I have a GTX 1080 in a roughly nine-year-old PC, and over the past four days it has started making a faint, repeating sound while I'm playing games from around 2019. It resembles a muted helicopter in the background rather than ordinary loud fan noise. The computer was thoroughly cleaned in March, and the GPU averages about 57°C during gaming. The sound usually appears after about an hour. I confirmed that the GPU is responsible by disabling it and running a benchmark, and the card has never been repasted. What might be causing this?
2 Answers
The most likely cause is a GPU fan bearing beginning to wear out. Since the sound only appears after the card has been running for a while, heat may be causing the bearing or fan vibration to become more noticeable. Check whether the noise changes when the GPU fan speed changes, and inspect the fans for wobble or uneven rotation.
The temperature itself sounds perfectly reasonable, so overheating is unlikely. The noise could still be a fan issue, while coil whine is another possibility, although coil whine is usually higher-pitched and more electrical-sounding than a helicopter. Since the card is older and has never been serviced, carefully checking the fan bearings and considering new thermal paste may be worthwhile if the noise gets worse.
It isn’t especially loud, but it becomes noticeable after about an hour of gaming. The PC is cleaned annually, though the GPU has never been repasted.
I tested with the GPU disabled and ran a benchmark, so I’m confident the sound is coming from the graphics card.