[Bima Sylirian]

Hiya guys.
I just purchase PowerColor Radeon HD 6990 2 days ago and I found something very annoying with the card.
It generates a buzzing sound under 3D load. The buzzing sound even louder than the (annoying) noise from the fan. The fan itself is already very annoying.
I found the noise comes from the memory since the buzzing won't be too loud if I underclock the Memory Speed to 1000 MHz (4000 MHz).

Is this normal for Radeon HD 6900 series?

Other than that, this card nice in overclocking, I achieve 990/1500 with 1.22V.
The noise is totally unacceptable especially the buzzing one because it gets louder when the Memory clock runs higher.

 

[TwoCables]

I hate to say it, but if you're still using the AcBel M8 750, then it could be the PSU. I mean, AMD recommends a 750W power supply that has a 750W "peak" rating (source), and it looks to me like you're either right on the line, or under it because the AcBel M8 750 is a 750W peak-rated unit:

http://www.acbel.com/eng/Product.asp...sd=31&&pid=169

However, its specifications make it look even worse:

This tells me that it's not even a good idea to consider it a 700W unit, let alone the 750W it's claiming to be. I mean, how can they call it a 750W power supply if its +12V is only 624W, and if its "rated power" is only 672.9W?

If I were to label it, then I'd maybe call it a 650W, or perhaps a 675W at best.

By comparison, Corsair's HX650 has a +12V capacity of 624W.

 

[Alex132]

Yeah I had this on my old Huntkey POS PSU, moved to Corsair HX850 and the buzzing went away.

 

[tsm106]

That buzziung sound is your psu's death cry.

 

[Bima Sylirian]

Well... Thanks for the clue.
I didin't think about that because the power consumption of my system is about 450 Watts.
The sound only come when there are 3D load on the GPU.
With HD 3650, HD 5750, GTX 260 and 460, there is no sound.
But HD 5850 (which draw less power than GTX 260 and 460) and HD 6990, I heard the sound. That's the reason I thought the noise was from the Card.
Maybe I should get a 850 Watts PSU with a powerful single or Dual rail, eh?
This PSU seems to be allergic to High-end Radeons.

 

[fluxlite]

It could be a noisy capacitor on the 6990 as well.

 

[TwoCables]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bima Sylirian;12988123
Well... Thanks for the clue.
I didin't think about that because the power consumption of my system is about 450 Watts.
The sound only come when there are 3D load on the GPU.
With HD 3650, HD 5750, GTX 260 and 460, there is no sound.
But HD 5850 (which draw less power than GTX 260 and 460) and HD 6990, I heard the sound. That's the reason I thought the noise was from the Card.
Maybe I should get a 850 Watts PSU with a powerful single or Dual rail, eh?
This PSU seems to be allergic to High-end Radeons.

If it is the PSU, then a quality 750W will be enough.

 

[BababooeyHTJ]

Google "cap whine".

Sadly it's kind of normal on a lot of these high end cards. A new psu may or may not fix it and this has nothing to do with power consumption.

 

[ezveedub]

I hear the squeal from my 6990 also when loading high end games. Nothing during gameplay though. If it was the PSU, this would be interesting, as least for me. I run my card at bone stock speeds. I just ignored it as capacitor noise. My brother-in-law says his Nvidia cards do the same also under high load.

 

[PhilWrir]

Quote:

Originally Posted by BababooeyHTJ;12988175
Google "cap whine".

Sadly it's kind of normal on a lot of these high end cards. A new psu may or may not fix it and this has nothing to do with power consumption.

It has quite a bit to do with power consumption weather its Caps in the PSU or on the GPU.
Do you know what Capacitors actually do?

OP: Im betting its caused by your PSU. The noise is the caps on your card crying in agony at not having a power supply thats good for them. Your PSU is probably going to kick the bucket fairly soon if you keep trying to pull that much power from it. It might even be the caps in your PSU complaining.

 

[BababooeyHTJ]

Quote:

Originally Posted by PhilWrir;12988223
It has quite a bit to do with power consumption weather its Caps in the PSU or on the GPU.
Do you know what Capacitors actually do?

Do a little research into what causes cap whine it's not caused by excessive power consumption.
Quote:

OP:
Im betting its your PSU. Even if its not the noise is the caps on your card crying in agony at not having a power supply thats good for them.

You came to this conclusion how? Seriously do a little research before giving uninformed advice.

 

[pyra]

I'm getting the squeal too with my 6970, definitely my PSU though.

 

[TwoCables]

A squeal is different from buzzing.

 

[pyra]

Quote:

Originally Posted by TwoCables;12988271
A squeal is different from buzzing.

OK

What does the squeal mean?

 

[fluxlite]

Well, I'm not an electrical engineer, but I did study low level electronics, and I don't think it's the cap itself that whines - rather the inductors/coils. But these whine due to the smoothing capacitors insufficiently removing ripple from the circuit.

Pretty sure I didn't pull that out my ass, but please correct me if I'm wrong.

Doesn't really help OP, though.

 

[TwoCables]

I don't know what the squeal means, however I do remember some advertisement for my card saying that I won't hear any whining/squealing because it doesn't have any coils.

So, I don't know what a buzzing can mean. However, I would assume that it's due to a lack of power. I've heard certain things in this house make buzzing noises when we have a brownout.

 

[7ranslucen7]

I get the same noise with my 6990. It's actually more noticeable as the gpu(s) get hotter and the fun runs higher.

 

[Bima Sylirian]

Quote:

Originally Posted by 7ranslucen7;12988448
I get the same noise with my 6990. It's actually more noticeable as the gpu(s) get hotter and the fun runs higher.

You run HD 6990 with Corsair AX850 which is much better PSU than my Acbel Polytech M8. And yet, the annoying noise still exist.
It seems that it has nothing to do with PSU.

 

[tsm106]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bima Sylirian;12991789
You run HD 6990 with Corsair AX850 which is much better PSU than my Acbel Polytech M8. And yet, the annoying noise still exist.
It seems that it has nothing to do with PSU.

There's nothing on the card that would make noise! It uses digital vrms, there's no coils to whine. The caps on the card are brand new and the chances of them leaking weeks old... not likely.

 

[FDS]

I get the same squeal noise from my 6870 sometimes when under 3D load. I was getting it on crysis and load screens especially bad. I enabled vsync and the noise went away.

I've asked before and was told it's a normal occurrence when there is any 3D load on the card. I think some people just hear it more than others.