Weird noise coming from Graphics card - Only when stressed

[Djak372]

Problem

- The graphics card is making a high pitched noise, that ressembles the sound produced by a rattlesnake, when stressed.
- I have recently been experiencing lag spikes while playing games, and I believe they are linked to this noise, as I have never had lag spikes of that sort.

Solutions tried

-Install different versions of ATI Catalyst
-Remove the graphics card and replace it in its socket
-Clean the graphics card

Hardware

GPU : Power-Color HD Radeon 7950 PCS+
Motherboard : ASUS B85M-E/SCM
CPU : Intel I5-4460
RAM : 8G Kingston 1866 Mhz
SSD : 120G Neutron GTX Corsair

***Note : I have a mp3 recording of the sound, but I do not know how to share it here***

 

[Entomber]

The sound only recently started? Had it been working relatively silently before?

 

[Djak372]

This is a brand new graphics card I received from Powercolor since the other had died. I'm pretty sure the sound only started recently. I am also convinced that the original card did not make that sound.

 

[Entomber]

In that case, you are experiencing the wonderfully annoying phenomenon known as coil whine: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coil_noise

You can either return it again, or try to live with it.

 

[Djak372]

I see. Thank you for helping me find out what it was ! As I have read that it doesn't affect performance, I will probably just try to live with it.

Isn't it strange though that I only hear the ''coil whine'' when I am running games or during benchmarks ? I hear no strange sound otherwise.

 

[Entomber]

it's not strange, since the coils only reach the resonant frequency at a certain amount of power being pushed through them.