Coil whine - normal or sign of a bad card?

[Aeroisticon]

I recently bought a new GTX 660 that was on sale, and it has been working well. I use MSI Afterburner to custom set the fan speed, and the card has only once gone over 70C, most of the time only hitting 67C at full load.But it is pretty noisy. I have no problem with noise though, but the only concern I have is the high pitched whining sound.

I've heard this is what coil whine is. The whining happens when I start up games, and will sometimes change frequencies or sometimes will just be a buzzing sound. The card stays cool. So is it anything to worry about? I really don't want to go through the RMA process if I don't have to.

BTW I have a 600w psu

 

[turkey3_scratch]

Coil whine is not bad, it does no harm other than possibly being annoying. It is caused by vibrations from the electromagnetic energy about ferrite coils. Some units have more coil whine than others depending on how well coils are glued down with caulk, just as an example. If it bugs you and is bad enough, you can RMA it.

Also, a high quality power supply can reduce coil whine. What PSU do you own?

 

[Aeroisticon]

Coil whine is not bad, it does no harm other than possibly being annoying. It is caused by vibrations from the electromagnetic energy about ferrite coils. Some units have more coil whine than others depending on how well coils are glued down with caulk, just as an example. If it bugs you and is bad enough, you can RMA it.

Also, a high quality power supply can reduce coil whine. What PSU do you own?

EVGA 600w BRONZE bought for $60 at Best Buy during Black Friday

 

[Dunlop0078]

Sometimes it just happens, I have a pretty good psu and for the first year I had my pc no coil whine at all. Then 2 years ago or so my gpu started whining everytime I put it under load, its been doing it ever since. It can be annoying but my gpu (gtx 760) still works as good as the day I bought it.

 

[turkey3_scratch]

Coil whine is not bad, it does no harm other than possibly being annoying. It is caused by vibrations from the electromagnetic energy about ferrite coils. Some units have more coil whine than others depending on how well coils are glued down with caulk, just as an example. If it bugs you and is bad enough, you can RMA it.

Also, a high quality power supply can reduce coil whine. What PSU do you own?

EVGA 600w BRONZE bought for $60 at Best Buy during Black Friday

While that PSU needs improved in many aspects, ripple suppression is good on it so it should be fine. Yeah, basically your options are to return the GPU for a replacement, or just live with it.

 

[Dark Lord of Tech]

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/EVGA/600B/11.html

Review on the 600B.

 

[Aeroisticon]

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/EVGA/600B/11.html

Review on the 600B.

8.3 seems good to me, I went with EVGA because I heard they are a reputable brand. My gpu is EVGA manufactured too

 

[Dark Lord of Tech]

EVGA is reputable PSU brand because of Super Flower and SEASONIC , not based on low end HEC units.

EVGA just puts their name on them.

 

[sngrisa]

And Corsair CX550M is a good supply?

 

[Dunlop0078]