What Is Coil Whine & Should You Be Worried If Your PC Has It?

Here's a scenario you may be familiar with — let's say you're playing a very graphically intensive game on your PC, when suddenly you hear a faint, yet distinct whirring sound. It's not coming from your speakers or anything around you, and after looking around for a moment, you realize it's coming from your PC case. It's understandable to be worried when your PC begins making strange noises, especially if it hasn't made them before, but don't worry — your computer is not about to burst into flames.

This audible phenomenon is known as coil whine, and for better or worse, it's become a fairly normal part of the PC ownership lifestyle. Coil whine typically occurs in a PC's graphics card when you're running some manner of high-impact software, such as the aforementioned graphically intensive game or something similarly strenuous like rendering video. While it can be very irritating, especially if you're sensitive to high-pitched noises, it's a generally harmless condition that naturally manifests in most graphics cards over time. There may be ways to address it, but it's not really a big enough deal to warrant the effort.

The exact origin of coil whine lies in the electromagnetic coils present in your PC's components, particularly the graphics card and power supply. When electricity passes through an electromagnetic coil, the coil begins to vibrate slightly, producing a faint tone like a tuning fork. At low power levels, this tone is so soft that you can't even hear it, but as more power flows through the coils, the vibration becomes more pronounced and the tone becomes louder. This is why you typically only experience coil whine when you're doing something strenuous with your PC — the graphics card is drawing in more juice to render those fancy graphics, and the greater influx of electricity is making the coils vibrate a little harder.

Coil whine is a completely normal part of electronic component operation. All it means is your computer is working very hard, and there's nothing to be worried about. If you find the noise very irritating and want to get rid of it, you may be able to soften the tone by limiting your PC's power consumption. PC users on Reddit recommend checking and capping framerates on graphically intensive games, so the graphics card doesn't draw as much power. You could also just drown it out with speakers or headphones.

It is technically possible for coil whine to be a sign of hardware failure, but only if it's accompanied by other worrisome symptoms like crashing or overheating. If coil whine is the only thing you're experiencing, everything's fine.