Hi,
It has been about 2 months since I last played TW3, I launched it form the GoG library today.
After about 10 seconds, I noticed a strange noise coming from below my desk.
I instantly checked my GPU and CPU tempratures, which were all at acceptable levels (max temp was 55°C on the GPU).

All my drivers are up to date as well, and so is the game.

Not knowing of what importance that noise was, I closed the game while still in the main menu (I am not going to take any risks wih this PC, the specs at the bottom should explain why), and the sizzling noise dissapeared instantly and completely.


After running a virus scan, turning off my PC and checking if PSU and any external components were ok (which was the case), I launched Witcher 3 again.
This time I had multiple monitoring software (GPU, CPU and case fans) running and watched for any change in fan speeds and tempratures.
However noting out of the ordinary showed up.
Neither my CPU nor my GPU were running at full load, and both the fan speeds and temps were in acceptable levels (below 60°C).

But the noise occured again, a few seconds after launching the game, in the main menu.
And when I close the game, it dissapeared in the exact millisecond when the game closed.


I have absolutely no idea, but I am not willing to take any risks.



Summary / TL;DR:

Strange noise which either comes from the GPU or CPU is making me uncomfortable.


PC specs:

CPU: Intel Xeon E3 1231 v3
CPU fan: Thermalright Macho 120 Rev. A
GPU: Palit Geforce GTX 980
RAM: 2x4GB Cruicial Ballistix DDR3-1600, CL9-9-9-24
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-H97-D3H
HDD (which the game is installed on): Western Digital Green 2TB, 5400rpm, SATA 6Gb/s, 64M
PSU: Corsair CS650M CS Series Modular 80+ Gold (650 Watt, ATX 12V 2.4)

Hi CrusaderX

Do you notice this noises also if you are not playing the Game. for ex. while playing something else ?
Just asking as the Sounds in the Main Menu of W3 did change quiet abit with HoS Expansion into some
fire crackling and metalic sounding noises from the destroyed gate in the background instead of the known Soundtrack.

If you fancy to try something on your own, you could disconnect your Speaker-system and try again.
If the noises are gone its either the Main Menu Sounds you hear or your Sound-system is making them.

Is it a kind of chirping or whistling/whining noise? Does it happen only in the main menu or also in-game?

I suspect coil whine. It frequently appears under high framerates/high workload on the GPU, when the cards voltage regulators are stressed. (Also the CPU's VRMs or some component in you PSU could be the culprit, yet GPU coil whine is by far the most usual.) It's not dangerous, only annoying.

You can try limiting your FPS to 60, for example, this could help if your noise is caused by high frame rates.

@hpq0235sa:
I do not even own the HoS expansion, and I am certain the that noise is not coming from the game, as I can both heard it with the sound turned off, and when opening the PC case.
Also, I do not own any speakers, I play using a headset.

@M4xw0lf:
I have no yet tried loading a savestatet and checking if the issue stays ingame, as I would first like to make sure it is nothing that could damage my hardware.

Coil whine was my first guess, but I tried setting all of the fan speeds from a range of -20% to +30% from what I was getting while in the main menu, and was unable to reproduce the issue.
Even if I manually set the fan speeds to not automatically change when the system load goes down (for example when a game is closed), the noise would dissapear as soon as I closed the game.

I might try the FPS limit in the future, but to be completely honest, even the slightest risk is too high with a GPU that is still worth more than 500€. (For a student like me, that is a lot of money).


I will reinstall the game once I have the time to do so.
Even though I have no idea how that could solve the problem, it is the only step left before taking my system completely apart (checking for coilwhine with singled out components, doing voltage checks etc.)

The chirping noise I mean is independent of fan speed (it's not caused by moving parts of the card, but by vibrations), so there's no surprise there. However, the noise vanishing after closing the game fits perfectly.

Would you please eleborate?
All of the components are sitting tight, not too much, not too little.
I even went through the trouble of adding extra support mounts to the case (luckily a god friend of mine is a laser sensor specialist, and he helped me make sure that nothing moved, at all).

Plus, that would still not explain why the coilwhine only appears when running 1 certain program, which is neither the most straining on any of the parts, nor the least.
That, and the fact that I was not able to replicate what seems to be a very simple issue in any way, shape or form, even a tiny bit, makes this extremely.... confusing.

Here are two videos, illustrating the coil noise: http://www.pcgameshardware.de/Grafikkarten-Grafikkarte-97980/News/Video-So-hoert-sich-Spulenfiepen-an-1037764/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HP73edpQwgc

Just search Youtube for 'coil whine' and see if this sounds anything like your noise.

Yes, the noise is very similar.

I guess I will have to limit the game to 60FPS and see how it goes, even though it pains me to do so, owning a 980 and a 144Hz monitor.

Have you monitored your FPS (for expample with FRAPS) while in the menu? Your card might push hundreds of FPS there, because it's not a demanding scene. With the lower FPS in-game, you might be rid of the noise without doing anything.

It sounds a lot like a GPU coil whine issue. Sadly there's no fix for it, but fortunately it's not dangerous for the PC components. It mostly occurs when your GPU is pushing a ton of frames per second (usually in game menus).