# RTX 2060 - Dreaded coil whine



## Wozzer (Feb 6, 2019)

Hi all,

Just built a new gaming rig, spec as follows:

CPU: 2600x
GPU: PNY XLR8 RTX 2060
Mobo: MSI B450-F Gaming
PSU: EVGA 600 W1, 100-W1-0600-K3 

I've got the dreaded coil whine during heavy loads. I've heard mixed reviews on 
- upgrading PSU
- RMA'ing the card
- living with it

I did my research and figured the 600W power supply from EVGA would be more than sufficient. Is this correct?

Is it likely to change if i RMA the card? Will this coil whine reduce its life span?

Thanks in advance,


----------



## Wozzer (Feb 11, 2019)

Thought i'd provide a quick update;

RMA'd the card. New card has the same issue.


----------



## MrGenius (Feb 11, 2019)

Coil whine is not something you need to concern yourself with as far as the operation of the card. It's 100% harmless. I don't get why people make such a fuss about it. Well...other than the fact that they have no idea why they shouldn't. Or are just very picky about their computer making any sound at all when it's running. Which I sorta get...just not when it's due to coil whine. Which is what coils do. To one extent or another. Some are louder than others of course. But so what? Never in a million years is it something that I would let bother me. I actually think it sounds kinda cool honestly. Let's me know there's hard work being done.


----------



## sam_86314 (Feb 11, 2019)

My GTX 780 had coil whine so bad you could hear it from across the room. My current card also has it. 

In other words, coil whine is completely normal and harmless.


----------



## kastriot (Feb 11, 2019)

Buy another model or manufacturer until you find the "one".


----------



## Wozzer (Feb 11, 2019)

MrGenius said:


> Coil whine is not something you need to concern yourself with as far as the operation of the card. It's 100% harmless. I don't get why people make such a fuss about it. Well...other than the fact that they have no idea why they shouldn't. Or are just very picky about their computer making any sound at all when it's running. Which I sorta get...just not when it's due to coil whine. Which is what coils do. To one extent or another. Some are louder than others of course. But so what? Never in a million years is it something that I would let bother me. I actually think it sounds kinda cool honestly. Let's me know there's hard work being done.



Now i've read up about coil whine, i'm not as concerned. 

As for making a fuss - I don't think its unreasonable being unhappy with it sounding like a bee. It may not be the 'norm' but that's only because people put up with it by using headphones.


----------



## Nxodus (Feb 11, 2019)

My RTX 2060 also has coil whine. I'm not really bothered by it, I just enable V-Sync an it stops. I don't really care about higher than 60 FPS gameplay anyway


----------



## eidairaman1 (Feb 11, 2019)

Wozzer said:


> Now i've read up about coil whine, i'm not as concerned.
> 
> As for making a fuss - I don't think its unreasonable being unhappy with it sounding like a bee. It may not be the 'norm' but that's only because people put up with it by using headphones.



Well you can always attempt to switch power supply brands but that doesn't guarantee nothing Norway to counterbalance coil line is to enable vsync or g-sync


----------



## Juventas (Feb 11, 2019)

Wozzer said:


> As for making a fuss - I don't think its unreasonable being unhappy with it sounding like a bee. It may not be the 'norm' but that's only because people put up with it by using headphones.


I have a "zero noise" open air computer.  It has no moving parts except for an RTX 2070 with fan stop.  Outside of games, I have to put my ear up to it to hear a faint buzz.  In games, the fans turn on, but the buzz becomes louder than the fans.  The only reason this doesn't bother me is because I always play games with a headset on.

I would gladly pay a premium for a card that achieves truely zero coil whine.  I believe it's possible because I've listened to laptops with dedicated graphics can do this (e.g. MacBook Pros, yeah yeah I know).  I believe there's enough variety and competition in the graphics card market that if enough of us ask for it, someone will eventually offer it.


----------



## sam_86314 (Feb 11, 2019)

Nxodus said:


> My RTX 2060 also has coil whine. I'm not really bothered by it, I just enable V-Sync an it stops. I don't really care about higher than 60 FPS gameplay anyway


Yeah, in most cases limiting your frame rate can solve the issue. I only get really loud high pitched coil whine on loading screens or any other time my frame rate shoots into the thousands.


----------



## ArbitraryAffection (Feb 11, 2019)

Inductors vibrate a bit when they operate and it makes a buzzing sound (which i can hear) this is perfectly normal and is basically just how they work. Some are noisier than others, my 570 has a buzzing noise similar to that and it changes when you look around in a video game. *shrug*

I know how it feels btw, to be affected by this, it used to drive me _insane. _I would RMA literally 2 or 3 times before just getting a refund and it really upset me (anxiety doesnt help it). But now it honestly doesn't bother me. Pretty much all of the video cards i've owned have this noise (I have quite sensitive hearing too).

However: Really bad whine can be caused by electrical wiring in the house, some extension leads and/or surge protectors or a power supply. My friend's EVGA 500W bronze power supply whined massively at his house but when he sold it to me it was silent (i live in a 2014 new build house). So YMMV.


----------



## c2DDragon (Feb 11, 2019)

Coil whine likely depends on the products forming the components.
Changing for the same model & brand will do nothing because the same electonic components are used.
Either get a refund and try another brand as @kastriot said or deal with it if it's not annoying, it will not explode don't worry (I mean, it's not supposed to happen ).

600W is enough but if the PSU does abnormal noise, RMA it.

About life span, any component have his life span reduced as soon as you put power in it. Coil whine is just the noise caused by some amount of power. Your components (CPU/GPU/RAM...) will die faster if you use them at 100% h24 7/7 with or without noise. Now to tell number of days I can't, it could be years.
It's just noise. Now if you get artifacts it's another story.


----------



## eidairaman1 (Feb 11, 2019)

Juventas said:


> I have a "zero noise" open air computer.  It has no moving parts except for an RTX 2070 with fan stop.  Outside of games, I have to put my ear up to it to hear a faint buzz.  In games, the fans turn on, but the buzz becomes louder than the fans.  The only reason this doesn't bother me is because I always play games with a headset on.
> 
> I would gladly pay a premium for a card that achieves truely zero coil whine.  I believe it's possible because I've listened to laptops with dedicated graphics can do this (e.g. MacBook Pros, yeah yeah I know).  I believe there's enough variety and competition in the graphics card market that if enough of us ask for it, someone will eventually offer it.



Your last comment is apples to oranges, desktop gpus utilize more power for higher performance


----------



## qubit (Feb 11, 2019)

I say get a refund if you can and buy another brand. In particular, look out for reviews of various 2060s and check that it was reported good for coil whine - TPU reviews are a great place to start. Also, while the PSU might affect it somewhat, the lion's share of the blame is on the card.

As for others who say that coil whine is nothing to worry about, I disagree. Perhaps for you maybe, but everyone has different preferences and tolerances.

While it may not mean that the card will die, loud whine is annoying AF and can drive you barmy. I hate it and so make sure that the cards I buy are rated good for this. Usually the ones with quieter coolers also tend to have less coil whine, but not always. Heck, my Zotac GTX 1080 in my specs was rated as good for this and it's lived up to its promise: I don't hear it unless it's being driven hard and rendering at a high framerate. Running the deprecated Furmark generates noticeable whine, but then this program is designed to stress it to the max and NVIDIA says not to run it, so it doesn't count. For any regular game, locked at 144Hz vsync, it's as quiet as a mouse. Glorious.


----------



## Shambles1980 (Feb 11, 2019)

any coil whine i ever had was due to the psu, but the 970 iirc had massive ammounts of people complaining about coil whine on release. i cant blame all those on psu's


----------



## qubit (Feb 11, 2019)

Hehe, it's well worth a read. 

Anyway, both links work for me, but here they are in case it helps make a difference for you. Enjoy!

https://www.techpowerup.com/forums/...t-thing-you-ever-did-to-break-your-pc.232467/

https://www.techpowerup.com/forums/threads/qubits-gt-1030-v-gtx-580-showdown.235223/


----------



## Nxodus (Feb 11, 2019)

qubit said:


> Hehe, it's well worth a read.
> 
> Anyway, both links work for me, but here they are in case it helps make a difference for you. Enjoy!
> 
> ...




The first link is telling me "Oops! We ran into some problems. You do not have permission to view this page or perform this action. "


----------



## qubit (Feb 11, 2019)

Nxodus said:


> The first link is telling me "Oops! We ran into some problems. You do not have permission to view this page or perform this action. "


ygpm


----------



## Sasqui (Feb 11, 2019)

Wozzer said:


> don't think its unreasonable being unhappy with it sounding like a bee.



It sounded more like someone getting tasered in your video.  Really annoying.  I had one reference Vega 64 that did that though not so loud.  Seemed to work fine.


----------



## hat (Feb 12, 2019)

MrGenius said:


> Coil whine is not something you need to concern yourself with as far as the operation of the card. It's 100% harmless. I don't get why people make such a fuss about it. Well...other than the fact that they have no idea why they shouldn't. Or are just very picky about their computer making any sound at all when it's running. Which I sorta get...just not when it's due to coil whine. Which is what coils do. To one extent or another. Some are louder than others of course. But so what? Never in a million years is it something that I would let bother me. I actually think it sounds kinda cool honestly. Let's me know there's hard work being done.


It may be "normal", but damn man, coil whine is from the devil himself. Can't stand high pitched electrical noises like that.


----------



## lexluthermiester (Feb 12, 2019)

MrGenius said:


> Coil whine is not something you need to concern yourself with as far as the operation of the card. It's 100% harmless. I don't get why people make such a fuss about it.


Simple, it's noisy and irritating as hell.


MrGenius said:


> Never in a million years is it something that I would let bother me. I actually think it sounds kinda cool honestly. Let's me know there's hard work being done.


Not everyone is bothered by it. To be fair, coil whine is something that shouldn't happen or be heard by the end user. They likely just sent him back the same card when it didn't fail testing.


----------



## John Naylor (Feb 12, 2019)

If I can sit at my desk and tell the PC is ON, I'm dissatisfied... it must end.  It's like having a Moe-Skeetoe buzzing around your ear when you trying to sleep.   I have found the most success switching PSUs.


----------



## lexluthermiester (Feb 12, 2019)

John Naylor said:


> I have found the most success switching PSUs.


That's possible. The card might be reacting poorly to a PSU that is giving less than great power to the card, or perhaps not enough.
@Wozzer
Have you tried a different PSU?


----------



## qubit (Feb 12, 2019)

lexluthermiester said:


> Not everyone is bothered by it. To be fair, coil whine is something that shouldn't happen or be heard by the end user. *They likely just sent him back the same card when it didn't fail testing.*


Indeed, this is why I take careful note of the serial number and photograph the card for distinguishing marks. If there aren't any, I'll add something very discreet that they won't notice and check when I get the returned card/mobo/HDD etc. I've not been stiffed yet.


----------



## Sasqui (Feb 12, 2019)

qubit said:


> Indeed, this is why I take careful note of the serial number and photograph the card for distinguishing marks. If there aren't any, I'll add something very discreet that they won't notice and check when I get the returned card/mobo/HDD etc. I've not been stiffed yet.



And I thought I was the only one who did that lol


----------



## lexluthermiester (Feb 12, 2019)

Sasqui said:


> And I thought I was the only one who did that lol


I always take a permanent marker and mark the edge of the PCB with a binary number(in dots). Harmless and irremovable. Got one back once. Put it back in the mail, called and gave them an ear full. They overnighted me a replacement which was a better product.


----------



## qubit (Feb 12, 2019)

lexluthermiester said:


> I always take a permanent marker and mark the edge of the PCB *with a binary number(in dots).* Harmless and irremovable. Got one back once. Put it back in the mail, called and gave them an ear full. They overnighted me a replacement which was a better product.


Nerd level 10. The qubit approvez.


----------



## c2DDragon (Feb 12, 2019)

I know the feeling I can't bear coil whine neither (Sapphire 290X, KFA² GTX970 two awful cards I had about this).
My build is focused on silence and I'm impressed by the Gigabyte Aorus, OC at 1740Mhz (turbo goes to 2050) when I play I just hear the normal sound of the card, what it is supposed to do, I can barely hear the fans and that there is power into it, it might come from the VRM but clearly it's a regular sound and not coil whine or any irregular irritating sound, my next graphic card will be a Gigabyte for sure.

I think the best is to get a refund and change the brand if like many you don't play with fans at maximum, you have more chance to get the nice pick. Read great reviews too to make the good choice.


----------



## Wozzer (Feb 12, 2019)

qubit said:


> Indeed, this is why I take careful note of the serial number and photograph the card for distinguishing marks. If there aren't any, I'll add something very discreet that they won't notice and check when I get the returned card/mobo/HDD etc. I've not been stiffed yet.



I did think about this - so I actually insisted I keep the card whilst they sent me a replacement. 



lexluthermiester said:


> Have you tried a different PSU?



I haven't as honestly, I can't be bothered. I spent some considerable time on the cable management but i'll consider it as a last resort. 

My best option is looking like an exchange to the Gigabyte 2060 perhaps.


----------



## terroralpha (Feb 13, 2019)

The gigabyte 2080ti windforce OC in my main rig is dead silent. I hear nothing from it. the gigabyte 2080 windforce OC (non Ti) in my other rig sounds like a hornet’s nest. It’s absolutely unbearable. I’m probably going to RMA it. Or maybe take some hot glue to it

Both cards are in custom loops. Bykski waterblock on the Ti, alphacool GPX-N plexi on the non-Ti


----------



## Mescalamba (Feb 26, 2019)

Its mostly tied to components used. Better ones dont do this. Most of my upper-end graphic cards from MSI were fine. Also XFX. Sapphire on other hand was quite disappointing.

My current Powerdevil whines a bit too, thankfully its pretty low pitch and it has jet-like fans so doesnt matter really, you cant hear yourself thinking, let alone some coils.


----------



## eidairaman1 (Feb 26, 2019)

Mescalamba said:


> Its mostly tied to components used. Better ones dont do this. Most of my upper-end graphic cards from MSI were fine. Also XFX. Sapphire on other hand was quite disappointing.
> 
> My current Powerdevil whines a bit too, thankfully its pretty low pitch and it has jet-like fans so doesnt matter really, you cant hear yourself thinking, let alone some coils.



Sapphire would of gladly accepted a rma for coil whine


----------



## lexluthermiester (Feb 26, 2019)

eidairaman1 said:


> Sapphire would of gladly accepted a rma for coil whine


I can verify this. Have had to RMA cards for this very reason. All card makers will accept a GFX card back for coil-whine.


----------

