Brand New HD 7970 Windforce unacceptable noise levels!

[Sxio]

Hi.In the last 3hrs I bought and installed a Gigabyte HD7970 OC, 3G. Performance is pretty great so far but I've noticeda rattling noise when the card is working hard.

It's not the fan, if I manually raise the fan to 100%, the noise doesn't happen, it's only when the card itself is being pushed hard, like Far Cry 3.

A quick google around and I'm pretty sure that what I have is 'coil whine'.

This can't be right for a top of the line card! I'm a quiet PC person. I've spent a fair bit of cash on quiet fans etc so this sound is maddening!

Is this issue covered by warranty? If I return my card (brand new!), will the next one have the same issue? Will this sound go away?

Thanks for your help.

[Sxio]

Actually, it turned out to be the fan. I returned the card today and got a sapphire version instead. First thing I did was dial it up to 1150 and 1500mhz and played some Crysis 3.

It's sweet!

I still think gigabyte make solid products but stopping you from OCing your own hardware is wrong, and in hindsight, it was a blessing that I had a rattley fan, I got to try the card out and realise that I have NO interest in owning a high performance card that can't overclock.

[Delicieuxz]

"I still think gigabyte make solid products but stopping you from OCing your own hardware is wrong, and in hindsight, it was a blessing that I had a rattley fan, I got to try the card out and realise that I have NO interest in owning a high performance card that can't overclock."


I agree. I have a 7970 on order, but if the bios cannot be upgraded to unlock the voltage then I'm returning it and getting something non G-B. The v-lock on a card with this cooling is just insulting.