Question Coil whine persists after changing PSU

Mar 13, 2020
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Hey all,

in May I build a new PC. Until recently, everything was going pretty much fine.

However, now I seem to have problems with my KFA2 GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER 8GB WTF Edition. When I tried to play a game about a week ago, I noticed some incredible loud noises coming from the PC.


This sound begins at a very audible level at around 90 FPS. FPS limiting and Vsync on gets rid of it, but I am not happy with this since my system is running a 2080 S and has a 144 HZ monitor, and it'd be a complete waste to only be playing at 60 FPS. The sound does change in accordance to where I look on the screen.

I took it to the local PC shop after most people agreed it was definitely coil whine, and a pretty loud one at that. So I exchanged my PSU ( from a Corsair RM1000x W 80+ Gold to a Seasonic SSP-750RT 750W 80+ Gold ) and took it back home after the people at the shop assured me it was gone or rather that it was a lot quieter than it was before.

As soon as I arrived home, I opened a benchmark and ... the sound was still there. It was marginally quieter and had a different frequency, but still obviously there, still annoying, still audible over games and from where I sat.

( Sorry for the wind that makes it a lot harder to hear on the recording, but trust me when I say it's there )

I will return my PC to the shop on Monday so they can exchange the PSU with my old one again and refund me for the Seasonic since changing things around clearly didn't help and it would be a waste of 150 €.

Now my question is ... what should I do? I assumed from the beginning it came from my GPU. Should I just exchange my GPU and pray to the silicone gods that it won't have an inherent coil whine that's this loud? Or could my PC spontaneously develop coil whine on both the PSU and GPU?

The shop I got my card from already agreed that they would RMA it if there really is coil whine and I could pick a new one. Would that be the only way to fix coil whine when a PSU change won't help?
 
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It is very bad. Nothing you can do, all you can do that is RMA the part(s), if you want.

eg. from EVGA FAQ https://www.evga.com/support/faq/FAQdetails.aspx?faqid=59535
Yeah, I'm lucky that I can RMA the GPU since the retailer I got it from is amazing with customer support.

But I was wondering if it's worth RMAing the GPU or if I should try it with another PSU? I assume that since it didn't change much with a different brand, it would be like trying to find a needle in a haystack to find a PSU that works well with it when the coil whine is sourced from the GPU?
 
Most of that porblem is from either the PSU or GPU, or both, and nobody will know until you test or try it out. You can try other PSU too see what happens, or if you can borrow a PSU or GPU from your friend to test.
Like I said in my original post, I've already tried it with another PSU and it's still there ( just marginally quieter, but not by a lot ) so I was wondering if it's worth trying it with one more or if I should just take that as an L that it's my GPU and just exchange that?

I'm not sure if the people at the PC shop tested it with a different GPU since they just told me " Yeah it's the PSU " but that clearly didn't seem to be the case if it's still there with the Seasonic ... might ask for that specifically on Monday.