30xx Series Founders Edition

exhashdotdot · 9 Jan 2021 at 05:13

Received my 3070 FE today and instantly noticed a strange "hiss" emanating from it which is really loud and irritating. I know what coil whine is and this isn't really the same sound (more hissy, less electrical, almost like static). It persists throughout boot and I've had it randomly stop a couple of times when the system is idle; it'll start again when running a game or something. Other things I've noticed is that it doesn't correlate with anything on-screen and the volume doesn't change when changing the voltage. My PSU is a Corsair SF600 Platinum so I don't have a rubbish PSU powering the thing. Unfortunately I don't really have the resources to try and test different PSUs but I never had this issue with my 5700 XT I owned prior.

I'm going to try to get a decent recording of the issue (and maybe work out what frequencies it's at since it's audible) but what would you guys recommend? I've spoken to Nvidia live chat who's passed the problem on to the RMA department but I've also just sent an email to the retailer I bought it from; I'm basically terrified that I won't be able to get a replacement for it.

I'm very disappointed overall but hopefully it's just a dud card I received.

Dirk Diggler · 9 Jan 2021 at 08:49

@exhashdotdot does the "hiss" sound only happen during boot? If so then that's just the fans awaiting the driver kicking in to control the speed. The fans will stop on idle situations as normal unless you create a custom fan curve.

What you describe above sounds normal to me.

the_chez · 9 Jan 2021 at 09:55

No coil whine on my 3070FE, actually very quiet.

exhashdotdot · 9 Jan 2021 at 10:23

Dirk Diggler said:
@exhashdotdot does the "hiss" sound only happen during boot? If so then that's just the fans awaiting the driver kicking in to control the speed. The fans will stop on idle situations as normal unless you create a custom fan curve.

What you describe above sounds normal to me.

nah it happens pretty much constantly. I've randomly had it stop a couple of times but it comes back if I reboot / load a game up. I'll try and get a recording now.

the_chez said:
No coil whine on my 3070FE, actually very quiet.

If this RMA works out then hopefully I get a quiet one too. I was super impressed at just how far you can undervolt the card (was reaching whisper quiet - except for the bloody hissing).

Dirk Diggler · 9 Jan 2021 at 10:30

exhashdotdot said:
nah it happens pretty much constantly. I've randomly had it stop a couple of times but it comes back if I reboot / load a game up. I'll try and get a recording now.

Could you note what the fan speed is when you hear the hiss sound.

Rroff · 9 Jan 2021 at 10:41

Sounds like fan related if it goes away when idle as fans turn off at idle.

I had no coil whine under Windows 7 but some instances of it under Windows 10 for some reason with my 3070FE but after ~100 hours of gaming it seems to have gone away.

Boxfreshchris · 9 Jan 2021 at 10:49

Marky said:
Just booted up Cyberpunk - Raytracing really is so beautiful

But I just tried DLSS... To be honest, I felt like I could tell the difference really easily (in the quality of the image) - I haven't tried "Quality" DLSS yet, but I'm not sure I'd use Performance, as I feel like I can notice it, especially during fast movements of the camera angle. It doesn't feel as ground-breaking as everyone seems to make it out, but I've only tried it in one game, so I can't give a full view on it right now.

Running a 3080FE @ 3440x1440p, settings to high/ultra, RT to ultra, DLSS to quality, getting 60-80fps. It's 80-90fps out in the sticks, closer to 60 in built up areas, occasionally dropping below 60 in very dense scenes.

It's noticeably more capable on Cyberpunk than my 3070 was, with the 3070 I had to compromise on a lot of settings to maintain 50fps, the 3080 allows me to run the game on the settings I want, whilst maintaining 60fps+

Marky · 9 Jan 2021 at 11:01

Boxfreshchris said:
Running a 3080FE @ 3440x1440p, settings to high/ultra, RT to ultra, DLSS to quality, getting 60-80fps. It's 80-90fps out in the sticks, closer to 60 in built up areas, occasionally dropping below 60 in very dense scenes.

It's noticeably more capable on Cyberpunk than my 3070 was, with the 3070 I had to compromise on a lot of settings to maintain 50fps, the 3080 allows me to run the game on the settings I want, whilst maintaining 60fps+

Yeah my original choice was for a 3080 FE, and I think it still is after playing with my 3070. Running Microsoft Flight Simulator without a hitch in max settings is awesome though

I also need to prioritise upgrading my CPU, as it is bottlenecking.

exhashdotdot · 9 Jan 2021 at 12:10

Here's a recording I've made where I've attempted to isolate the sound. There's seems to be two kinds of electrical noise - idle and load. I've filtered out most background but the fan briefly whirrs about half way through.

The recording goes:

idle -> briefly run Quake 2 RTX -> idle

electrical noise -> brief fan + hiss -> hiss

I know it sounds a bit petty but it's really audible; my partner can hear it across the room and fans don't drown it out (mainly because it's quite high pitched - about 18-20 kHz).

[Edit] Perhaps I've narrowed it down to the fan control. I can turn it off if I do this with MSI afterburner:

If I set the fan speed to this:

The sound comes back (even though I think 30% is technically off).

So I'll see if I can work out which fan it is.

spluff · 9 Jan 2021 at 12:45

sounds similar to mine - which is definitely coil whine.......

https://sndup.net/6wwf/Coil_Warzone.m4a

Im learning to live with it - its only audible when there is quietness in a game (which isnt often)

SaBBz · 9 Jan 2021 at 12:53

I had coil whine with my 3070 in some games (mainly COD) but it was coming from my 8 year old PSU rather than the GPU. Upgraded to a Corsair RM750x and its perfect now.

spluff · 9 Jan 2021 at 13:08

SaBBz said:
I had coil whine with my 3070 in some games (mainly COD) but it was coming from my 8 year old PSU rather than the GPU. Upgraded to a Corsair RM750x and its perfect now.

its definitely my card and i have a corsair 860i PSU

exhashdotdot · 9 Jan 2021 at 13:53

Okay, I spent a little more time and I've definitely isolated this down to an issue with the fans. The hiss occurs regardless of RPM it seems but disappears when the fans are turned off.

Here's a recording where I change the fan from off to a bunch of percentages (you'll need headphones)

As you can hear, the "hiss" is very prominent (more so than the actual fans themselves imho).

Again, hopefully i'm not coming across as petty or pedantic.

So the reason it was seemingly random was because my MSI afterburner profile had 30% as the minimum fan speed. So even when I was out of a game, the fans would spin at around 1000 RPM and I'd hear the hiss. It also explains why it would reactivate in-game; the fans would start to spin up.

JediFragger · 9 Jan 2021 at 13:56

Worth running it for a few days to see if it abides, also disable any fan control so it goes into fanless mode on desktop.

exhashdotdot · 9 Jan 2021 at 13:57

JediFragger said:
Worth running it for a few days to see if it abides, also disable any fan control so it goes into fanless mode on desktop.

Yeah it's a strange abrasive sound wouldn't you agree? Maybe these cards really do need to be broken in.

exhashdotdot · 9 Jan 2021 at 14:36

update: the retailer approved my RMA so I guess I'm sending it back for a new 3070!

eeek · 9 Jan 2021 at 14:42

spluff said:
its definitely my card and i have a corsair 860i PSU

Are you sure because a corsair 860i sounds like a cheap Chinese knockoff..

spluff · 9 Jan 2021 at 15:12

eeek said:
Are you sure because a corsair 860i sounds like a cheap Chinese knockoff..

Definitely not cheap or a knockoff

AX860i Digital ATX Power Supply — 860 Watt 80 PLUS® PLATINUM Certified Fully-Modular PSU (UK Plug) (corsair.com)

g67575 · 10 Jan 2021 at 01:58

ppl are still debating which power supplies are best / worst?

best - pretty much any seasonic prime with 10-12 year warranty. but a tad expensive in the last year. 750w should be plently for most pc gamers though I only have a 650w.

10 year old generic psu from the loft? guess the result.

Before the seasonic, I've had EVGA gold, Thermaltake Toughpower and Corsair PSUs, they all went pop after a few years of moderate use.

quite a lot ppl spend a lot on their motherboard, then cheap out on the PSU. really bad idea if you run a power hungry gpu.

XeNoNF50 · 10 Jan 2021 at 02:12

g67575 said:
ppl are still debating which power supplies are best / worst?

best - pretty much any seasonic prime with 10-12 year warranty. but a tad expensive in the last year. 750w should be plently for most pc gamers though I only have a 650w.

10 year old generic psu from the loft? guess the result.

Before the seasonic, I've had EVGA gold, Thermaltake Toughpower and Corsair PSUs, they all went pop after a few years of moderate use.

quite a lot ppl spend a lot on their motherboard, then cheap out on the PSU. really bad idea if you run a power hungry gpu.

After I got my 3080 I got a new psu. Seasonic prime gold 1300w. Does the job.