• Registered: 2014-05-05
  • Posts: 12

Topic: Coil whine-type noise coming through speakers when GPU is under load

Hi,

I've got an RME HDSPe AIO sound card. I'm running it with the latest firmware/drivers on Windows 8.1. When my GPU (MSI 780 Ti GAMING) is under heavy load, for instance, while a benchmark is running, I can hear a whining noise through my speakers that sounds a bit like coil whine. The frequency and type of the noise will change as scenes in the graphics benchmark change.

There is no unwanted noise coming from any of the actual hardware itself, unlike with real coil whine where you'll hear high pitched noises coming from the graphics card (typically) that's caused by capacitors. This noise sounds like coil whine, but it's coming through the speakers.

I tried swapping out the GPU for another one (a Gigabyte GTX 670 OC) to see if it's the same and it is, so it doesn't appear to be my 780 Ti specifically that's causing this.

Any idea what could be causing this?

Many thanks!

  • Registered: 2008-01-01
  • Posts: 3,025

Re: Coil whine-type noise coming through speakers when GPU is under load

The problem is not so much the GPU, but the PC mainboard (+power-supply). I assume that you are using speaker with 3-prong power-plug (earth line)? Does it happen through headphones connected directly to the AIO? If so, which revision number is printed on your AIO board?

  • Registered: 2014-05-05
  • Posts: 12

Re: Coil whine-type noise coming through speakers when GPU is under load

Thanks for the reply, Timur.

The speakers do have a 3 pronged plug, yep. The revision of the AIO is 1.4, so I assume that's OK. I know there were some issues with some older 1.3 revision cards and unwanted noise, but 1.4 is OK, right?

I don't have any headphones to use to do the test at the moment.

Would switching to using the optical output make any difference, assuming this is some kind of interference?

4 Reply by Timur Born (edited by Timur Born 2014-05-05 17:19:06)

  • Registered: 2008-01-01
  • Posts: 3,025

Re: Coil whine-type noise coming through speakers when GPU is under load

Yes, optical would break the loop between PC and speakers, because no ground signal is connected. What's happening is that the mainboard puts voltage (differential to earth) on its ground lines that change depending on GPU, CPU and various other loads. Changing the order of card slots can leads to changes, but likely won't solve the issues, maybe even make them worse, but you can try.

  • Registered: 2014-05-05
  • Posts: 12

Re: Coil whine-type noise coming through speakers when GPU is under load

Thanks. I'll get an optical cable and give that a try, as my powered speakers have an optical input.

Moving cards around is not an option unfortunately, as it's an mATX board with two PCIe 16 slots and a single PCIe 4. The graphics card will not fit in the other slot when a dedicated sound card is fitted as it's too wide.

  • Registered: 2014-05-05
  • Posts: 12

Re: Coil whine-type noise coming through speakers when GPU is under load

The optical cable has solved the problem. smile