Guild Wars 2

I have been dealing with this problem for months now, I don’t remember when it started, but I have compiled notes about the issue which I will list here. I am starting to get a little fed up, and after a second round at seeing if GW2 tech support could help solve the problem, I am still at a stand still. (side note: GW2 tech support is absolutely the most incredible tech support I have ever had the pleasure of dealing with. They were fast, kind, and although they could not fix the problem, they gave it an astoundingly good shot, both times around)

VIDEO:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fXShbhNdW7A&feature=youtu.be

My compiled notes, copy and pasted:

Perhaps the most important note, this problem happens consistently, every single time I try it, with the AMD 13.x drivers. Only once did this issue happen with a 12.x driver (which was during the Personal Story mission where we had to fight the Eye of Zhaitan in the pool where we would cleanse Orr. It happened directly after the cutscene with the king of Orr).

Can be heard faintly while roaming in game. The real problem it’s causing happens when the camera is zoomed in, close to my character, and I use a skill, such as Earth Attunement, Water Attunement, Ride The Lightning, Dragon’s Tooth, etc.

Only happens in Guild Wars 2. Have tested: Bioshock Infinite, Tomb Raider, Deus Ex: Human Revolution, Far Cry 3, Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon, Hitman: Absolution, Planetside 2, The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim, Kenshi, Orcs Must Die 2, Crysis, Garry’s Mod, Trackmania United, Nexuiz, Half Life Series, Star Wars Battlefront Series, Fiesta Online, Rappelz, Perfect World International, FireFall, Forsaken World, Blacklight: Retribution,

All of the above mentioned games had their settings cranked up to absolute maximum: no ticking. In games such as Tomb Raider and Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon, there were slight changes in noise coming from the GPU (not the fan). The ticking I’m hearing in Guild Wars 2 is its own thing, totally not like the regular sounds I hear while playing other games.

Does not matter the computer. Have tried this on multiple computers.

Only happens when shaders are on medium or high. Still happens when shaders are on low, but to a negligible degree.

Ticking noise is faster, each individual tick not distinguishable, when frame limiter (in-game settings) is set to unlimited.

Ticking noise is slower, each individual tick distinguishable, when frame limiter (same as above) set to 30.

Seems that the fps affects the rate of the ticking. The lower the fps, the slower the ticking, and vice versa.

On my XFX AMD HD Radeon 7770 (purchased from Best Buy), this ticking results in screen going black, and the monitor goes into sleep mode, and becomes unresponsive to my moving of the mouse. Computer becomes unresponsive, although still on, with all components still running as if nothing had happened. Must do a hard reset to get the computer back up and running. The in game music and sound fx continue to play normally as well when the computer and screen become unresponsive, as if all I had done was turn the monitor off while the game is running.

On my XFX AMD HD Radeon 7850 (purchased from Best Buy), this ticking does not result on screen going black, though as far as I can tell, the ticking is equally intense.

My original hypothesis was that this had something to do with voltage and wattage. However, I have tested this theory on multiple computers with varying psus of varying wattage: stock psu, Dynex brand, which leads me to believe that wattage and power is not an issue, though maybe I’m still missing something.

How is the ‘ticking’ being generated?
Is it coming from the speakers? Headphones?
Or is it a mechanical noise from the gpu (or the motherboard) (or the fan) ?

You say there are noises coming from your gpu. What sort of noises? There shouldn’t be any noise from a purely electronic component unless something is mechanically faulty/loose and being moved about by electric or magnetic fields. Or possibly expansion/contraction due to heat.

Don’t laugh – but insects have been known to cause problems of this sort. That’s the origin of ‘bugs’ (apocryphal )

OK, try this.

Turn vsync on, this will normally stop capacitor noise.

if it is still there, it could be a failing gpu fan, or dirt caught in the fan.

IF you still have the noise and it is not the gpu, or psu than it is your sound card, so update the driver, under high load you may hear sound artifacts, try lowering the sound setting in game.

if you still have the noise check all your fans.

the problem is not coming from my speakers. to monitor the noise coming from my gpu, i turned off my sound so nothing got in the way of hearing the computer.

I have checked all of my fans and can confirm it is coming from the gpu. I can double confirm this because, as my notes say, this happens on every computer I have tried it on.
Please give my notes a thorough read through

It could still be coming from one of your GPU fans (yes, I read post thoroughly).

However, you only listed 2 GPUs, both purchased from a single source and similar models, have you tested it on a completely different GPU? You didn’t list any specs on the “other” computers you have tested it on.

Have you actually tested your voltages with monitoring software?

This is a great piece if you don’t already have it, it lists voltages, post a screenshot of this running after playing gw2 for 15 minutes (or while excessive ticking is occurring).

http://www.cpuid.com/softwares/hwmonitor.html

Use more posting & formatting options below.

If the sound is not coming from the speakers/headphones, I would bet that it’s actually your hard drive making the sounds and not your graphics card – especially since you tried two different GPUs.

Just so you know, Dynex power supplies are junk and not a good choice for a gaming machine.

Also, if possible, could you record the sound you are hearing? It might help us to determine what’s causing it.

Probably bad bearing in the fan or cracked fan blade, it’s happened to me before.

Hard drive would’ve been my thought too Abomally, but he specifically said it’s coming from GPU “region” so I immediately bypassed it and figured it must be within the fan(s) somewhere.

But I guess we’ll see what comes when he replies.

I tried this with the Nvidia gpu from my dads computer, which is one of the comps that I tested the two AMD cards on. No problems with my comp, didn’t try the other comps as those are comps of my friends and family and it was difficult enough finding free time during which I could come over and test my card out. No problems with my dads comp as well. I’m thinking this is specifically between AMD and GW2
I’m not sure what the specs were on all the comps that I tested on (5 comps, 3 gaming oriented and 2 non gaming oriented, my dads being one of the two gaming oriented), but I know the specs of my dad’s comp. Also, I’ll happily provide my own comps specs if you want.

My dads: 460-watt stock dell psu, intel i7 quad core with hyperthreading to make 8 cores, ddr3 ram, and that Nvidia gpu i mentioned. thats all i know about his, I can get more info if you want.

someone mentioned that this could be noises coming from the capacitors, can you explain that in more detail? it’s an interesting theory

updated with video of the ticking in OP, to clarify exactly what it sounds like

Odd! It almost sounds like something moves into the path of a fan as you do it lol.

Getting tired, so will check in later, sorry, that wasn’t my most helpful late night assessment.

Thanks for the video.

Here’s my theory:

When you use an ability, your graphics card draws more current (depending on what’s happening on the screen). If your power supply is behaving strangely, the [switching] noise on the 12 volt rail may be increasing to the point that the fan is affected – which produces a rapid ‘stuttering’ sound in the fan itself.

It’s also possible, instead of the noise (also known as ripple) that the 12 volt rail is rapidly dropping and increasing – in tune with the onscreen effects – as current is rapidly increasing and decreasing. A voltage monitoring program probably won’t pick this up because it happens too quickly.

If possible, switch to a different 12 volt connection to the video card. If you aren’t able to do that or if it doesn’t solve the issue – substitute a different known, working power supply.

Of course, if you happen to have an oscilloscope you could scope the 12 volt rail to see if this is what is happening.

Try running a benchmark in 3Dmark to see if it does it under high load.

Have you tried taking the assembly apart and looking at the fans? Could be bearings maybe.

Also, out of curiosity, are you overclocked at all? If so, does this still occur when not overclocked?

Are the connections to the card intact and tight?

How old is this video card? It sounds like it may actually be faulty if you cannot see anything or alleviate this by normal troubleshooting methods.

However, Abomally’s suggestion sounds quite viable. Btw, out of curiosity, if your father has a 450watt psu, what do you have?

Lastly, is it possible to get a vid looking directly at this card while running with light on it?

abomally, the fan isn’t making the noise. ive turned it up to 100% and no noise unless im in gw2
kyllaa, all the bearings are in well. This issue happens whether or not im overclocked.
All the connections are as tight as i could make them.
The card is XFX brand, got it last week from best buy haha
i have a 520 watt psu
and finally, im not sure what looking at the card could tell you

It looks like a common thing with these XFX cards

http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1415339

One poster was told to gently tug the fan power cable away from the fan and it fixed it for him.

Grab a magazine roll it up and place it to your ear and put it inside your case to Exactly spot where the sound is coming from and to isolate other sounds.But it does sound like it could be coil whine,wich is nothing to worry about really.Capping Fps usually works.

Update: I was playing fc3: blood dragon, and the nois is happening there too now. but for real it used to not hahaha. In blood dragon, its constant but only like 1/2-3/4 the intensity that u hear in the video
Yoda, I will try that
Caed, coil whine sounds totally different than the noise Im dealing with

It has to be the fan. There is absolutely nothing else that can make that type of sound on the card. The only noise capacitors make is hissssssssssss….POP…when they explode.

However, as MasterYoda.8563 posted – it’s probably an issue with that particular brand of card.

Edit: Removed bad suggestion that won’t help.

Looking forward to hearing an update on this.