Coil Whine From GPU in Game (Only in Game)

[IceIceBear]

Hello people,

I just recently built a PC, the specs are as follow:

Intel - Core i7-8700K 3.7GHz 6-Core Processor
CRYORIG - C7 40.5 CFM CPU Cooler
Asus - ROG Strix Z370-I Gaming Mini ITX LGA1151 Motherboard
ADATA - XPG SPECTRIX D40 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3200 Memory
Samsung - 960 EVO 250GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive
Western Digital - Black 512GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive
Palit - GeForce GTX 1070 Ti 8GB Dual Video Card (and GTX 1080 FE)
Corsair - SF 450W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular SFX Power Supply
DAN Cases - A4SFXV2-B Mini ITX Desktop Case

I have encountered a quite obvious coil whine in game. It is noticeable since my Dan case is just right beside me on my desk. At first, I thought it is the load I put on GPU makes it scream, but later on, when I use Aida64 to stress both CPU and GPU under full load, there is no coil whine. When only CPU is under full load there is no coil whine as well. So, I start thinking it is GPU has some problems. I switch to a GTX 1080 FE to test, however, the coil whine persists. The thing is, when I'm in a game if I Alt+Tab out the game or just minimized the game or open game menu, the coil whine will be dead silent. Once I go back to the actual gaming scene, it comes back. I tried PUBG, Deus EX Mankind Divided and Unigine Heaven Benchmark, it all goes the same way. Especially in Unigine Heaven, when the looping scene darkens, the coil whine becomes quiet a second, and when the scene brightens up again to show another scene, the coil whine comes back. I have looked up some webs, some say VSync could help by limiting FPS, but even when I turn on VSync and the FPS is only at 60fps, it doesn't help. One thing I also notice is that the lower the fps, the lower the coil whine. For example, I used Nvidia Inspector to limit the FPS to 30fps, the coil whine becomes minimal, but the gaming experience becomes sucked. What can I do in this case? Am I so bad luck have two GPU encounters coil whine at the same time?

 

[1461748123]

Sadly there just isn't anything you can do. And yes, you have a really bad luck
Personally I only encounter coil whine once from ~10 GPUs that I have gone through, and they are less and less likely to present on modern cards.

 

[tinyitx]

If you are absolutely sure the coil whine comes from the GPU (not from the PSU or the mobo), maybe you can try to reduce it, by undervolting or even slightly lowering the power limit.

 

[jØrd]

IIRC coil whine happens when said coils are resonating at a frequency the human ears can detect, hence it happening inside a specific load band. If there not already potted you could try encapsulating them in some sort of resin / potting compound. IIRC this is basically how so called "solid state coils" are done.

 

[smitty2k1]

I encountered coil whine for the first time with my Vega56 card and only after installing a Morpheus II cooler with quiet fans (maybe the blower before hand just overpowered the coil whine). I noticed it only happening in older games where the frames per second were very high. Using the AMD drivers, I limited the games to 60 fps (display refresh rate) since extra fps didn't gain me anything. No more coil whine.

But of course, every one is different

 

[Solo]

I sold my R9 Nano because of coil whine. It screamed like a Dynatron cooler.

 

[jtd871]

Try limiting the frame rate to something just a bit higher than your monitor's refresh rate, maybe even through Vsync. I found this worked a treat on my Fermi-based laptop card.