Question buzzing "coil whine" noise in certain games.

[potionseller]

Specs are:
Mobo: Z390-H
CPU: i7-9700k with Noctua NH-D15 chromax heatsink
GPU: 2070 Super
RAM: 32gb (16x2) 3000mhz
PSU: RX750m

I was gaming, and everything fine until this afternoon - when I booted up my PC I noticed a slight buzzing coming from my processor area.
I found a few minor threads on the internet that have since helped lower it drastically. But it's still noticeable and I don't have a clue what could be causing the noise.

I'm highly considering swapping out my PSU and MOBO entirely since the PSU fan never turns on due to it's load never reaching 40%
and the MOBO because it's got quite a few low reviews pertaining to the VRM's (which I know very little about)

While running a Prime95 test there was no noise, however Intel Xtreme Tuning (used for monitoring) was stating that the CPU was "Power Limit Throttling" the entire time.

 

[Third-Eye]

Specs are:
Mobo: Z390-H
CPU: i7-9700k with Noctua NH-D15 chromax heatsink
GPU: 2070 Super
RAM: 32gb (16x2) 3000mhz
PSU: RX750m

I was gaming, and everything fine until this afternoon - when I booted up my PC I noticed a slight buzzing coming from my processor area.
I found a few minor threads on the internet that have since helped lower it drastically. But it's still noticeable and I don't have a clue what could be causing the noise.

I'm highly considering swapping out my PSU and MOBO entirely since the PSU fan never turns on due to it's load never reaching 40%
and the MOBO because it's got quite a few low reviews pertaining to the VRM's (which I know very little about)

While running a Prime95 test there was no noise, however Intel Xtreme Tuning (used for monitoring) was stating that the CPU was "Power Limit Throttling" the entire time.

Are you certain the sound is coming from the motherboard and not your GPU? Have you tried to cap frame rate in games to 60 or lower and if you have tried it, does the coil whine go away?

 

[drea.drechsler]

Gaming at low resolution and/or low details (for the card/cpu) can drive extremely high FPS but also brings on coil whine in the graphic card's VRM. It can often happen in certain scenes in some games; especially in menus. Capping frame rates seems a good way to lessen it.

Also be careful about letting reviews influence you. Especially when you have purchased the hardware and it's in use, just swapping stuff out because they didn't like it can be an exercise in futility and very costly.

 

[potionseller]

I'd like to say it's not my graphics card - since the sound persists at idle as well.
I ran the "benchmark" tool within Intel's XTU program and it makes a noise as if it's "Reading a disc" essentially.

It's a very high pitched ... coil whine-esque noise.

It sometimes goes away after use, but if I enable processor idle within the power management of my PC it generally makes some form of high pitch noise most of the time (and am unsure if I should be worried about it.)