Is a whining GPU normal?

[Fox-Shot]

My EVGA GTX 660ti seems to have a constant high pitched squeal, which I've heard is normal, but in a few very specific situations, the squealing seems to change tone slightly or grow worse.  

 

One example would be me going through the options in Minecraft at the main menu, if I just open the options the squealing gets much louder, and will shift tones as I go through different parts of the options.

 

Another is in Red Faction Guerrilla during any cutscene or video, the tone becomes louder.

 

Is it normal for a card to make more noise at certain things or should I put in for a replacement?

[DZComposer]

Wattage alone does not make a PSU a good PSU. You can get El Cheapo PSUs that are 1500W.

Really, the only guaranteed fix is to get a card that will not squeal. A new PSU or power contitioner may help, but it may not. A power conditioner or UPS will clean up the electricity going into PSU, which has benefits of putting less wear on some PSU components. And, of course, a UPS reduces your risk of HDD partition damage to in the event of power loss by allowing the computer to shut down properly.

If you do get a UPS, make sure you get one that can handle your PSU's maximum load, though a 650W PSU shouldn't need much more than a basic one.

[Vy'drach]

Have you cleaned it recently? It might be dirt or something caught in the fan. My PC from time to time gets a grinding in the GPU, or rather did before this new one, that's caused by dirt getting into the fan. A quick clean out and it's good as new and quiet as can be.

[Fox-Shot]

My card's always had a bit of squeak to it, I originally assumed it was my dvi input as it seemed to go away when I switched to hdmi for the most part, and like I said, since it's caused by very certain screens, it's never something that would ramp the fan faster, it's always something strange, if you've ever played osu you'll notice there's the flashing "osu" logo in the menu, the squeal will basically pulsate with that logo, so I assume it's some weird interference with the input.

[Fox-Shot]

Sorry to double post, but I have an incredibly strange finding.  It seems that most of my examples are a high framerate during 2d rendering.  I run Minecraft at up to 300 fps at times, just imagine the framerate at the 2D menu, and the squealing is very noticeable only on the main options menu, you can't be in game while going to the options and hear it.  And I pull 1000+ FPS in Osu!  I noticed that if I capped my FPS to 70 in Minecraft the sound appeared to either lower in volume or go away entirely.  I think it is some sort of issue with my HDMI taking all the frames or something of that nature, but either way, it seems more like just an oddity than a GPU-killing problem, since I can play BF3 and Far Cry 3 squeal free.

[DZComposer]

I'm not familiar with solid state electronics making noise, but I am no expert. Tap on the fan and see if that changes or stops the sound.

[Fox-Shot]

I'm just as confused as you, and the fan has not been the culprit.  It sounds more like the sound is happening near the rear of the card, either before or in the cable ports themselves.  I completely took the casing off to check for anything like a popped capacitor and everything seems fine, and blew the fan out while I was at it.  The sound coming from the port in a specific situation leads me to believe that the display ports simply have a squeal to them, since when I take out the hdmi cable from it, the sound stops for a moment, about as long as it would take for it to start or stop outputting to the display when the cable is plugged in.

[DZComposer]

Did some research. Appearently it is caused by the induction coils on the video card's circuit board, not the GPU itself. From what I read, insufficient voltage from the PSU can make this problem notaciable or worse depending on the card.

 

Also seems to be more prone to happen on nVidia-based cards. (This is probably why I've never seen it, I've almost exclusively used AMD/ATI cards)

 

http://theovalich.wordpress.com/2008/11/24/nvidias-deadly-flaw-and-how-to-fix-it-no-more-gtx280-squealing/

 

Your options:

Buy a Better PSU (You shouldn't be skimping on this anyway, but not a guaranteed fix)

Buy a UPS or Power Conditioner (better Solution)

Buy a new video card with Digital PWM/DVRM (Best Solution)

Apply nail polish to problem components (not reccomended, could cause damage, will void warranty)

[Fox-Shot]

I'll look into it, but I doubt it given that I have a 650w Power supply and my card is a few generations newer, I'm not for sure if it has management, it also seems the squealing is linked to the card on load, this is just doing the most trivial things with my card, I can be playing the latest games at 60fps and the card is silent when it comes to squeals.  Do you know a power conditioner that would do well if this is the case?

[Fox-Shot]

Apparently my PSU has had some bad reviews, but generally with fan noise in the PSU itself.  While I plan on getting a new PSU anyways given that my PC seems to be somewhat underpowered, I put a ticket in with EVGA and they said for the most part the coil whine is doing no real damage other than being annoying, and is likely to be an issue with the psu and proper rail type.  I'll likely just deal with it until I have the cash for a new psu or card, thanks for the help.