Asus GTX970 STRIX

They make noise, too.

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Aneon
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Re: Asus GTX970 STRIX

Post by Aneon » Wed Oct 08, 2014 9:45 am

quest_for_silence wrote:Well, it's hard to troubleshoot with every parts in the case: it'd be better to take apart the rig, and to put the PSU as far as you can from the GPU. Obviously, if it were possible.
Yeah, I agree. I could try to move the GPU to one PCI-E slot further away from the PSU at least. In my original setup I tried to keep some space between the GPU and CPU fan, but it probably doesn't make a difference (my computer building skills are pretty low-leveled unfortunately).
audigy32 wrote:I have encountered the same noise on 3d menus, when the fps goes up like crazy ( order of hundreds or thousands)
Be sure to check the box in the nVidia control panel and enable Vsync - On .
So no more noise in menus
You're right that it's probably related to a very high fps. I usually try to avoid vsync because of the input lag it adds. But thanks for the tip, it's one possible solution.

Abula
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Re: Asus GTX970 STRIX

Post by Abula » Wed Oct 08, 2014 9:54 am

Aneon wrote:You're right that it's probably related to a very high fps. I usually try to avoid vsync because of the input lag it adds. But thanks for the tip, it's one possible solution.
Try to consider G-Sync for the future, all the new Asus cards support it (from what i know), and some Asus monitors support it.

Aneon
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Re: Asus GTX970 STRIX

Post by Aneon » Wed Oct 08, 2014 4:37 pm

Great news!

I read up some on vsync and gave the global vsync option in Nvidia's Control Panel a try (3D Settings -> Manage 3D settings -> Global settings -> Vsync), which enables it for all applications. I set vsync to on and combined this with changing "Maximum pre-rendered frames" to 1 (in the same list). The latter reduced the input lag of vsync significantly, and now it's non-existent or barely noticable in all games I've tested. No more sluggish in-game mouse.

From what I've read, input lag with vsync might still be a problem if the GPU cannot render at the same fps as the monitor's refresh rate (60 in my case), but considering how powerful the GTX 970 is, this is no problem with most current gen games. As a sidenote, this made me a bit more sceptical of 120 hz monitors, as keeping a steady 120 fps is harder than 60 fps, so they might have to struggle more with input lag issues.

With vsync enabled I get no more coil whine as expected. This might not work for all types of coil whine, but as mine was related to high fps situations such as in-game menus this seems like a logical solution. This also gets rid of annoying screen tearing and physics problems in older games like Skyrim. As an added bonus, the GPU should be less stressed as well, meaning that the fans will run slower, and quieter.

As you can understand, I'm very happy right now. Thanks all for your advice.

Aneon
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Re: Asus GTX970 STRIX

Post by Aneon » Wed Oct 08, 2014 6:20 pm

Did some more tests. "Adaptive" vsync seems like a better choice, since it also reduced input lag in BioShock Infinite, while keeping the other games intact. Adaptive vsync is supposed to disable vsync when running at lower than 60 fps (your monitor's refresh rate). A bit strange since the benchmark tool says it's running at 60 fps and I see no screen tearing at all. Well, I'm not complaining, it's working great.

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Re: Asus GTX970 STRIX

Post by Tzupy » Thu Oct 09, 2014 9:04 am


mcm77
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Re: Asus GTX970 STRIX

Post by mcm77 » Thu Oct 16, 2014 7:36 am

Hi,

I found this thread very useful as I am planning on buying one of these 3 cards; currently leaning towards the Palit as it is:
1. cheaper,
2. readily available in the UK (unlike the Asus which is on preorder),
3. smaller (both thinner and shorter).

I've got a question related to your experience with these cards: When you say that the fan noise under load is audible, could please let me know the distance at which you hear it and how far from the PC you need to be to make it inaudible (considering a very quiet room)?

In my case the card will be in combined HTPC + gaming PC at a distance of at least 3.5m.

Thanks,
Martin

UK_Peter
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Re: Asus GTX970 STRIX

Post by UK_Peter » Thu Oct 16, 2014 12:56 pm

Abula wrote:but i would love to see manufactures give samples to SPCR specially since they are building semi passive GPUs.
If we pester the manufacturers (on Twitter, by email) asking them to donate to SPCR, we have much more chance of SPCR getting samples, because it shows the manufacturers there is demand.

It's worked before for cases and I don't see any reason why it wouldn't work for gfx cards too.

bbalex
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Re: Asus GTX970 STRIX

Post by bbalex » Sat Oct 18, 2014 12:29 pm

mcm77 wrote:Hi,

I found this thread very useful as I am planning on buying one of these 3 cards; currently leaning towards the Palit as it is:
1. cheaper,
2. readily available in the UK (unlike the Asus which is on preorder),
3. smaller (both thinner and shorter).
Just a tiny note: the Palit JetStream is actually thicker than all the others, requiring 2.5 slots. The thinnest of them all is the MSI TwiFrozr, which has brackets for two slots, but it's in fact a little bit thinner than that.

I'm afraid I can't help you with the other questions, I'll only add that it's impossible to make the card "inaudible". Since it has fans, it's impossible to not hear it. Hopefully, the fans only start when having to render 3D, and the card would be silent while using 2D applications. Finally, it all depends on how you define "inaudible" though - in my case "inaudible" is when the only noise I can hear is the very faint tinnitus in my ears (but that's about as extreme as these things go). :)

Aneon
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Re: Asus GTX970 STRIX

Post by Aneon » Sat Oct 18, 2014 7:03 pm

mcm77 wrote:I've got a question related to your experience with these cards: When you say that the fan noise under load is audible, could please let me know the distance at which you hear it and how far from the PC you need to be to make it inaudible (considering a very quiet room)?

In my case the card will be in combined HTPC + gaming PC at a distance of at least 3.5m.
I think it all depends on what load you're planning to put it through. Regarding the Asus Strix 970, when the fans are at 100%, they're very noisy at all distances (I sit at 1 m). But because it's such as powerful and well-cooled card, I haven't seen the fans go above 50% in practical use. Playing older games such as Skyrim and Bioshock Infinite at max settings usually leave it whisper quiet (inaudible or near-inaudible), because the fans don't need to work above 30-40% (below 30% they apparently shut off).

For some next gen graphics, such as the Elemental demo from Unreal Engine 4, it also stayed surprisingly quiet. Trying to push it with Unigen Heaven Benchmark which ran at 40 fps at 100% load, it didn't exceed 70 degrees C and the fans didn't spin above 50%. At 50% the fans are definitely audible, even from 3.5m, but I don't think the sound is that annoying or loud compared to other stock coolers.

Just make sure you enable global adaptive vsync to stress the GPU less in older games and avoid coil whine at higher fps.

I guess the card will grow noisier as time passes, because games will become more demanding. But considering I usually don't see it above 50%, I'm not too worried. Right now it stays completely silent playing most games from my Steam collection.
Last edited by Aneon on Sun Oct 19, 2014 12:29 pm, edited 1 time in total.

bbalex
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Re: Asus GTX970 STRIX

Post by bbalex » Sun Oct 19, 2014 11:22 am

There is a fourth GTX 970 card with semi-passive operation, through an official firmware update: the EVGA GTX 970 ACX 2.0.
Link to update instructions here.

The EVGA forum post makes it clear the semi-passive mode is not available on ACX 1.0 cards, and will never be, so be careful when ordering. :)

quest_for_silence
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Re: Asus GTX970 STRIX

Post by quest_for_silence » Sun Oct 19, 2014 12:27 pm

bbalex wrote:There is a fourth GTX 970 card with semi-passive operation

Possibly up to 33°C ?

mcm77
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Re: Asus GTX970 STRIX

Post by mcm77 » Mon Oct 20, 2014 6:02 am

bbalex wrote:
mcm77 wrote:Hi,

I found this thread very useful as I am planning on buying one of these 3 cards; currently leaning towards the Palit as it is:
1. cheaper,
2. readily available in the UK (unlike the Asus which is on preorder),
3. smaller (both thinner and shorter).
Just a tiny note: the Palit JetStream is actually thicker than all the others, requiring 2.5 slots. The thinnest of them all is the MSI TwiFrozr, which has brackets for two slots, but it's in fact a little bit thinner than that.

I'm afraid I can't help you with the other questions, I'll only add that it's impossible to make the card "inaudible". Since it has fans, it's impossible to not hear it. Hopefully, the fans only start when having to render 3D, and the card would be silent while using 2D applications. Finally, it all depends on how you define "inaudible" though - in my case "inaudible" is when the only noise I can hear is the very faint tinnitus in my ears (but that's about as extreme as these things go). :)
Thanks, this is useful, I guess I got the measurements wrong somehow... 2.5 slots would mean 3 in practice I suppose, so that's quite a limitation. Will have to find some pics of this to see how people install such cards in an optimal way.

As for "inaudible", what I really meant is whether someone can hear the card at a distance of 3.5m when playing under typical gaming conditions: I know this is very subjective and somewhat ambiguous, but I was just referring to personal experience...

Thanks,
Martin

mcm77
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Re: Asus GTX970 STRIX

Post by mcm77 » Mon Oct 20, 2014 6:17 am

Aneon wrote:
mcm77 wrote:I've got a question related to your experience with these cards: When you say that the fan noise under load is audible, could please let me know the distance at which you hear it and how far from the PC you need to be to make it inaudible (considering a very quiet room)?

In my case the card will be in combined HTPC + gaming PC at a distance of at least 3.5m.
I think it all depends on what load you're planning to put it through. Regarding the Asus Strix 970, when the fans are at 100%, they're very noisy at all distances (I sit at 1 m). But because it's such as powerful and well-cooled card, I haven't seen the fans go above 50% in practical use. Playing older games such as Skyrim and Bioshock Infinite at max settings usually leave it whisper quiet (inaudible or near-inaudible), because the fans don't need to work above 30-40% (below 30% they apparently shut off).

For some next gen graphics, such as the Elemental demo from Unreal Engine 4, it also stayed surprisingly quiet. Trying to push it with Unigen Heaven Benchmark which ran at 40 fps at 100% load, it didn't exceed 70 degrees C and the fans didn't spin above 50%. At 50% the fans are definitely audible, even from 3.5m, but I don't think the sound is that annoying or loud compared to other stock coolers.

Just make sure you enable global adaptive vsync to stress the GPU less in older games and avoid coil whine at higher fps.

I guess the card will grow noisier as time passes, because games will become more demanding. But considering I usually don't see it above 50%, I'm not too worried. Right now it stays completely silent playing most games from my Steam collection.
Thanks, very useful info indeed, this is what I was looking for! I always play with VSync enabled anyway, my TV supports 60Hz refresh max, so any frame-rate above that just makes the graphics experience worse.

As for the future, I suppose you can always cast this as a trade-off between noise and graphics quality: You can either increase the game rendering settings and therefore increase the noise, or you can set the game to less demanding settings and get a more quiet gaming experience.

Thanks,
Martin

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Re: Asus GTX970 STRIX

Post by Tzupy » Tue Oct 21, 2014 7:48 am

According to Techpowerup, the Asus Strix 980 uses 5W - 14W less than the Strix 970 in a demanding game.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ASUS ... OC/23.html
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ASUS ... OC/23.html

Abula
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Re: Asus GTX970 STRIX

Post by Abula » Tue Oct 21, 2014 8:36 pm

In case someone is considering the MSI, check the following video before buying, MSI GTX 970 GAMING 4G - Fan Issue, dont think it happens to all, but just thinking on having a single fan at full speed... noise wise... would be untolerable for me, so out of that, if i were to buy, i would probably go with the ASUS.

Another video on youtbe is reporting coil whine on the MIS =(, MSI GTX 970 Gaming 4G Coil whine, also aother video that shows the palit also whines but the msi doesnt.... Palit Jetstream GTX 970 VS MSI Gaming GTX 970

Btw out of watching some videos, i saw the MSI has a very weird connector for the PWM fans, like 5 cable.... so none standard... so another reason i would avoid it.
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lodestar
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Re: Asus GTX970 STRIX

Post by lodestar » Tue Oct 21, 2014 11:57 pm

Abula wrote:i saw the MSI has a very weird connector for the PWM fans, like 5 cable.... so none standard... so another reason i would avoid it.
The wiring of that 6 wire header in the photograph is (left to right) 2ND FAN RPM SENSE, (empty), POWER NEGATIVE, POWER POSITIVE, 1ST FAN RPM SENSE, PWM CONTROL SIGNAL.The reason for it is to allow feedback of the RPM of both fans into the PWM control circuit instead of just one. Some Asus graphics cards have a 5 pin header for the same reason. If you want to replace the fans on these cards with alternative PWM fans there are adapters available such as this one from modDIY.

Image

Abula
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Re: Asus GTX970 STRIX

Post by Abula » Thu Oct 23, 2014 7:46 pm

lodestar wrote:
Abula wrote:i saw the MSI has a very weird connector for the PWM fans, like 5 cable.... so none standard... so another reason i would avoid it.
The wiring of that 6 wire header in the photograph is (left to right) 2ND FAN RPM SENSE, (empty), POWER NEGATIVE, POWER POSITIVE, 1ST FAN RPM SENSE, PWM CONTROL SIGNAL.The reason for it is to allow feedback of the RPM of both fans into the PWM control circuit instead of just one. Some Asus graphics cards have a 5 pin header for the same reason. If you want to replace the fans on these cards with alternative PWM fans there are adapters available such as this one from modDIY.

Image
Thanks for the link, in the past i have ordered from MODDYI, and never i saw that one, but good to know in case i go that route.

I was spending some time reading reviews on newegg about the asus gtx970 strix... and some user have reported coil whine....
Cons: A significant amount of Coil Whine while doing a few benchmarks, but this was only when it was in excess of 1k FPS. Not enough to knock an egg since this was set to extreme settings and I don't see any game I play to actually hit those settings. Played some Metro 2033 at max and no coil whine, tonight i'll try BF4 to see what happens. Have set up Afterburner to mess around with some fan curves so hopefully this will resolve the issue if it arises.

- Mild coil whine / electrical sounding noise comes from gpu pretty often. GPUs make noises but it's something to point out.

Cons: High ptiched coil whine when rendering a lot of fps in passmark menu. Low pitched coil whine that sounds like a boat engine when playing d3, witcher, or using furmark. Especially loud in witcher 2.
Clock does not seem to go past 1k, though it might be due to a setting I missed somewhere.

Cons: Unacceptable coil whine. had to RMA

There is a slight whine coming from the coil which is my biggest gripe with this card.

Cons: - Mild coil whine, Vsync helps to reduce it. I'm upgrading from a EVGA GTX 760 that had much worse coil whine. I was hoping I would be one of the lucky few with a dead silent card though. :(
There are other reporting no coil whine... so seems like hit or miss... kinda like seasonic psu, but i no longer recommend asus either. The hard part is that MSI also has this issue in some cases and so does palit.... this seems like a sign telling me to stay with GTX780 =P

I kinda think it relates also to MikeC explanation, into having most components going very quiet... and specially now that GPUs are going semi passive its much easier to hear this kinda noises. ='(

Sadly i still think MSI and Asus should give a sample to SPCR to have a better review from noise perspective.

Abula
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Re: Asus GTX970 STRIX

Post by Abula » Sun Nov 02, 2014 9:13 am

A limited edition version of the MSI GTX970 showed up on the MSI BEAT IT event, full cooper and with a backplate.... looks very nice imo.

KitGuru picks up an MSI Gold Edition GTX970 at Beat IT 2014

Image

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Re: Asus GTX970 STRIX

Post by Tzupy » Mon Nov 03, 2014 12:46 pm

Although the reviews I read mentioned no coil whine for the Strix 980, a Newegg review just said this:
"Both my cards have coil whine just as loud as my other evga gtx 980s" :roll:

lodestar
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Re: Asus GTX970 STRIX

Post by lodestar » Mon Nov 03, 2014 2:51 pm

This is a quote from one of the five star reviews on Newegg for the STRIX GTX 970 "... I did have a coil whine when i first installed the card. i was tempted to just yank it out and send it back to newegg but decided to play a few games before i do. Played Crysis 3 at max settings for 2-3 hours and about half way through realized that the coil whine was gone. i tried running games with high fps(200 or so) played around with downclocking and overclocking and ran furmark and the coil whine never came back. i think the card just needed time to warm up. be sure to give it a little time under load before you return it for coil whine". This may also apply to the GTX 980.

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Re: Asus GTX970 STRIX

Post by cerbie » Tue Nov 04, 2014 12:54 pm

I've got my 2nd one on the way, an MSI. The first (also MSI) had coil whine that was quite audible just web browsing with GPU acceleration on, which is simply not acceptable, and got really bad with any games or 3D testing programs. Outside of benchmarking, I can't stand having V-sync off, so that's not it. Stress testing it for almost two days made no difference, nor did different power supplies. I've heard some Youtube videos that sounded even worse than mine, though.

But, there are now many reports of no whine, at all, and it's unknown how many have v. don't have it (there are a few polls, but those with a problem are many times more likely to report it), so I'm giving the 970 a few tries.

bbalex
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Re: Asus GTX970 STRIX

Post by bbalex » Fri Nov 07, 2014 3:14 am

I have at home two Asus 970 STRIX and a MSI 970 Gaming.

I did not open the MSI one yet, but I can confirm the STRIXes both have loud buzzing, when gaming (like Tomb Raider) or in benchmarks (3DMark11 causes exactly the same type of noises like Tomb Raider), and this with framerate capped at 60Hz using Adaptive Vsync. The cards are almost dead silent at idle. It's only when gaming some of the new games that they start buzzing. They're not fully free of electronic noise at idle though, it's not "audio equipment" level of no electronic noise, but it's really really faint and you cant hear them from some distance.

The STRIXes are from different lots, and the newer card is worse. First, the buzzing is louder, but also the fans are louder too. I might be wrong, but it's as if Asus has changed the make of the fans on the later production batches; the fans are much louder when spinning, and I can clearly hear them from across the room, while the fans on the older card could barely be heard even at load. The fans on the new card also make clicking noises when spinning them manually, and that clicking can sometimes be heard during normal operation too. And another thing that jumped into my eyes, was that the power plug from the fans was clearly visible behind the second fan, and was white! I did not notice this at all on the older card, and went back to verify... not only was the plug hidden in between the fans, but it was black, just like the shroud of the STRIX.

Either the loudness of the fans Asus is using can vary a lot, or they changed the type of fans they use with louder ones; who knows, perhaps supply issues? There are other issues with the newer card. The buzzing is much louder than on the old one. The shroud is not firmly set in place, you can move it up and down easily; I noticed this when plugging the power connector in and out. I guess given the huge demand, they can afford to ship cards even like this, and still make a killing selling them.


My own experience is that people which report these cards to be silent are in one of these following situations:
- have mechanical hard-disks
- have case fans, and not the type with less than 10dBA rating; you'll be surprised how many people have lots of fans and then they say these cards are silent...
- high environmental noise floor: either AC unit, or permanent road street noise, or they just live in one of those places with a high level of noise all the time; you know - the city that never sleeps type

They don't intend to mislead others, but silence is just not possible in those conditions, and they are not really aware of it when they make those claims.

The buzzing (I'm not going to call it coil whine because it's not of the squealing variety) is loud, but you'd certainly mistake it for the noise coming in from a mechanical hard-disk, or would get overwhelmed by the usual kind of fans people use for their cases. You're not going to see many people using 500-700 rpm fans which the manufacturer rates at 7-8dBA (even if they are noisier); more likely they're going to be ones with at least 14dBA or much worse.

I've long stopped placing trust in people on the internet claiming they have "silent" builds. Got burned too many times. Even here on SPCR; all those reviews for "silent" mechanical hard-disks... well, I've never encountered a mechanical hard-disk that is silent. I could never stand any WD Reds, Seagate NAS, or laptop disks.

Take care with the MSI. It's known to have two issues, one is certain, and one if you're unlucky:
1. the fans start and stop every minute at idle, even if the card temp is low, around 30 degrees; happens with the last three nvidia drivers; lots of posts on the MSI forums, and even nvidia is looking at it; looks like all MSI boards have broken BIOS settings; some users are editing them manually to get rid of this issue;
2. sometimes, one of the fan remains stuck at 100% rpm, while the other does nothing; no cure for this, I'm afraid; see here.

These are the reasons I have not unsealed my MSI card yet.


I should make a post about my (sorrowful) attempt to build a semi-passive system, using top-end parts. Disaster on all fronts, sigh... lots of disappointment with the current state of PC parts. :|

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Re: Asus GTX970 STRIX

Post by Abula » Fri Nov 07, 2014 10:02 am

Thanks for the feedback bbalex.

Im wondering weather its the design of the cards, although a lot of manufactuers are using custom pcb and power designs.... so its hard to blame nvidia directly. But makes me wonder if companies are reading a ton of user reviews speaking about buzz and coil whining.... hope this gets fixed in future revisions.... maybe 8gb versions coming at the end of the month.

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Re: Asus GTX970 STRIX

Post by cerbie » Fri Nov 07, 2014 11:30 am

Many are GTX 670 PCBs, it seems, which I guess are dropin compatible.

I'm awaiting my 2nd sample of MSI's. The first wasn't as bad as some YT videos (that their mics were picking such noise up over their case fans is :shock:), but it basically would not shut up, except at the most extreme idle states (no web browsing with GPU acceleration, no video watching, not Aero effects...).

Three NF-P12 PWMs, usually not exceeding 500 RPM (about 250 at CPU and GPU idle), outside of synthetic stress testing, are the entirety of moving parts beyond the video card's cooling, under normal conditions, for a suitable reference (was only two, but I'm trying one on the CPU HSF, to see how much it helps, since I bought them as a 3-pack :)).

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Re: Asus GTX970 STRIX

Post by Tzupy » Fri Nov 07, 2014 1:24 pm

Thanks for the feedback bbalex. Could you do something, if it's not too difficult for you? Replace the stock TIM of your 2 Asus 970s with a quality one like Arctic MX-4.
For this you'd have to take the cooler off the GPU, clean the stock TIM with remover and purifier, then apply the new quality TIM and put back the cooler on the GPU.
This usually shaves 3 - 4 degrees if the stock TIM was OK and more if it was rubbish, it may also help with the noise.

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Re: Asus GTX970 STRIX

Post by cerbie » Tue Nov 11, 2014 9:17 am

My 2nd MSI came in. There's some mild buzzing in some circumstances, but it's otherwise fine, with my ear right up it, at least if v-sync or a frame cap are in use. This is only from a couple hours of open-case testing, so I'm not sure of the buzzing is too bad to let be or not, or if there may be other noises yet to come, but it is a vast improvement. If the buzzing here and there is all it does, I'll probably keep it, but that would still be enough to consider these cards a risk, in terms of their noise.

bbalex
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Re: Asus GTX970 STRIX

Post by bbalex » Sat Nov 15, 2014 8:24 am

cerbie, if the noise level of the card is ok compared to the rest of the system or the environment noise floor, then you have found your card, it makes no sense to waste time exchanging cards. I am in the unfortunate position where I live in a very quiet environment, and I have this ambition to make a PC that is as silent as my audio equipment.

My stereo receiver uses more power than the system I built uses while gaming, is passively cooled, is enduring for so many years I forgot, makes absolutely no electronic noise at all, and doesn't have fans either. Pretty much everything the opposite of what I see PC builders saying - that you can't have have electronics using this much power without active cooling, that if you try to cool it passively the electronics will get so hot their lifetime is seriously affected, that "everything" has coil whine / electronics noise and I should get used to it. Rubbish. Just because PC builders have gotten used to crappy quality, they believe this is the norm. It happens that I actually work for a company that does vibroacoustic engineering consultancy amongst others, and know that even large-scale electronic products manufacturers like Samsung and LG are designing products with this in mind. Never heard of consultancy requests from PC parts manufacturers however...

I do understand why this happens, though. It's not the fault of the manufacturers. The fault lies with the consumers, which vote with their money for the cheap and coil whining stuff. If some manufacturer would take care to make their product line silent (free of electronic noise), but would have to sell them for more, they would soon find their sales plummet since everyone would just ignore their products and buy the cheaper ones - maybe complain of coil whine, but still buy them. This consumer behavior is not going to change, so the only hope is that some manufacturer would decide to make a special silent model, commanding a premium. This has not happened yet, from what I know.

I am afraid I will not do tests with replaced TIM on the cards, as I'm returning both STRIXes and getting my money back. Will try next with a GTX 980, since there are claims these might be less prone to coil whine. Wish me luck... :)


Edit: oh well, what was I saying... :lol: somebody (not an established manufacturer) seems to be making an attempt at a coil-whine free 970... too bad for me it's not a semi-passive design: OcUK GeForce GTX 970 "NVIDIA 970 Cooler"

Edit again: announcement post on their forum (hope it's allowed by the forum rules): here

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Re: Asus GTX970 STRIX

Post by cerbie » Sat Nov 15, 2014 12:31 pm

bbalex wrote:cerbie, if the noise level of the card is ok compared to the rest of the system or the environment noise floor, then you have found your card, it makes no sense to waste time exchanging cards. I am in the unfortunate position where I live in a very quiet environment, and I have this ambition to make a PC that is as silent as my audio equipment.
It is not worth exchanging, and waiting again, that's for sure. I suspect much of noise I could hear in my earlier car would not be audible in many systems with typical loud fans, but was present in many of them, even though their users only heard the noises under high loads.

Enclosed, and moved to its normal position, audible buzzing doesn't always occur (the only straight paths out of the case are the punched out holes in the rear of the case, and that helps immensely), only does so under substantial loads, and is even then not audible with my closed headphones. I'm not ecstatic, but it'll do. The fans under load are much more of a noise issue, now, than the vibrating electronics (I'll deal with them in due time...I've yet to have video card fans go more than 1yr before sounding much worse than when installed, at which point it becomes an obsession :)).
My stereo receiver uses more power than the system I built uses while gaming, is passively cooled, is enduring for so many years I forgot, makes absolutely no electronic noise at all, and doesn't have fans either. Pretty much everything the opposite of what I see PC builders saying - that you can't have have electronics using this much power without active cooling, that if you try to cool it passively the electronics will get so hot their lifetime is seriously affected, that "everything" has coil whine / electronics noise and I should get used to it. Rubbish.
Oh, absolutely. Even amongst PCs, this can be the case. Notice how most motherboards today are nice and quiet. Now, notice how they use larger coils. Dells still use exposed inductors, and from the removed ones off of video cards I've seen, their motherboard inductors each have as much copper as the whole voltage control section of my video card, while dealing with far less total power, but similar changes in load. It probably costs $1-2 more, too. What are the chances that the video cards' inductors are designed to work right near saturation most of the time? Office IT support would have their hides for these sorts of noises, because it would directly affect someone's ability to work.

bbalex
Posts: 33
Joined: Wed Aug 20, 2014 2:04 am

Re: Asus GTX970 STRIX

Post by bbalex » Sun Nov 16, 2014 2:06 am

oops.. wrong thread... please delete the post! :)

NWW
Posts: 2
Joined: Sun Nov 23, 2014 2:08 am

Re: Asus GTX970 STRIX

Post by NWW » Sun Nov 23, 2014 2:40 am

Hi all, long time lurker, first time poster.

Just got this card (Asus Strix GTX 970) and I can confirm, there is coil whine.

First off, the specs: Core i5 [email protected], Noctua NH-D14 (with only the 120mm fan in between the towers, with the ULNA connected), Fractal Design Define R3 (one intake 120 mm front, one exhaust 120 mm back, both connected to the case fan control, turned all the way down). Since I don't have the new Asus motherboards which can turn off the fans via the 4-pin headers, this is as silent as it can get (slightly audible at 50 cm, inaudible in my bed at 3 meters).

Two screens are connected to the GPU: 1x 24" 1920x1200, 1x 47" 1920x1080, both at 60Hz.

Now, as advertised, GPU stays silent up to 60° more or less (the fans aren't spinning). My day to day activity on my PC is mostly PDF's, Word documents, so I don't really push the system much, and it stays "silent" (the only problem is the case fans as mentionned before, that'll be fixed when I upgrade the CPU/Motherboard). When I'm not working and I'm playing, I usually have WoW on the small monitor, and Windows Media Center on the TV playing either full bluray rips or Live TV.

Now this case scenario: GPU stays silent! Which is perfect.

Now I tried BF3 (which is the most demanding game I have) and at ultra settings, the GPU fans spin up finally... and compared to my Powercolor HD 7950 PCS+ I had before, they are MUCH quieter. They stay at around 800RPM, max temps 67°C. A dream!

Now, the whining... I disabled VSync on WoW, and I heard it... faintly, but it's there. Now, with Vsync enabled, there is no whining. So I don't think i'll return the card, as I will use the card more when it's idle than gaming without Vsync.

Just my experience so far :)

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