Monotone background sound while in game?

[gkko]

Hello!

I just build my PC, and sadly I notice a quite disturbing background noise, similar to coil whine while im inside a game. If I alt+tab, the noise stops until I get back into the game. The noise is monotone sometimes changes if I look to another part of the map. The noise remains if I mute the game, or if I mute the system sound. There isn't any noise in the comp case, no coil there.

mobo: gigabyte z97x gaming 3
vga: gigabyte gtx 960 mini.
psu: coolermaster g650m

So I guess its not a software glitch. I can return the components, but I specially bought this vga because I didn't find any topic about coil whine with this VGA.

Any advice?

 

[nukemaster]

Try to cap(limit) your frame rates to see if it helps?

You can cap your frame rate with Vsync or use something like Afterburner or Nvidia inspector.

Let us know if this helps.

Computer power supplies are have switching noise and video cards can cause this noise to be worse and noticeable on your sound card sometimes.

 

[gkko]

Hello Nukemaster!

Following your advice, in league of legends I tried the fps cap. I am usually playing with uncapped and i have around 400-600 fps in ultra graphics options. The sound is unbearable. When i capped it 144 then 120 then 90 then 60 then 30 the noise decreased every time with a little and at 25 fps cap, the noise ended. Obviously no one wants to play on 25 fps, since its lags, and I didn't build this comp to play on 100~fps when I have the opportunity to play on much more. My old pc could play on fix 144 fps too and it didn't give any sound, with the same PSU and instead of gtx 960 mini I used a gtx 660.

Just to make sure this statement stands, I installed Dragon Age Inquisition which requires more graphics. I changed the graphics settings to ultra, and I had 45-75 fps, now come the strange thing, the noise was even worse and louder than in League of Legends at 600 fps.

Old setup
Asus p6t deluxe v2
gigabyte gtx 660
i7 950

New:
gigabyte z97x gaming 3
gigabyte gtx 960 mini
i7 4790

Should I bring back the card since its a local shop. Get back the money, and buy another? Can we lock out the motherboard as the source of the problem?

 

[nukemaster]

Many things can cause noise. It is normally limited to coil whine, but as you have seen you can get noise into your audio.

I was not expecting you to have to drop to 25 to make it quiet down. It is just about getting down from super high numbers.

You have also swapped cpus and boards. The board has its own power filtering if needed for the sound card portion. Can you try to disable cpu power savings to see if it makes a difference.

This may also be something to try. If it does not work it can be turned off and removed without any side effects.
http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/292915-30-high-pitched-noise-coming-area#4294909

Recently noticed this issue when starting the game killing floor because it was running something like 2000fps or something in menus. Capped it at 144(later set it at 120 since the game seems to not run at high frame rates anyway[may be internally capped in game since it uses very little gpu power]) and it was fixed(i did not place my head near a speaker to test.).

This is the only time I have had a dedicated sound card have noise, but I also have a minor ground loop with other devices connected to the computer so it could make it worse.

I have also heard similar sounds when extra internal headers like cd/line-in/ect are not muted on the playback tab. This was more common in the XP days and more noticeable with headphones.

 

[gkko]

So, i followed the regedit guide and i disabled processor idle. The noise still remained.
However an idea crossed my mind, and I pulled out my headset (hyperx cloud) and I plugged in my old speakers. Still noise.


I just dont know what is the problem in this case. You?

 

[gkko]

However if i plug the headset into the front 3,5mm audio output, the noise at 600 fps is very low i can only hear in complete silence. At 120 fps the noise is fully gone in the front audio output.

Is it possible that my comp case is the problem or what?

 

[nukemaster]

It would almost sound like poor layout on the board. Normally the front port has more issues since some cases share it's ground with usb.

I am kind of at a loss as to if it is a board/power or other issue. With so many devices interacting it is a surprise we do not have this issue more.

You could try disconnecting devices to see if it makes any difference.

Also turn that disable idle setting off(in power settings) because it will increase idle temps for no reason since it does not help you.