Coil noise just started on my sons EVGA 2080 Super FTW3 Ultra

For the record, I know what coil whine is and I know it doesn't damage anything...it 's just slightly annoying.

History on this setup

• We built this computer in Dec of 2019. It's a Ryzen 3800x, Seasonic Prime 850w, EVGA 2080 Super FTW3 Ultra Gaming, Asus Tuf Gaming X570 + Wifi mobo
• He had an APC Back-UPS 600 from his previous build, but it didin't work for the above computer because whenever he would start up a game, the UPS would just emit a constant scream as it was technically overloaded.
• We just plugged his PC and monitors into the surge only outlets on the APC and turned off the power and that is how it has been running until today
• We noticed no coil while

Today, I went out and picked up a Cyber Power 1350VA UPS and plugged his computer into it. I would rather have his machine protected from power outages. Booted up his PC, all was well and I was watching his power draw on the readout. Got his idle averages and had him power up a game, wanted to see where the power draw would go to. He was at about 45% load on the UPS, which is good, but had coil whine coming from his EVGA 2080 Super FTW3 Ultra Gaming.

So, I figured, well maybe this Cyber Power UPS is crap (I usually stick with APC, but wanted to save a few $$'s). So, we plugged stuff back in the way we had it. Everything into just the surge side of the old UPS which was turned off and coil whine was gone when we went into a game, and were gaming with high frame rates on his 144hz monitor.

Then we started to troubleshoot the new UPS to see if we could find a config that would work, but we couldn't. Always would have the coil whine under load while gaming at high FPS.

I went to my office and grabbed my 2 week old APC Back-UPS 1500 (that runs my Ryzen 9 5900x and EVGA 3080 FTW3 Ultra gaming without issue). We plugged that in, and he still got the coil whine.

So, that left me thinking.....it might be the whole pure sine wave versus simulated sine wave issue. But when the UPS is plugged into AC power/'mains...it passes a pure sinewave signal, so that should not be it.

Therefore, decided at this point, just gonna return the new 1350VA UPS and put him back the way it was and come back to the problem another day.

However, now we get coil whine plugged back into the original UPS, turned off, just on the surge side. WTH...I was able to go back and forth testing this earlier and this configuration always worked, but now we get coil noise. I then pulled the old UPS and put in a nice home theater power strip thing, and same issue. Even with no UPS in his room, still getting coil whine out of the 2080 Super.

Updated the NVIDIA drivers...although I was 99.9% sure that wouldn't fix the issue. Since we didn't have any issues earlier in the evening.

My son doesn't really care. He games with a headset on and cannot hear the noise whatsoever when he is gaming. It just bugs me that I took something that WAS working 100% and somehow caused a change.

Again, I realize that coil whine is normal, it happens on high end cards, and is not an issue...but it's odd that I didn't have it before. if we intentionally limit FPS to 60 in game, no noise. If we play on his other 2 60Hz monitors, no noise. It's only when he is under load to his 144Hz display that we notice the noise. When the game goes to a cut scene or something with less load, noise drops or goes away entirely. So, it's 100% a coil whine issue.

Wondered if any video card gurus here have ever had any success with anything involving this? Reseating the video card, reconnecting the 8 pin power cables, etc?

RMA on the card is a non option. We bought the card from EVGA directly from their B-stock program and the product has a product code that is apparently only covered by a 1 year warranty...so we are 2 months out of the warranty period. Also, I've read tons of stories from people who did RMA cards due to coil whine and the same problems happened with their replacement cards too. It's like luck of the silicon lottery, just luck of the coils themselves.

I wonder how available a GTX 2080 Super would be, even if an RMA was an option. For sale new, they seem to be only available for resellers (aka scalpers) at absurd prices. Maybe the makers maintain a stock for replacements.

Does the card whine when you beat on it using Furmark? My 2080 Super doesn't. (Not bragging.)

I dont know on the testing. He's gaming now on it and was annoyed that I spent so much time on it earlier.

Generally with coil whine type noise, it either happens right when new or it doesn't.



A

Ghot said:

@pparks1

Might try undervolting it... just a tad.

I may try that. I undervolt my 3080 with msi afterburner. It runs great that way.

Thanks for the suggestion.

With EVGA 99% of the time you get noise , and usually coming out of the fan (Not quite "Coil Noise" as this usually comes out of capacitors or looped around coils but still , often people call fans noise coil noise too) .

So just to role this out figure a way to slow down the spinning fan (Maybe by applying little pressure on the center cap but only for a second) see if the noise is gone , as there lay a possibility those fans need to be serviced and yes this could happen on fairly new cards of theirs if you get them stressed for prolonged times .

You could very well remove the GFX card, check out if anything looks loose, clean it up all dust with compressed air taking care you dont jet off any liquid from spray onto the card (exposed components/board its very very very cold and may damage components inadvertedly), and if you have some mineral oil (clear kind component safe stuff) oiling the fans on the card is also a must, some fans have a hole for this purpose.

I would really dismantle the card removing the fans and even heatsinks and reseating heatsinks with some performance paste, because at this stage why not. Before reseating the heatsinks look around if you see any components that have coiled copper around, its rare in components, but coiled copper may loosen up over time, this is common usually in transformers and the like, and the solution for these kinds of things is to recoil the copper, by removing it and coiling it tight. Same length exactly (this is important).

If you dont feel comfortable with any of this, a electronics repair shop should be able to recoil anything or even replace like for like affected components. Assuming the professional is capable, some are not.

But aside from this, I would have to actually be next to the affected device to make a proper diagnostic.

Regards.