High Pitched whine + GTX280

[Iamcanadian7]

I have this issue with my x2's as well. I was worried at first but after contacting ATI, they said it was normal and RMA'ing them wouldn't fix the problem.

I'll try turning on V-sync on and see if that helps. The noise was irritaiting at first but a good crank of the volume knob drowns it out =P

[CanadaRox]

From the ATI side of things, I have that as well but only for certain games is it noticable. It whines when running pretty much every 3D game, but is partuclarly noticable with Crysis/Warhead, where even the menu whines, and hovering over certain buttons can actually change the pitch of it. My old 8800GTX did it as well so I think it just has something to do with higher end GPUs.

[BrainEater]

This whine is a result of certain components literally vibrating , usually power components (vregs/inductors etc).

If you have a stable test bench setup for the motherboard , you can actually find out what's vibrating by gently 'touching' individual components with a small plastic stick , if you touch the one thats vibrating , the noise will diminish or stop......needless to say you've gotta be really careful doing this.

Once you know what part/s, a coat of acrylic conformal coating will stop the noise.

Alternately , you could dissassemble the video card , mask off whats gotta be protected (connections , heatsink areas etc) and coat the entire card with conformal coating.

[enaberif]

As Sky said enable vsync.

The reason I found that this happens for is when I had fraps loaded one day and discovered why. What happens is when your playing a game the FPS is capped to 60fps or maxed at whatever your machine is capable of. Now when your at the menu screen or intro movies or any FMV your FPS skyrockets to 999 fps and this is what seems to cause the high pitch whine.

Try it you'll see and this is why enabling vsync usually works.

[reaverclan]

Originally Posted by CanadaRox

From the ATI side of things, I have that as well but only for certain games is it noticable. It whines when running pretty much every 3D game, but is partuclarly noticable with Crysis/Warhead, where even the menu whines, and hovering over certain buttons can actually change the pitch of it. My old 8800GTX did it as well so I think it just has something to do with higher end GPUs.

thats what mine did u can sing a song by moving the mouse places, yeah it practically goes away with vsync enabled.

[SKYMTL]

Just an FYI, this usually happen in excess when FPS go about 80. That is why in the Menus the sound is so loud. I have seen over 2000FPS in the NFS Undercover menu.

[DarKStar]

It doesn't happen with all cards - I've had this happen on an old BFG 7800GS OC, never happened on any cards earlier. I have an 8800GTS 320MB on one PC that does this - However my BFG 8800GT 512MB OC does not do any noise at all - noise comes from the capacitors.

[probationer]

My GTX280 doesnt do it (thank god!) but my 2x 8800M GTXs in my previous laptop squealed like pigs anytime they cranked up to full power.

My recommendations:
Turn up the fan to 100% to cover the noise (then try to ignore the fan noise)
Turn up your speakers
Wear headphones

...very practical I know :P

[JD]

Meh I've become used to the high-pitched whine.

Even my Antec Quattro 850W does it too so I've grown used to it. Plus my fans are pretty noisy too so that helps with it.

It's just part of the many features you get with owning high-end hardware

[ABXG]

I've gotten lucky and the 9800GTX I got back from RMA'ing my eVGA 8800GTX does not make that awful death-whine under load.