Coil noise as an annoying side effect
As already mentioned in some forums, the graphics cards with the cooler from aquacomputer tend to strong coil noise under changing load, this has unfortunately also hit me, so here again the contact was sought to aquacomputer, here was with then helped accordingly, in which I was sent the new revision of the manual and more cooling pads – here again a big praise to the support for the quick response and help / support.
The radiator has now been fitted following the new instruction revision with the extra pads, this caused the voltage transformer noise to shift slightly:
- Before the rebuild: in the stress test from the AMD driver not audible, Timespy extremely audible, games extremely audible
- After the rebuild (additional pads): not audible in the stress test from the AMD driver, Timespy very quiet audible, games extremely audible
Audio files for comparison
First of all for comparison the recording of the system in idle:
For example, if you load Biomutant, it will sound like this during the loading screen:
During the game, the pitch changes again depending on the FPS values reached
The voltage converter noise is independent of the fps and the MHz of the GPU. Extremely quietly audible in 2D mode when your ear is right up against the GPU (who does that – this is just a side note for very sensitive ears). Also the hint that one could reduce this noise by loosening the screws of the backplate did not bring any improvement. The cooler from Alphacool acted much more inconspicuous here in direct comparison. There is a slight spuelenfiepen really only at very high FPS numbers, but less than the counterpart of aquacomputer.
Article by igorsLAB about the causes of coil fever
In order to understand why something beeps at all, I would like to refer to Igor’s article “Bei Dir fiepts wohl! A little basic course on annoying reel noises and even more annoying contemporaries” and pick out the most important. Let’s take a quick look at why these coils are found on the motherboard and the GPU, as well as on many other electronic devices: In short, they are mostly longitudinal coils for throttling or smoothing. For example, we need them in a converter circuit from, say, 12 V to 1.2 V or less for a GPU. The tasks of these coils are therefore as follows:
– Limitation of the starting current (infinitely high vs. calculated)
– Storing energy in the magnetic field
– Induction of a counter voltage
With the picture above you can see in a very simplified way how a basic voltage conversion is built up. In a PWM-controlled circuit, the coil ensures that current continues to flow even though the MOSFET is already non-conducting (energy storage with medium magnetic field). There are different designs, such as toroidal coils or capsule coils. In addition, coils often have various things in the core that affect their properties. There are iron cores (ferrite), powder cores and many more. An important parameter of a coil, however, is its resonance frequency, i.e. the point at which it begins to physically oscillate.
If this frequency is within the audible range (50 Hz to 20 KHz) for the parameters acting at this time, then we perceive it as coil whine. This is caused by the so-called Lorentz force. This describes an interaction of three physical parameters: current direction, magnetic field direction and: TAADAA: Lorentz force direction! This is the crux of the matter! The Lorentz direction is responsible for the mechanical movement in the coil and there is hardly any space inside. So the windings of the coil hit the case and the core, causing the coil whine, which is actually more of a coil cramp.
All well and good, but what do we do or where does one remain helpless?
- Actually, coil whine is not a reason for complaint, because it is an electro-technical regularity and normality. In reality, however, a beeping graphics card is still often taken back.
- Replacing the power supply can, with a bit of luck, change the operating parameters so that the resonant frequency is not reached, or a more comfortable frequency is reached for the injured party.
- More or less cooling (coefficient of linear expansion) of the coil material can have a positive effect on the beeping. Therefore, coils are usually not cooled too extensively.
- Frame Limiter or VSync can help to reduce the whining, because the coil is not driven 300 times per second, but e.g. only 60 times.
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