Folding Forum

Good day,
From yesterday I have started encountering this issue of very audible coil whine when GPU FAH project is folding ( I have already read that this may be because of how FAH utilizate the GPU/ or power regulation on specific projects mainly 14xxx ones)
I have alse done some stress testing ang gaming but the issue did not arise while I was doing them.
For comparison I had snapshoted the HWiNFO64 values when folding (the coil whine is present):
https://imgur.com/a/60P7Vxc
No coil whine present when stress testing via RealBench:
https://imgur.com/a/J4dVhhm
I've also done a two videos on how audible it is when folding:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a1FNRhQA3-s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rnt9GasVgMM
My specs are:
CPU:i5 7600k 4.4ghz
GPU:EVGA RTX 2070 Black
RAM: HyperX Predator 3333mhz 2x 16GB set
PSU: Corsair RM650W RM650x 80 GOLD PLUS

I've also notices that when I am only folding with GPU the coil whine gets deeper in pitch.
My main question is: Is this a reason for RMA ? I honestly hate this card and its inability to stop fans when in idle and want to change it and possibly get a better MSI one which can erliably stop fans when in idle.

Welcome to the F@H Forum TomasNovak4200,

As long as it isn't a capacitor squeal but just coil whine, it's perfectly safe:
https://www.howtogeek.com/297166/what-i ... -on-my-pc/
https://www.ekwb.com/blog/everything-yo ... oil-whine/
https://www.evga.com/support/faq/FAQdet ... aqid=59535

The main reason is because those Projects are more stressful on the GPU than other projects.

Even though the GPU power draw is lesser when folding vs when put in stress ?
I will surely try to complete the folding and see if the issue persists between different WUs.
Although my main point of concern is that this never happened for up until now and I am folding pretty much persistently for more than 2 months now.
Also I think this might be from the persistent load on fans( which my custom curve is set to be max at 55%)
and the bearings have gone bad, but then I can not explain why it is only occuring in the FaH application and not anywhere else.

Yep, folding is more stressful than RealBench... especially if the Project is a large one or it pushes the system harder. Power draw will vary but it is what components that use the power that counts. Most stress tests are focusing on the visual components on the GPU but folding uses the compute components on the GPU.

https://imgur.com/a/E4O5cO6
Then it should be visible in the Task manager isnt it ? The compute components arent utilizated at all.

Personally, I won't bother with Windows Task Manager, instead I would use GPU-Z but that doesn't show you the breakdown of the GPU usage. Since the launch of GPU in Task Manager, I have seen folding classified as "Compute_0", "Compute_1" and even "CUDA". Based on the information here, it seems that whatever the drivers says, it simply says that: https://devblogs.microsoft.com/directx/ ... k-manager/ but keep in mind that generalization is being made in the representation as per the article:

...Some GPUs support multiple engines mapping to the same underlying set of cores. While these engines can also be scheduled in parallel, they end up sharing the underlying cores. This is conceptually similar to hyper-threading on the CPU. For example, a 3D engine and a compute engine may in fact be relying on the same set of unified cores. In such a scenario, the cores are either spatially or temporally partitioned between engines when executing....

Games use OpenGL for rendering but folding uses OpenCL with is a compute function. There are significant differences between the two and how they stress the GPU.

EVGA has a pretty good RMA process I believe. If the card is supposed to spin down the fans when idle and isn't I'm sure they will replace but coil whine is a tricky one. I've never had coil whine but that's because my ears are too old to hear those frequencies

Hmm glad I find this topic. I did also noticed some strange noise with 14... WU's. The first time I noticed was with project 14538 on 24th april. I did register this (for myself) and told directly with my friend who is also folding. He didnt listen active at his computer and so didn't hear anything strange. Thought it was my imagination untill I found this topic.

At my pc the load is pulsing every time. In MSI Afterburner I did see maybe 1-2-3minutes load and 2 seconds 0% and then up again... up and down, up and down. First I thought it is the estimated TPF what caused it, but the downs and ups don't match the exact timeframe. This is only with 14xxx projects. At the moment I crunch a 11763 WU and the load is relative stable, just little bumps between 80 and 97% load and a 0% down between 6 minutes. Now I haven't a strange noise.

Maybe it is normal and nothing worry about, but I'm glad I wasn't alone who noticed. Folding with GTX1070, watercooled with max coretemps 35 degrees Celsius. (it can't be a temperature issue, that's for sure )

Put your fan speed to 100%. You won't hear it anymore
What you can also do, is play with the power profile in MSI Afterburner, or EVGA XOC.
Lowering power profile sometimes gets rid of coil whine and makes the GPU run cooler as well.

FoldingNator wrote: At my pc the load is pulsing every time. In MSI Afterburner I did see maybe 1-2-3minutes load and 2 seconds 0% and then up again... up and down, up and down. First I thought it is the estimated TPF what caused it, but the downs and ups don't match the exact timeframe. This is only with 14xxx projects. At the moment I crunch a 11763 WU and the load is relative stable, just little bumps between 80 and 97% load and a 0% down between 6 minutes. Now I haven't a strange noise.

I have noticed this as well Iwonder what the culprit could be for this. But as it seems that its completely normal.
Also I can confirm that the whine is only ocurring with 14xxx projects.

TomasNovak4200 wrote:

FoldingNator wrote: At my pc the load is pulsing every time. In MSI Afterburner I did see maybe 1-2-3minutes load and 2 seconds 0% and then up again... up and down, up and down. First I thought it is the estimated TPF what caused it, but the downs and ups don't match the exact timeframe. This is only with 14xxx projects. At the moment I crunch a 11763 WU and the load is relative stable, just little bumps between 80 and 97% load and a 0% down between 6 minutes. Now I haven't a strange noise.

I have noticed this as well Iwonder what the culprit could be for this. But as it seems that its completely normal.
Also I can confirm that the whine is only ocurring with 14xxx projects.

Take a look at your GPU frequency.
In some cases, light GPU load, the gpu will run at it's maximum frequency, and usually generates coil whine when doing so.
In linux you can limit the GPU frequency, or limit the power, to prevent this from happening.
usually, in projects where the GPU runs at its peak GPU frequency, the WUs have a higher chance on becoming unstable.