GIGABYTE GAMING RX 580 hissing and ticking noise.

[D---X---R]

Got this card a couple days ago, every time I put load on it, it makes a hissing noise, I can liken it to the noise of electricity I guess?

During benchmarks and games the noise comes. I know its not from the fans because I've heard it even when the fans are off (indicated by "FAN OFF" on the gpu itself)

That's not the only issue though, during BF1 - and other games as well, the card runs the hissing noise, but occasionally the noise stops, and every time it stops (couple millisecond period), I can feel a clear drop in frame/lag on my screen, related?

Monitoring the card. I see that the clock Is set to the intended 1340 mhz, so that's not the issue.
The temps have gone up as far as 75oC


Highs seem good at around 90-95 FPS in BF1
Lows however hit the 10-20 FPS range, as I mentioned, these low points only occur when the hissing noise stops.

 

[pete_101]

Look up "coil whine", it's a common problem and it sounds like what your card is doing.

 

[D---X---R]

Looked into it a bit, and apparently it has nothing to do with performance, so whats the explanation for my lows? and the fact that the lows only occur when the hissing stops. If its just a random sound, im more than happy to deal with it, but its affecting performance too

 

[pete_101]

Looked into it a bit, and apparently it has nothing to do with performance, so whats the explanation for my lows? and the fact that the lows only occur when the hissing stops. If its just a random sound, im more than happy to deal with it, but its affecting performance too

The lows are probably caused by your CPU not keeping up, what CPU are you using? As the frame rate drops, the card is doing it easier so the noise disappears.

 

[D---X---R]

Ryzen 5 1600.
Also I do notice that the usage is sometimes at 0-10% and sometimes at 90-100%, but that's probably just the way AMD reports percentages.

Ive tried it in 2 MB's with 2 different CPU's, same result

 

[pete_101]

Ok, that is strange. If you're not happy with it and you've only had it a couple of days, you're entitled to ask for a replacement.

 

[D---X---R]

I am indeed entitled to a replacement, but I dont want to waste time, so I'd rather fix it myself if possible.

Lets look beyond coil whine, this just happened again and I can now describe it much better.
So I had BF1 running in the background and I was waiting for the hissing noise to cease, sure enough, after 10-15 minutes, there was a 2-5 second period in which the hissing stopped, during that time, I quickly alt tabbed to BF1 and there was insane amounts of drag, stuttering, input delay, and FPS was in the 20's, as soon as the hissing returned, the FPS went back to 80 and everything was normal.

One thing I did not check for during that period was the clock, but I seriously doubt its throttling at 65-70oC

 

[D---X---R]

Just ran furmark and I can see that the card is throttling to 1210 mhz, 130 mhz lower than the stock speeds

 

[pete_101]

Next time you monitor usage, check the CPU usage too. I know you said the same issue was happening with different CPUs, but maybe the drop in frames isn't related to the card and something else is spike a load onto the CPU.

 

[D---X---R]

CPU usage is hovering around 30% in BF1, Ryzen 5 1600 @3.7

Something reaaally weird I noticed is that when I plug in my headphones, I head an awfully similar noise to the noise coming from the GPU, coming right out my headphones. Its not the MB cuz I've tried 2 MB's. PSU maybe?

 

[D---X---R]

https://streamable.com/kskza
It's much better without recording, but still, this shows perfectly what my problem is, cant just be coil whine.

 

[pete_101]

Wow, that's more than just low frame rate, it's completely freezing. It could be a faulty GPU causing all of this, or it maybe it's a PSU issue. However you say recording has made it worse. This more sounds like a bottleneck or lack of RAM, I've even heard of a poor installation of Windows causes issues like this too....but all this is just guessing. It might pay to list all your components and see if someone here can figure out what's going on.

I still think you should RMA the graphics card, that coil whine alone should be enough reason, and maybe the freezing issue would be resolved too.

 

[D---X---R]

- MSI B350 Tomahawk
- 8 GB Corsair Vengeance LPX C14 RAM
- Ryzen 5 1600
- Gigabyte RX 580 8 GB
- Corsair CX550M PSU
- Crucial MX300 SSD


Its not a shortage of RAM, the ram is monitored in the above numbers and its plenty, i will add another 8gb stick soon regardless.

 

[D---X---R]

I've set up an RMA with newegg and now im just waiting for them to restock the card then ill ship it out.

However, im starting to wonder if I should RMA the PSU as well, take a listen: https://streamable.com/ymjwv

This is the noise im talking about, it can be heard throughout my system, even through the front panel audio jacks, its completely audible with my headphone. In fact, when im playing a game, as soon as something on my display changes, the sound in my headphone changes. If this is GPU coil whine, then why would it reflect in my headphones as well?

So far, these are my own thoughts:

Proof it might be the GPU:
- Noise adjusts to the scenery of games/apps.
- When monitoring GPU and CPU power, when the lag spikes occur, only the GPU takes a wattage hit and not the CPU

Proof it might be the PSU:
- GPU coil whine alone shouldn't cause performance issues, and its incredibly unlikely that I've received a GPU with 2 different defects, so the PSU might have a role to play?
- Why is there a shortage of power anyway, this draws attention to the PSU

Again, these are just my own non expert opinions, I would really appreciate if someone can give me a good idea of whats wrong, so I dont have to waste time RMAing 2 items

 

[weberdarren97]

Hello @D---X---R
I apologize for the delay in responding to your thread. Looks like you sent me a PM right as I dropped offline for the night.

I need to know a few things before I can help you.

1) I see you have a Corsair CX550M power supply. Is this the new one with the white-ish label, or the old one with the green label?

2) I see you have a Ryzen system. Have you updated BIOS since you bought the board? There were many issues when Ryzen first came out, many of which were taken care of with motherboard BIOS updates.

3) What is the maximum CPU temperature during gaming? Ryzen thermal throttles at a slightly lower temperature than Intel chips do.

4) If you install this graphics card in another system that has a CPU powerful enough to not be a bottleneck, do the issues persist?

 

[weberdarren97]

As for whether or not the coil whine is affecting performance, I think it's the other way around. Coil whine occurs when inductors and other ICs involved in power delivery to the GPU core are not fitted with anti-vibration pads.

As power draw increases (when the card is working harder), the coil whine will become more noticeable. As FPS increases, the coil whine will be a higher pitch. If coil whine suddenly stops, I would blame drivers. It sounds like your card is ready to go, but isn't being told what to do. This could be because of an overheating CPU, outdated and unoptimized BIOS, faulty Windows installation, or (more than likely) faulty drivers.

I have an analogy for you. Let's relate coil whine in your graphics card to how heavily you breathe when working out. If you've been working out rather intensely, you're probably breathing pretty deeply. If you stop working out, your breathing will likely slow over time, right? Same thing here, only the inductors calm down in a fraction of a second instead of taking time to catch their breath. Coil whine is a byproduct of the card doing its job. If it suddenly stops, the card is likely no longer receiving instructions on what to do next. Again, this can be a CPU issue, an unoptimzed (outdated) BIOS issue, an issue with Windows itself, or an issue with drivers.

Let's start with BIOS since it's sometimes responsible for many issues with Ryzen systems.

The board could have shipped with the original BIOS (v1.0). Almost immediately after that BIOS was released, a new version was released. That new version (v1.1) said that it patched certain system stability issues. Version 1.2 was then released, further improving system stability and memory compatibility. Later, BIOS 7A34v13 updated faulty code within the CPU itself and brought more general improvements to the motherboard. 7A34v14 says it improved memory compatibility again. 7A34v15 says it fixed something with PCIe (the connection on your graphics card) and further improved memory compatibility.

I recommend jumping straight to version 7A34v15. It will include all the improvements from the previous versions as well. Here is the link to the BIOS updates for your board: https://www.msi.com/Motherboard/support/B350-TOMAHAWK.html#down-bios

Now onto drivers. This is pretty simple as well. Steps below. Update BIOS and check that the system is stable before installing new drivers.

1) Download new drivers from http://support.amd.com/en-us/download but do not install them yet.

2) Download DDU from http://www.guru3d.com/files-details/display-driver-uninstaller-download.html but do not run it yet.

3) Open the Start menu. Open the power menu. Hold Shift while you click Restart. You'll see a fullscreen menu with blue buttons. Troubleshoot>Advanced>Advanced Restart>Restart.

4) Safe Mode should be the 4th option at this screen. If 4 on the numpad is not working for you, try 4 on the number row above the letters.

5) Run DDU while in Safe Mode. Use it to remove all display drivers.

6) Restart normally.

7) Install the new drivers you downloaded earlier.

8) Restart to confirm registry changes. Changes will occur automatically thanks to a command set by the driver installation, you don't need to edit the registry.

9) Try gaming again and see if issues persist.

 

[D---X---R]

Ive reinstalled drivers a couple times but never in safe mode, I'll try it when i get home and I'll keep you posted, regarding your first batch of question...


1. Not home right now to look but I'd imagine it's the latter since i bought it 2 weeks ago, I'll confirm that later.

2. I've updated the BIOS to the latest April 28th release from MSI

3. CPU is running stable on 3.7 and during heavy stress testing for minutes, the highest the temp went was 65, and gaming doesn't put anywhere near that amount of load so it can't be the CPU throttling due to heat.

4. I have installed the graphics card in a 5 year old pentium system, i don't have the luxury of another system with good specs, the only similar parts are the PSU and GPU and it still makes the coil whine. Not sure about the actual performance though because it can't even run a game.


Also I've noticed that the gpu tends to run on less than 100% load during BF1, this makes no sense, it should always be running on full load during a game like bf1, it goes as low as 20% load in intense battle...

 

[weberdarren97]

Also I've noticed that the gpu tends to run on less than 100% load during BF1, this makes no sense, it should always be running on full load during a game like bf1, it goes as low as 20% load in intense battle...

Was CPU usage higher than 80%?

 

[D---X---R]

CPU usage hovers from 5-45% in game

 

[weberdarren97]

CPU usage hovers from 5-45% in game

I'm stumped.

 

[D---X---R]

And also, during benchmarking the CPU usage is constantly 100% (as expected) which means it should be drawing lots of power from the PSU, but no whine to be heard. Maybe because of ryzens low TDP, but also maybe because it's not even the PSU, idk I'm just guessing at this point I'm so confused.

 

[D---X---R]

Just did the driver reinstall with those instructions, but to no avail, same issues persist.

I told you about how BF1 wasn't utilizing 100% of my GPU, well I did some testing and I noticed that whenever I look at the sky, the FPS goes up (as expected) BUT, the GPU usage also stabilizes at 95-100%, which leads to a nice smooth 140 FPS experience on ultra settings. Problem is I cant look at the sky 24/7, whenever I go into actual battle, not only does the FPS come down, which it should, but the GPU usage drops to as low as 10, basically idle, resulting in 40-50 FPS, but the funny thing is that it doesn't even feel like 40-50 FPS, it feels more like 10 FPS.

Also, with fraps, whenever recording was enabled, the wattage fed to the GPU was 70-80 watts, with recording disabled, the wattage did go as high as 120.

I can also confirm that the badge on my PSU is white.
I want to install windows 7 to do some testing, should I even bother? I heard ryzen doesn't support it.