I built my PC about a month ago and it's been working great. I'm getting fantastic FPS, and the temperatures are stable. However, when I'm gaming, there's a really loud buzzing noise that starts. Initially, I thought it was coil whine coming from my 7800 XT graphics card. But I noticed that when I switch from headphones to speakers, the noise gets even louder, almost as if the speakers are amplifying it. I've tried undervolting, but it didn't help. Could it be something other than coil whine? How can I be sure? The noise only happens during gameplay; everything is quiet when the PC is idle. My specs are a 7800 XT, 7800 X3D, MSI B650 motherboard, and a Be Quiet! System Power 11 750W power supply.
2 Answers
Definitely keep an eye on the RPMs of your fans and your FPS while gaming. If you notice the noise worsening at high FPS, that’s a telltale sign of coil whine. I remember playing Outer Wilds and hearing similar sounds—it got louder when I was on planets and less so in space, which might be what's happening in your case too. Just try to pinpoint when it happens the most and we can narrow it down further.
It’s tough to diagnose without hearing the noise. It could either be fan noise or it might actually be coil whine. Sounds like switching to speakers makes it worse, which could mean the audio output is amplifying the noise somehow. Have you checked to see if the sound changes depending on the fan speed or FPS? If the noise varies with fan speed, it might be a bad bearing in a fan. If it correlates with your FPS, it’s probably coil whine.
Here's a link to the sound sample I recorded: https://voca.ro/11ACq1CbQPCa. It's pretty loud up close!