I am currently running an SLI setup with 2 watercooled 680's (reference boards from MSI) Up to now experience has been great and the silence was perfect. However I noticed last night when I jumped onto Guild wars 2, that I could hear a buzzing sound come from one of the GPU's. I haven't identified which one yet, if its one or both. When I did a little digging on coil buzz I saw many posters stating that this changed in pitch/noise level by overclocking or underclocking the cards. Applying V-sync also has no effect. In my case I have the same volume or same buzz regardless of OC or stock values. This noise only occurs when in a game, and the moment of closing the game the buzz disappears. I haven't tweaked anything differently to cause this sound to occur aside from my GPU OC which I had been using since watercooling about 2months ago. I also wonder if it could actually be the mobo causing the sound, although this is difficult to locate do to the shield that comes with the sabertooth. Current setup is this Mobo: Sabertooth Z77 CPU: 3570k Memory:Ripjaw 8gb 2133mhz GPU: MSI reference 680SLI PSU: Seasonic ultra quiet 850W Is this scenario above actually the coils acting up? I have even tried to locate the source by using an eraser on certain exposed areas of the GPUs in the hope something was loose, but the buzz remains. any advice would be very much appreciated.
Might just be good old coil whine. If you have MSI afterburner or anything with a frame limiter, try limiting your frames to 60 (or 59 like I do) or turn on v sync and see if the buzzing goes away. Just re-read your post and feel like an idiot, but I do have a question. Does the buzzing only occur in GW2? I know that even at 60 FPS I get some whine in guild wars for some odd reason. It's not very loud however, most the time I don't notice. Other than that I'mma keep my gab shut. If it isn't whine induced by stupid high FPS, I don't know.
Do you get the same noise when stress testing with OCCT and the like? @Zeroba: capping at 59FPS causes hitching every second. Look closely. Cap to 60.
Have not tried OCCT. I'll check out it tonight when I'm home. I haven't attempted stress testing as the noise began late last night. I simply opened a few GPU intensive games that were readily available, AC3, BF3, GW2, Tombraider. All gave same result. Performance has not changed in anyway. The sound doesnt appear to be detrimental at all, however I don't particular want to pull apart the loops etc to investigate it in depth unless I really have to. As for the noise. It occurs in any game at all. It has only recently developed though. The card was 100% silent previously, and capping the FPS to 60 had no effect in MSI afterburner.
And I don't know if the noise has to be specific. But it isn't actually a whining sound. It's more like an buzzing noise if that makes a difference at all the the coil whine determination.
^ Was thinking the same thing. It's probably a whine. Also, try decreasing your fan speeds with msi afterburner, it might just stop the whine.
They are watercooled. Think I'll just use the old stick to the ear technique and try and locate the source for definite later on. You are probably 99% correct that its a coil issue, but the coil whine on my old 8800gtx is not the same as what's being produced here. It sounds more like an intermittent random buzz like some loose component.
I have the same problem with my SLI Titans, it certainly sounds like your getting the same issue with coil whine. The easiest way to identify which card is to disable SLI and stress the single card, obviously doesn't rule out that both might be doing it but I'd say its unlikely. As for resolving it - Short of an RMA there is not much you can do that wouldn't affect the warranty. However I have seen a number of people who report that overtime this affect has lessened and eventually disappeared. I'm just leaving mine for now as I don't want to drain my watercooling, hopefully it will disappear overtime. If not then I will RMA it before the end of the warranty!