Worth it to RMA HD 7950 for coil whine?

[BiggaWhat]

So I recently built a new rig:

Win 7 64 bit
8 GB RAM
Gigabyte OC HD 7950 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814125414)
i5-3570K
Corsair TX750W
ASRock Z77 Extreme4 MOBO

Everything is mostly fine, except I get coil whine sometimes. It only happens when my FPS is super high. I can run at 99% GPU usage and its fine, as long as FPS isn't high (like in game menus) Seems to be coming out near the back of my GPU, close to the DVI port.

Anyway, is it worthwhile to RMA this card (I'm still in Newegg's 30 day period btw)? Is there a good chance a new card simply wouldn't have the problem? It runs cool, overclocks pretty well, etc..but still, the coil whine can be annoying. I'm just afraid that I'll exchange it and it will be the same or worse, or the card will run hot, or some other problem will come up. If I do decide to return it, should I go for a different manufacturer where this problem is less prevalent, and if so, which one?

I know it seems like I'm nitpicking, since its only in game menus/intros, but I fear it could start popping up in other instances, and having paid hundreds of dollars for something I expect better. Thanks!

 

[3DVagabond]

So I recently built a new rig:

Win 7 64 bit
8 GB RAM
Gigabyte OC HD 7950 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814125414)
i5-3570K
Corsair TX750W
ASRock Z77 Extreme4 MOBO

Everything is mostly fine, except I get coil whine sometimes. It only happens when my FPS is super high. I can run at 99% GPU usage and its fine, as long as FPS isn't high (like in game menus) Seems to be coming out near the back of my GPU, close to the DVI port.

Anyway, is it worthwhile to RMA this card (I'm still in Newegg's 30 day period btw)? Is there a good chance a new card simply wouldn't have the problem? It runs cool, overclocks pretty well, etc..but still, the coil whine can be annoying. I'm just afraid that I'll exchange it and it will be the same or worse, or the card will run hot, or some other problem will come up. If I do decide to return it, should I go for a different manufacturer where this problem is less prevalent, and if so, which one?

I know it seems like I'm nitpicking, since its only in game menus/intros, but I fear it could start popping up in other instances, and having paid hundreds of dollars for something I expect better. Thanks!

You could just cap the frame rate so it doesn't go ridiculously high.

 

[Jaydip]

A funny solution, what happens when u turn on vsync?

 

[Silverforce11]

Coil whine could also come from your PSU.. which is why many new ones have extra capacitors installed in the 12V PCIE cables directly prior to the GPU to minimize this. As to which brand is affected.. its random for all gpus.

 

[BiggaWhat]

Capping the frames works just fine, and is what I'm currently doing for games. I guess I just want to make sure that problems like this don't typically get worse with time, because I've heard of people's cards whining under load at normal gaming FPS.

I suppose the actual whining could be caused by my PSU, but the sound itself is definitely coming from the card. I swapped it into my old rig and it makes the same sound.

 

[blackened23]

If I heard coil whine while gaming I would RMA that video card in a heartbeat. You can eliminate it with vsync I guess - but if I ever bought a card like that it which noticeably made a whiny noise while gaming - it would be gone.

 

[ShintaiDK]

Coil whine is certainly a gray area. Since the GFX makers didnt say anything about noise and such. And the product is not actually faulty. Then they have no legal obligations to take an RMA. While some might do it is another matter.

But coil whine in 2012 is crazy.

 

[Rvenger]

You can't RMA a card with coil whine. Every card has some amount of coil whine.. especially when your games go beyond 120fps. My GTX 670 is silent except when I play borderlands 2 without vsync enabled. In some areas it will hit 140fps and the card will start squealing. I have owned a multitude of graphics cards along with different power supplies, I even had some that had solid chokes, every one I owned made some kind of electrical noise.

 

[blastingcap]

Sounds like a recipe for a restocking fee.

First world problems.

 

[blackened23]

Sounds like a recipe for a restocking fee.

First world problems.

Or you can just return it to the point of purchase with no restock fee. At least, at most online retailers.

I dont' care of a manufacturer considers it "ok", if I have a card that coil whines - It's being returned to amazon / newegg with no restock fee. Its probably a grey area if you're RMA'ing to manufacturer though, which is why would just return it to the point of sale. There is no way i'm putting up with that crap.

 

[sze5003]

My last card I had returned since it whined so much on the web pages, menus, anything. Anytime it was being used, there was an annoying squeel. It was in the 30 day window to newegg.

Newegg had me contact HIS and then I told HIS the issue, they offered me a ticket number and said I could RMA it to China for a replacement. Good thing I got it from Newegg because once I gave the ticket number to Newegg from HIS there was no restocking fee.