What is GPU Coil Whine? What does it sound like and How to Fix it?

Nowadays, creating a silent computer is rather simple. Coil whining, though, is one noise that might be challenging to end it. In addition to being extremely irritating, this high-pitched hissing or scratching sound suggests that something is not functioning properly.

Coil whine is the high-pitched, unpleasant noise that sounds like crickets originating from your graphics card (GPU), less frequently from the voltage regulation modules (VRM) of motherboards and power supplies (PSUs).

Almost all electrical equipment experience this, frequently at a frequency and volume that are audible to humans, especially when the item is enclosed in a case. When the GPU demands more or less power, you may occasionally hear a change in the coil whine’s pitch, most frequently when very high framerates are present.

In this article, I’ll define what is GPU coil whine, review its causes, and show you how to track it down. It will also explain how to get rid of coil whine.

Describe Coil Whining

Coil whine is a high-pitched sound brought on by vibrations in electromagnetic coils. It vibrates with a high, audible frequency when current flows through it, causing the copper wire to vibrate against the core. Coil whine is the term used to describe this irritating sound.

What is GPU coil whine, Coils typically vibrate at frequencies that are too high for us to hear. It is only an issue when they vibrate at an audible frequency.

While coil whining can happen in many different products and parts, it is a problem that occurs more commonly in contemporary PC parts. Motherboard voltage regulator modules (VRMs), power supply, and graphics cards (GPUs).

What is Video Card Coil Whine?

Coil whining is nothing more than an inductor’s coil vibrating as power flows through it. A high-end graphics card could have ten or more massive inductors to assist power its essential parts. This vibration resembles circling a wine glass’ rim with a damp finger.

The high-pitched noise of coil whining makes it easy to identify. It sounds like an electronic high-frequency buzzing, hissing, screeching, or scraping noise. Even while it doesn’t always say the same, if you’re unfortunate enough to be familiar with it, you can instantly identify it.

Capacitor Scream Versus Coil Whine

Capacitor squeal, a term used to describe coil whine, occasionally occurs. Although capacitors can produce high-frequency sounds, inductor coils are almost always to blame for your computer’s high-pitched noise.

Capacity malfunctioning and releasing poisonous gas through the top can produce sound. It may make a high-pitched whistling noise resembling coil whining. Failure capacitors are quickly identifiable because they bulge or have liquid oozing from the top. Due to the piezoelectric effect, ceramic capacitors can produce sounds akin to coil whine; however, this is less frequent in modern PCs.

What Causes Coil Whine?

The coil of an inductor vibrates when electricity flows through it. Coil whining occurs when an inductor’s coil vibrates against its core at a frequency that falls inside our audible range. The vibrations’ amplitude and frequency can vary based on how much current flows through them. The sound changes in pitch and volume as a result.

Coil whining may not always be present on your PC for this reason. The high-pitched whining can fade depending on whether the PC is running smoothly or under strain. Inductor coils with a poor solder connection to the circuit board are also susceptible to coil whine, though this is less typical.

Is Coil Whine Damaging?

Coil whine is not destructive or dangerous, even though it may sound like your computer is having an issue. There is no chance that your PC will be harmed, even though dealing with it is annoying and unpleasant.

Coil whining is a sign that the inductors are operating correctly. They wouldn’t create any sound if they were damaged and unable to pass current. Almost every electronic gadget emits coil whine, though it is typically not audible. There is no need to worry about harm because everything is completely normal.

How to stop coil whine? There are several strategies to lessen or eliminate coil whining.

1.  Set A Strict FPS Limit

You may be playing games at incredibly high framerates without recognizing it if you have a reasonably powerful GPU, you’re running relatively old games or both. You’ll most likely be playing games at uncapped, irregular framerates that might cause screen tearing if the refresh rate is higher than the framerate, especially if you don’t have in-game FPS limitations or V-Sync enabled.

Set a 60 FPS cap in RivaTuner Statistics Server or your game if it supports FPS caps if your display has a refresh rate of 60 Hz. Although V-Sync is an alternative, it can cause delays that an FPS limit by itself does not.

Cap your framerate at or below your native refresh rate if your monitor’s refresh rate is 120, 144, 240, or another high speed. If you want to drastically reduce coil whine at frequencies higher than 240 Hz for gaming, you might still need to cap at 144 Hz or below. The display and the GPU you must affect how much room you allow between your FPS cap and refresh rate.

2.  Turn Off GPU Overclocking

Any type of GPU overclocking can increase the amount of power passing through the GPU, which might increase coil whine. Disabling overclock is one of the first things you should do to repair the problem if you have been overclocking your graphics card and are now hearing coil whining.

If doing so is successful, you could still be able to overclock your graphics card; just make more precise adjustments and aim to lower voltage as much as possible. However, the most common solution to a GPU overclocked coil whine is just to stop overclocking.

3.  Turn On Your GPU’s Low Power

The driver page for the manufacturer of your GPU. You can activate whatever the manufacturer designates as an Eco or Low Power Mode for your GPU. You can also enable a Power Saver Power Plan/Mode in your preferred operating system if you don’t want to purchase GPU modifying software or your software doesn’t support a function like this.

Intensive tasks will perform significantly slower than they otherwise could because this will affect your complete system rather than just your GPU. For example, if you are using Gigabyte G1 Gaming Nvidia GTX 1070 coil whine.

4.  GPU Undervoltage

Undervolting your GPU is something you might want to consider if you want to have as little of an impact on performance as possible and don’t mind performing manual tweaking. Using your preferred GPU tuning tools, a trustworthy benchmark, and a little perseverance will enable you to undervolt your GPU.

But if you do it right, you should be able to maintain the GPU’s factory performance levels while using less power, producing less heat, and—most importantly—emitting less coil whine.

5.  Check PSU Performance and Replace as Necessary

Given that coil whining results from soaring electricity, it is a power-related problem. Coil whine is created because of capacitors vibrating at a high frequency due to this electricity. Although the graphics card is usually to blame for this noise, it may not necessarily be the graphics card.

Have you looked at your Power Supply before blaming your GPU, especially if you’ve tried the preceding solutions and didn’t seem to help. What is the efficiency rating of 80+ or what is its supported Wattage about the wattage of your GPU?

People who don’t double-check their specs before buying risk pushing their PSUs to the limit, especially with today’s high-power graphics cards. Generally, you want a power supply that meets or exceeds the recommended wattage shown on your GPU’s product page and an efficiency rating of 80+ Gold or greater.

If you still get coil whine despite having a high-quality, modular power supply that satisfies these specifications, your PSU is probably not the problem. If you can, try a different graphics card if you’re still unsure.

Is GPU Coil Whine Normally?

Is coil whine bad? Fortunately, coil whine doesn’t always indicate a problem with your gear. It may sound like your equipment is practically shaking since a lot of power is flowing through it, but nothing is being harmed or coming loose.