Question Silent RTX 5080 - RMA

[SilverPigtail]

Hello,


I've returned several RTX 5080 units due to factory issues present since the beginning of the series. Most of them had problems such as noticeable scratches, faulty RGB lighting, or excessive coil whine—the last one being the issue with my most recent unit. The coil whine on that card was so loud that it made gaming extremely unpleasant and distracting.


I understand that coil whine in GPUs is somewhat random, and there's no guaranteed way to avoid it. However, are there specific models that tend to exhibit it less frequently? If so, could you let me know which ones are typically more reliable in this regard?


Have a nice day!

 

[ATi RaDEoN]

Hello there, can you specify which aftermarket RTX 5080s you returned?

 

[SilverPigtail]

Hello there, can you specify which aftermarket RTX 5080s you returned?

Of course!

Aorus RTX 5080 Master and ROG Astral.

 

[ATi RaDEoN]

Of course!

Aorus RTX 5080 Master and ROG Astral.

Okay. It appears to be a common issue however it has nothing to do with the longevity of the GPU.

Coil whine is something I have faced with most GPUs. I have used almost all the brands from MSI to ASUS to EVGA. The coil whine till some extent was always present. Some were more noticeable, some less.

I suggest that if you can live with it, better to forget about it and enjoy the gaming.

I currently have MSI 4090 suprim X and my friend has the exact same GPU and surprisingly mine has no coil whine while his is very audible. So as you rightly said, its a very random thing and nothing worth your time to RMA it unless it’s severely bothering you.

 

[ingtar33]

the mechanics of coil whine has to do with the frequency of the power running through the ceramic capacitor. if the frequency harmonizes with the ceramic, you generate a vibration, and that vibration will result in the capacitor bumping against the pcb card, creating the noise.

coil whine will change in tone over time sometimes getting worse sometimes better, depending on the wear caused by the vibration on the ceramic capacitor, it can wear down the area touching the board and change the frequency it's vibrating at, resulting in a different tone.

A lot of electrical equipment will have a coil whine outside of the range a human ear can hear, and later in life the tone may change to one you can head. depends.

As for an answer, your best bet is to do some research into who makes the capacitors on the cards you were buying, there are only a handful of companies that make capacitors and a lot of gpu companies use the same 1 or 2 suppliers, so shopping around for other companies may find one which doesn't vibrate at the same frequency.

that said occasionally the frequency of a card design sometimes is such that no matter what caps they use it doesn't change the result, and you really are soft of stuck with it.

 

[SilverPigtail]

Okay. It appears to be a common issue however it has nothing to do with the longevity of the GPU.

Coil whine is something I have faced with most GPUs. I have used almost all the brands from MSI to ASUS to EVGA. The coil whine till some extent was always present. Some were more noticeable, some less.

I suggest that if you can live with it, better to forget about it and enjoy the gaming.

I currently have MSI 4090 suprim X and my friend has the exact same GPU and surprisingly mine has no coil whine while his is very audible. So as you rightly said, its a very random thing and nothing worth your time to RMA it unless it’s severely bothering you.

That was whatI was fearing yeah. I can bear with a little since I almost play with headset, but the one in the ROG Astral was horrible, you could hear it through the entire room. The GPU even had two BIOS modes, performance and quiet. It was the same with both of them.

the mechanics of coil whine has to do with the frequency of the power running through the ceramic capacitor. if the frequency harmonizes with the ceramic, you generate a vibration, and that vibration will result in the capacitor bumping against the pcb card, creating the noise.

coil whine will change in tone over time sometimes getting worse sometimes better, depending on the wear caused by the vibration on the ceramic capacitor, it can wear down the area touching the board and change the frequency it's vibrating at, resulting in a different tone.

A lot of electrical equipment will have a coil whine outside of the range a human ear can hear, and later in life the tone may change to one you can head. depends.

As for an answer, your best bet is to do some research into who makes the capacitors on the cards you were buying, there are only a handful of companies that make capacitors and a lot of gpu companies use the same 1 or 2 suppliers, so shopping around for other companies may find one which doesn't vibrate at the same frequency.

that said occasionally the frequency of a card design sometimes is such that no matter what caps they use it doesn't change the result, and you really are soft of stuck with it.

Yeah, I was doing a bit of research for it. But it seems to be random for the normal users, some people say that x model is the quietest and then, in the same forum, someone say the opposite. I guess I'll have to pick whatever of them based in other requirements and pray to not get loud coil whine.

 

[Eximo]

I have also found the coil whine can change with GPU load/FPS. Might just be a matter of setting a slightly lower power limit, or setting a frame rate limit in some games.

Weirdly the game I had the most trouble with was World of Warcraft with my GTX980. I had to turn on V-Sync for that one, otherwise my computer sounded like a motorcycle as the FPS swung up and down.

Coil whine is everywhere, at least for my hearing. My Dell laptop whines with the mouse movement, so does my desktop. 3080 Ti while gaming also makes quite a bit of noise, though headphones are enough to cover it up. Waterblocks tend to amplify coil whine, and I could see the same being true for the truly massive 5090 coolers, going to be nearly as much metal to act as an amplifier. Could even be the vapor chamber providing a nice echo box.

 

[iambetiful]

Culprit might also be the PSU delivering inefficient/insufficient power to the GPU. Once there was a time where i got annoyed by my GPU's coilwhine and did weeks of research to fix it, tho after melting my ear on the back of my running PC i realized, my GPU was just fine while the PSU kept insulting me...

 

[SilverPigtail]

Culprit might also be the PSU delivering inefficient/insufficient power to the GPU. Once there was a time where i got annoyed by my GPU's coilwhine and did weeks of research to fix it, tho after melting my ear on the back of my running PC i realized, my GPU was just fine while the PSU kept insulting me...

Well, It's a 1000W Plus Gold PSU, I highly doubt it. It haven't give me any problems with the RTX 4080 and the others 5080 (Aorus).

 

[ingtar33]

Yeah, I was doing a bit of research for it. But it seems to be random for the normal users, some people say that x model is the quietest and then, in the same forum, someone say the opposite. I guess I'll have to pick whatever of them based in other requirements and pray to not get loud coil whine.

that might mean the frequency the electricity that passes through the caps at are right on the edge of harmonizing. depending on load and game i'm sure it fluctuates and causes a harmonization, then it's a dice role if it's in the audible range.