So I just installed two of these in my PC over lunch. I didn't have time to do any gaming or benchmarking but I did mess around with the fan speeds for a few minutes. My findings....
 
From Idle speed(30%) up to around 50% fan speed the cards are pretty quiet. I personally cant make out any whine. At about 50% a little bit of whine becomes perceptible. At 60% its noticable. By 70% it's very noticable. Above 70% it gets downright loud.
 
Me personally, if the noise at 70% is the loudest it ever got I could probably live with it. I plan on doing some actual gaming and benchmarking tonight and see how bad the whine is in real world situations.
 
I read about the step up program in the other thread for owners of these cards who are having problems and that they will be allowed to step up to the FTW versions. Will the FTW versions really solve these noise problems? How is the design going to be different to mitigate the coil whine?
 
If I end up ultimately not wanting to keep these I will probably just return them to Newegg for a refund instead of the whole step up hassle. I've never returned anything like this to Newegg. in anybodys experience, will they give me a full refund for the complaint of coil whine or are they going to charge me a 10% restocking fee? I would think coil whine would be a valid reason to get a full refund. Thanks!
 
 

maintainin
So I just installed two of these in my PC over lunch. I didn't have time to do any gaming or benchmarking but I did mess around with the fan speeds for a few minutes. My findings....
 
From Idle speed(30%) up to around 50% fan speed the cards are pretty quiet. I personally cant make out any whine. At about 50% a little bit of whine becomes perceptible. At 60% its noticable. By 70% it's very noticable. Above 70% it gets downright loud.
 
Me personally, if the noise at 70% is the loudest it ever got I could probably live with it. I plan on doing some actual gaming and benchmarking tonight and see how bad the whine is in real world situations.
 
I read about the step up program in the other thread for owners of these cards who are having problems and that they will be allowed to step up to the FTW versions. Will the FTW versions really solve these noise problems? How is the design going to be different to mitigate the coil whine?
 
If I end up ultimately not wanting to keep these I will probably just return them to Newegg for a refund instead of the whole step up hassle. I've never returned anything like this to Newegg. in anybodys experience, will they give me a full refund for the complaint of coil whine or are they going to charge me a 10% restocking fee? I would think coil whine would be a valid reason to get a full refund. Thanks!
 
 

Contact NewEgg customer service and tell them the GPU is faulty. They'll issue an RMA, wave the restocking fee and give you a shipping label.

I just watched a couple videos on youtube and now understand what is meant by coil whine. Sorry, I feel like a dork now.

astacy12

maintainin

astacy12
Are you sure you're talking about coil whine and not just fan noise?? Just messing with the fan speed shouldn't be inducing coil whine at all... It's pretty obvious as you increase fan speed it is going to get louder. This goes for ANY GPU fan cooler or, of course, any fan... Coil whine is heard during gaming or benching, not from the fans but from the circuitry.

 
 
I've never had another video card that made this kind of noise. But I've never had another video card with the two fan setup like these and the "open" design. They've all always been the closed type with the single fan that blows air out the back of the card. The noise theyve always made as fan speeds increase is nothing like the noise these cards are making. They just got louder in the sense that it sounds like a lot of air being moved. There is definitely a whine to these cards as the fans get faster that ive never experienced before. Maybe that is the nature of the design of these cards and something I'm just not familiar with.
 
Thanks for the clarification though. I took coil whine to be caused by the air moving over the cooling fins and coils. so now I feel kinda silly. Guess I've never had it in any other cards or I would know the difference.  I'll keep an ear out for any other sounds tonight while I'm testing further.

Could you make a video of it so we could clarify if it is the fans or the circuitry?

Yep, I'll try and do that this evening.

Well I made a video but apparently cant post since I don't have enough posts or whatever.....
 
As far as actual coil whine I cant really tell if there is any from the heaven benchmark I ran and game I tried out(Splinter Cell: Blacklist) because the fans get so loud.
 
I think I may just end up returning these. Not real happy with the noise.