there are some black shiny boxes next to the capacitors.
are those the inductors?
Yes some inductors look like black shiney boxes. I can't be
certain they're inductors based on this description, except
that there is nothing else looking like a black shiney box
that should (could?) be making a whining sound. Beyond a
fan, inductors are the only remaing part on a video card
likely to make a whining sound.
if so they are already epoxied and
i see little benefit from another coating.
i see no parts with the coils exposed on the parts
of the parts of the card that are not covered with the heatsink.
If it is a surface-mounted part, perhaps they can be removed
then accessed from the bottom. Regardless, if this noise is
objectionable enough you are probably better off to RMA the
card.
??? i have no access to the engineering samples.
I didn't say you did. "Reference design" is what most cards
use, did you ever notice that beyond the shape of a heatsink
many cards of the same model/family look practically
identical? There is latitude for different supplier's parts
on this reference design so another otherwise similar card
may not have the problem, or even another card from same
manufacturer might not.
as i said i'm using a production card. what do the components
apart from the silicon on the reference cards have to do with the
production card from gigabyte i'm using???
Compare a picture of your card to same model and family of
nVidia card sold under another brand name. Ignore color and
heatsinks, look at the location and type/size/color/etc of
capacitors and inductors. Do this comparing several 2600XT
and seek a review of 2600XT, try using "reference" as one of
the search terms and it might help.
This might all be beside the point though, that if you need
to RMA your card to the manufacturer instead of the seller,
you have no choice but whatever they offer in return, their
now equivalent product. If you can get a refund or
substitute from the seller, that would be when choosing a
different variation of the card might be prudent.
I'm not a complete idiot. I have the system on the table
as opposed to the case and i can pinpoint the source of the
noise. The PSU is the low noise Zalman and there is not a peep
coming from it except for the low constant drone fan
that obviously is not dependent on the current gpu setting.
I never wrote that you were an idiot, but since you had
described the noise as coming from the capacitors which is
extremely unlikely, it seemed appropriate to wonder how
closely you had examined it... because if you had only
installed the video card and then heard the whining from
outside the system, it could have been caused by the PSU
instead.
It is good that it is clear where the noise is coming from.
As i have already said the noise is coming
from the graphics card when it switches to 3D mode.
it is. i checked before i posted in case this was not
clear from my original post.
If you cannot get any epoxy/etc into the inductor windings
to quiet them, you could either source equivalent inductors
from an electronics supplier and replace them, or RMA the
card to the seller or manufacturer. RMA seems to be the
best option.
