What is coil whine, and how does it affect my video card?

Last Update: 2021/01/08 14:42

Coil whine is in no way harmful for your card, and does not affect performance or longevity.

Coil whine is simply the vibration of the coil in an inductor as the power passes through it. On a high end graphics card, ten or more large inductors would help provide power to critical components on the card.

This vibration is similar to running a damp finger around the rim of a wine glass. Every inductor in every electronic device has some coil whine, but the vast majority of inductors whine well outside the hearing range of humans. On occasion, an inductor coil vibrates at a frequency in the range our ear can detect. This is particularly common if your card is processing 3D frames at a high rate, 100 FPS+. Coil whine can be particularly prevalent when in a game menu and no FPS cap or V-sync is enabled. You may notice greatly reduced coil when when enabling V-sync as a result.

The combination of hardware components in your system can also affect the amount of coil whine you experience. Different motherboards and power supplies tend to have biggest affect, but adding or removing other components can also change the degree of the coil whine heard.

If you are experiencing severe coil whine with your video card, it's highly recommended to either test the card in a completely different system, or test with another power supply to make sure the whine is isolated to the card itself. If the video card continues to whine badly in either situation, please use the links below to contact support.

To contact EVGA Customer Support:

Login to your EVGA account and submit a support ticket


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