Hi,
I'm having problem with my 1080 Ti card and EVGA EU warranty service.
 
I have sent my first card on RMA months ago, because of loud coil whine and that is the point when my problems rly started.
 
1) First card I've got as replacement had even louder coild whine. I tested it with EVGA SuperNova G2 750W, Seasonic Platinum 760W, Be Quiet Dark Power Pro 11 650W. Issue exactly the same.
2) Second card -  again coil whine, but in the same time as a bonus some noticable scratch on backplate from side to side. I tested card again with multiple PSU.
3) Third card - It was just shuting down my PC under load after some time of gameplay. Coil whine was still there.
4) Forth card - Coil whine is still there. But this time card have some horrible looking white marks on the side of pcb between cooler and backplate. Evga support say it's "normal". I have never seen something on any card I had in my life. For me it's unacceptable. My first card didi't had it.
 
What do you think about it?
 
Tested with 3 very good PSU. Lately I even changed my motherboard but coil whine issue still appears.
4 times now I replaced the card. Am I so unlucky or what? I don't know what to do now and that are months now.
 
Is it normal that evga sends refurbished cards after repairs with this kind of defects as replacements?
 
I would like to ask about some advice what to do.
 
 
 

Standard practice for any manufacture of anything manufactured in the world to send you a refurbished replacement on RMA.
 
You would only be sent a brand new in shrink wrap replacement if original failed or defect determined within max of 30 days of original purchase.
 
After that the "new" product you bought is no longer considered a new product, but used.
 
The ONLY time you would get a brand new in shrink wrap replacement after that 30 day period is if the manufacture did not have any refurbished RMA replacements in inventory.
 
Read any warranty disclaimer and you will see the same basic thing.
 
In EVGA's case, I don't think they set very high quality control standards on RMA refurbished replacements they send out when it comes to the cosmetic quality of said replacements.
 
Cards are only tested to meet the specifications of that model card and not have a major blemishes or visual defects (but that would be subjective from one person to another).
 

I've seen coil whine issues solved by replacing the computer power supply.  However, it looks like you tried three different power supplies.  As said above, I wonder if the issue is with power delivery in your home.  

About that defects I could agree it it would be something small, but this discolouration of pcb is very noticable especially in that place. Why I should get something with this if my card was perfectly good visual condition.
 
I do not use any UPS.
 
I did test coil whine in another new build house 15-20km away and that was exactly the same.

Does the UPS tell you what the input / output voltages are?  Are they pretty close to the spec?

Hello DyndaS,
 
1°) Like the "silicon lottery" for overclocking exists, the "coil whine lottery" exists as well with GPUs. From my personal experience i think most of them have some, and only a lucky few models don't have any.
 
That beeing said the quality of components used on the PCB of the card hosting the GPU is linked to the probability of having coil whine or not. And there are no mysteries here as better components quality equals higher component prices equals higher price cards.
 
So since your 1080ti is a founders edition (FE) and is the most affordable model of 1080ti, it also has the highest chance of having coil whine compared to other models.
 
If you google "1080ti founders edition PCB", "1080ti FTW3 PCB" and "1080ti kingpin PCB" and look for differences, you'll see that the FE PCB has only 7 VRMs while the FTW3 has 10. The kingpin also has 10 but different model of components, probably of even higher quality than the FTW3.
 
So if coil whine is really very important to you, you should first consider trading your FE to a higher model card. The higher the better. 
 
Badfully even when buying a kingpin you can't be 100% sure that your card wont have coil whine. But the probabilities should be lower. And while evga will probably never acknowledge that their RMA service differs from the product you buy, they'll probably give more consideration to small issues like coil whine on someone who bought their top tier card rather than someone who bought a FE version (and not just evga, all manufacturers).
 
2°) What you are not saying is in what condition you're getting this loud coil whining. What games are you playing? At which resolution? At which screen refresh rate? At how many FPS? When the coil whining is occuring exactly?
 
Coil whining is usually worse when running at high FPS. For example on my 1080ti when i play apex legends @1080p @ 180hz @180 fps i have noticeably loud coil whining.
 
But when i play GTA5 @1080p @60FPS i can't barely hear any coil whine.
 
What is also strange is that since you're using the FE of the 1080ti, your card should run hot when used at 100%, up to 70-80°C, which means the fan should spin fast to cool it, which means it should make noise that is louder than the coil whine sound. So how can you actually hear the coil whine if the fan makes more noise? 
 
3°) Even if it's annoying when you're not used to it, after some time you dont pay attention to it at all and it's not as much as a problem as before even when playing with speakers. Another workaround would be to use a headset with full ear covering with which you wont hear coil whine anyway ;)

I think the easiest solution in your case would be to sell your card and buy a used one from someone close to where you live and ask to check that the card has no coil whine before buying it.
 
Otherwise you have no reliable way to ensure 100% no coil whine card.
 
And next time you buy a card, mind to buy a higher quality model than a FE as explained before if possible