5870 whining

[LordEC911]

Sadly, you're going to have to tough it out. I still find it rather pathetic ATi has let this problem persist for so many generations of cards ... every single video card I've owned since my X1950XTX has whined under load.

Some of us haven't had a problem with our ATi.
I know Nvidia cards have the same problem... My 8800GTS(G92) whined pretty bad.

[larrabee]

There are several causes of the whine being described in this thread. It is not always due to the designer :P

First of all, voltage regulators can be perfectly functional and emit the "whine".

Inductors can create the sounds from physical oscillations (vibrations) caused by EMF. In circuits like switching power supplies, LC oscillators, and PLLs, this can be common, although not always within the frequency range of human hearing (poor dogs).

Shorts may damage components and make them produce a squeal that they previously did not; this is sometimes a sign of a dying card. A switching power supply, without a logical enable, can keep power cycling due to excess load conditions (though it often produces a slightly different sound).

It can also be caused by component failure. Capacitors may internally short, thus failing to maintain the DC conditions on a voltage rail. The subsequent oscillations may cause a shorted electrolytic capacitor to squeal.

The best way to reduce it, is to apply a non-conductive adhesive to the component in question, which will hopefully lessen the vibrations. Sometimes the whine is much worse than it has to be, because of a manufacturing issue that has caused an inductor/transformer to not be seated properly. Without proper retention, the component may vibrate much more violently.

The first power supply I ever made sang like a banshee, although it functioned. By redesigning the output stage, I was luckily able to make the squeal inaudible

[PaganII]

PS in another computer makes a high variable pitch squeal. Most of the time I forget it is there except when waiting to respawn ha ha. Sounds like an ultra sonic jewelry cleaner.

[wiak]

try it in another computer if it whines there then its the power on the graphics card but if it does not whine then its your PSU

hope this helps mate good luck with your 5870

[GTSRboy]

ati cards whine? i thought they had something on them to prevent it

the nvidia solution is soak the card in nail polish

[Crankybugga]

ati cards whine? i thought they had something on them to prevent it

the nvidia solution is soak the card in nail polish

The only whine I see from the HD5870 is coming from nvidia devotees

[Airgumby]

Sad to hear that the whine is still present on the 5870... I owned a Diamond 4890 and everytime I would scroll a web page it would whine. It got very annoying. I tried my old GeForce 8600 card. No whine... Went out and traded the Diamond 4890 for a eVGA GeForce GTX 295 CO-OP and I have no whine... Hate hearing the new offerings still suffer from the whine. Out of curiousity. What brand is the whining coming from? Any certain brand?

[tbone8ty]

maybe arnold can help! haha

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WL1lfSzgcAw

[Therk]

Excuse the pun

[Husky42]

Really, it is quite funny to see people say that ATI is the only manufacture with this problem, and realy its not a problem it occurs when load is placed on vr's or even when they are operating normally.

My BFX 8800 GT did this, my XFX 7600 GT also had a whine, as did my X1950 XTX

My 4870's do not whine.

5870 will be here some time next week and although that is going into the Q6600 build (X3 720 is actually my gaming rig and the Q6600 is the media center/gaming rig)

I'll look for a whine on the 5870 and see if it is present there.

The X3 720 is getting dual 5850's in the future and my brothers X3 720 which will be here tomorrow will get the 4870's in crossfire - So i will even check for a whine in the seperate machine, i'll install the 5870 in all 3 machines just to test also.

Might as well