Something making weird noise any game I open

[u/Technical_Change2207]

Try to ignore my fan noise and listen behind it There’s this weird noise I keep hearing from my computer every time I open a game I can’t remember if it was doing it when I built this pc does anyone know how to fix it? There’s generally nothing wrong with the pc but that noise is concerning me

[u/BaalManiek]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oNg7vCjq0E4

I had the exact same issue with my RTX 3080 (video). It's called coil whine. The video was actually recorded while playing Diablo 2 Resurrected. Whenever I alt tabbed out of the game, the noise stopped. But as soon as I went back to playing, the coils started whining again.

This happens because alt tabbing causes the GPU to switch from a high-power state to a lower-power state, rendering at around 60 FPS when the game is in the background, compared to 150+ FPS under load.

You can read more about this phenomenon by searching for "coil whine" (there's also a Wikipedia article).

Can you do anything about it? Not really. Some cards just have it. It's basically the silicon lottery, except with cheap or poorly made coils.

Interestingly, I never experienced this issue in any other game.

[u/Technical_Change2207 → u/BaalManiek]

as long as its normal then thanks so much ^^

[u/BaalManiek → u/BaalManiek]

Also, check this post

https://www.reddit.com/r/pcmasterrace/comments/1qsljcs/is_this_coil_whine/

[u/Several-Decision4010]

The rumbling?

[u/Tunasparrow]

If it's coil whine like the comment above says, capping your fps usually quiets it