Coil whine in GPUs is a high-frequency sound often heard during operation.
Coil whine in GPUs is a high-frequency sound often heard during operation.
About two weeks back I observed that when my local copy of ollama with webui produced text, there was a distinct noise linked to what showed on the screen. This sound is quite noticeable—it resembles the kind of whistle heard in comedic action films when characters type out phrases like "CIA Headquarters, USA" one by one. Many people have reported this issue online. Now I also noticed a soft whistle whenever I move the mouse after the computer starts up. After roughly an hour of use there’s almost no mouse sound, though ollama remains noisy overall. Games still run smoothly, and there are no other unusual noises except for this. Ollama functions properly regardless of the background noise. The system runs on an RTX 3070 with the latest driver (released Aug 20), a 12700KF GPU from Gigabyte Aorus Master Z690, an EVGA 1000 G5, and is installed on Windows 11. The graphics card stays securely seated; I didn’t attempt to re-seat it during transport. I moved the PC several times over the past year, keeping it inside its original case (Corsair 4000D) in my trunk. I never removed the GPU when relocating, only used foam inserts cut to stop side-to-side movement. Inside the trunk, the box stayed horizontally aligned with the card resting on the motherboard. This issue began after my last move, though it was less pronounced then. Overall, this seems unrelated to any major problems—just a minor annoyance.
Instead of seeking advice, consult Ollama. Coil whine is typical and reflects the load on the GPU.