oft times, the vibration is beyond human hearing (yokes in TV's can do this), other times it's in the range of human hearing.

 

[alcoholbob]

It's definitely the card. I used a recording microphone (since I'm a sound nut) and the peak is coming from the side of the card when I have the case open.

I'm running SLI the top card is fairly isolated from the PSU (I'm using a case where the PSU is at the bottom, there's 2 PCI cards and my second video card above the PSU).