Buzzing sound coming from computer when playing games

[amaral97]

Hello everybody. I'm having a weird buzzing sound coming from my computer when I play games. In games like The Witcher 3 and Dragon Age Inquisition it is loud enough to be annoying. The pitch of the buzzing does change depending on where I am facing with my character . For example when I look at the ground the noise seems to quiet down slightly. In World of Warcraft their is also a buzzing sound which leads me to believe that this buzzing noise has not so much to do with the work load of my GPU as WoW is not a demanding game. When I turned the shadow settings all the way down in WoW the buzzing seems to disappear after a few seconds however this has no effects in Witcher and DA:I. In terms of settings Im running Withcer 3 on all low settings at 1080p in order to reach 60fps. Dragon Age Im running at medium at 1080p to reach 60fps. WoW is maxed out at 1080p locked at 60fps.

I have tried enabling v-sync and locking fps no higher than 60 and in some games that will lower the the sound but it still exists. Minimizing the game will mute the buzzing sound as it does not happen on the desktop or when browsing internet and watching videos. The buzzing sound carries over on some menus in certain games and stops on other menus, it seems game dependent.

I have tried to track the sound and It seems to be loudest at the fans at the very top (ceiling) of my computer case. However I cannot see any sort of wires or anything interfering with the fans as my side panel is see through. I have opened it and cleaned it thinking it could be caused by dust build up but to no avail.

I think that is everything i can say to try and describe the situation as best I can. If any more info is needed let me know and I will try and provide it. Specs will be below. Thanks for any help or tips and advice you may have.

Specs
Radeon 280x 3gb
Intel i5-4690k
550w psu (cant remeber the branding but its not a bad brand or quality, however im not saying its not the problem)
8gb ram
256gb ssd
1tb hdd

 

[turbopixel]

Its most likely "coil whine" (this is the keyword to search) issue. If the rest of the hardware is cheap, like bad psu and motherboard and if you are unlucky even on good hardware, then this can produce coil whine. Nobody can say this for sure, just by looking the specs. The same card can produce coil whine on one pc and on another it is dead silent. You could try a different version of this model, but I suspect its too late for this. I had same issue with my GTX 970.

A big question to me is, does it come from the speaker or from the pc? My coil whine was just coming from the speakers, which is unique I think as nobody else reported this. Using a soundcard did help me back then, but I didn't want use a soundcard (unless I buy the best one). Now, I don't have coil whine, with a first class motherboard, psu and high quality speaker setup.

There is only one benchmark application left, which produce coil whine on my system and that only if I close that application. Its Unigine Valley 1.0.

Edit: And this sound is not harmful for you or for the hardware. Its just an annoying sound. Sorry, didn't read your message fully and replied. Ignore my question where the sound comes from.

 

[amaral97]

Thanks for the reply. I did a quick search on coil whine and found some videos on it that replicate the sound I'm having. I guess its just going to be an annoyance until I feel the need to replace it. I appreciate the help.