Nasty GPU Coil whine leaking into audio outputs

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 Ayeohdee wrote:

So this morning I replaced my EVGA z270 / 7700k with my most wanted Asrock Taichi z370 and paired it with an 8700k. Once I got everything settled in and was happy with my OC that consists of very very acceptable voltages I begin to have some fun benchmarking and everything went great. then I  started gaming.. I am running this combo with an MSI GTX 1080ti armor and 32gb of Corsair dominator platinum 3200. and everything is cooled with a cusom loop. Prior to doing this mobo / cpu swap i experienced ZERO audio issues.. Now It seems my gpu coil whine ( which is the same amount as I had on my previous setup ) is leaking into my front and rear audio outputs.. Through speakers its not to bad but with headphones its very very very noticeable, particularly when playing PUBG. It's not so bad with less demanding games/gpu benchmarks but I feel like this shouldn't be happening  anyway considering it was a non existent issue on my last board\cpu combo. everything else is the same.. PSU/GPU/RAM/DRIVES etc etc. The only thing that changed was the mobo and cpu... The only way I can get around it is if I plug into the monitors sound output which is just terrible quality so I refuse to go that route.  ANY suggestions besides a new PSU and or GPU would be much appreciated  

This issue occurs with the front panel headphone jack on your PC case, correct? That uses the dedicated headphone amp chip, different than the speaker output amplifier.

Did you try routing the front panel audio cable in different positions, in case that helps reducing the interference/noise possibly being picked up by that cable? Check the connection of this cable to the board.

Are you using the same Windows installation you used with your Z270 board, or a fresh installation?

Do you have the Spread Spectrum option enabled in the UEFI/BIOS, OC Tweaker screen? That can help with EMI noise issues.

Realtek changed the impedance sensing feature on their newer driver version for the ALC1220 audio chip, the version you are using. Some users have complained it does not work as well as it did in the past with some headphones. You could try an earlier driver version from the Z270 Taichi board, which uses the identical audio chips:

http://www.asrock.com/mb/Intel/Z270%20Taichi/index.asp#Download

Many PC cases now provided black anodized screws and standoffs for the mother board. Those tend to insulate the ground connections around the screw holes on the board, so the board is not as well grounded to the chassis. The Z270 board may have had a different ground connection design that did not need additional grounding of the board to the PC case. The front panel audio connections is probably grounded to the PC case.