Question Did I damage my RTX 3060 Ti? :(

[Tempe9]

In the afterburner program, I mistakenly set the fan speed to a constant 50% of max RPM. I played maybe 2 - 3 hours, didn't monitor the temperatures, the next day I found the card heats up to 91C. I immediately checked the settings and went back to the defaults. I have the card for two days, I'm worried that I have overheated it and shortened its life. I didn't notice anything disturbing, even thermal throttling wasn't there. Everything worked fine with plenty of FPS in games. At this point, the card reaches a maximum of 70 C, even under full and prolonged load. Should I be worried about that overheating around 91-92c from the day before? Could it shorthen the lifespan of the GPU or cause some damage that will be visible in the future?

 

[MEMOFLEX]

I doubt you will have done any damage as the cards are designed to thermal throttle to protect themselves when required. Whilst 90+ is not ideal you noticed the issue quickly. It certainly wasn't days or weeks of running at those temps.

Obviously no way to tell in terms of longevity but if the card is working as expected with a more appropriate fan curve, then I would use this as a lesson learnt exercise.

 

[Tempe9]

I doubt you will have done any damage as the cards are designed to thermal throttle to protect themselves when required. Whilst 90+ is not ideal you noticed the issue quickly. It certainly wasn't days or weeks of running at those temps.

Obviously no way to tell in terms of longevity but if the card is working as expected with a more appropriate fan curve, then I would use this as a lesson learnt exercise.

I don't know what temperatures I had the first day I got the card and I constantly think "what if temperatures were even higher, like 100 C or so?" on nvidia website I've found that max temperature for 30xx family is 93 C degrees.

Yes, I am a bit panicking..

As far as I know there is some sort of protection that prevents cards from overheat damage switching it off if thermal throttling didn't help?

 

[MEMOFLEX]

Fully understand your concern but there are built in protections for these kind of scenarios. The GPU will throttle to try and reduce the temperatures in the first instance. If this does not reduce the temperature then the GPU will shut down to protect itself.

Based on what you have said then you will have run at high temps for a few hours a day for a couple of days. I am sure you will be fine especially as you have now corrected the problem and the temps are now in the 70's which is fine for a GPU.

No one on here can give a 100% guarantee but I am confident that you have caught the error in time and no damage is done to the card. To put your mind at ease download something like 3d mark and run some tests and monitor your temps.

What model of card do you have? Some have better / quieter cooling solutions than others?

Also ambient temperature and what case you have will need to be considered.

 

[Tempe9]

I have Gigabyte GeForce RTX 3060 Ti EAGLE OC and a PC case with very good airflow.

I've done some stress tests in FurMark and temperatures are at 69 - 70 C degrees top.

Thanks for your involvement. I hope it will be just fine.

 

[MEMOFLEX]

No worries. If you do encounter any issues just come back and someone will help out

 

[Nighthawk117]

In the afterburner program, I mistakenly set the fan speed to a constant 50% of max RPM. I played maybe 2 - 3 hours, didn't monitor the temperatures, the next day I found the card heats up to 91C. I immediately checked the settings and went back to the defaults. I have the card for two days, I'm worried that I have overheated it and shortened its life. I didn't notice anything disturbing, even thermal throttling wasn't there. Everything worked fine with plenty of FPS in games. At this point, the card reaches a maximum of 70 C, even under full and prolonged load. Should I be worried about that overheating around 91-92c from the day before? Could it shorthen the lifespan of the GPU or cause some damage that will be visible in the future?

Generally no but if you run the card like that for a long period you will shorten it's life.

 

[Cookiezaddict]

I don't know what temperatures I had the first day I got the card and I constantly think "what if temperatures were even higher, like 100 C or so?" on nvidia website I've found that max temperature for 30xx family is 93 C degrees.

Yes, I am a bit panicking..

As far as I know there is some sort of protection that prevents cards from overheat damage switching it off if thermal throttling didn't help?

There are several reasons not to get panicked.

First, it should be throttling down if it reached whatever temp that the sensors sense could damage your GPU

Second, if the sensors failed to send such signals to avoid overheating, and it's actually overheating, the system will crash, artifacting, BSOD. Then you will have different case, and by now should already contacted manufacturer for RMA.

Third, you may have warranty since you said it's new. Even if it's used if you got the receipt, that card should be covered till the expiry dates of the warranty.

Now, are you still curious what temp you may reached during the day when you made that silly mistake?

Simple, just replicate the problem, set the fan setting to that mistake setting you made. It's not like you are ending someone's life, and if it's actually ended the life of a GPU, it's a hardware, covered under warranty, aren't you interested to learn? If I were you, I'd just replicate all that, TO LEARN!

Turned on in game overlays, played for the hours, target yourself to hit the number of hours you played that day, say 3 hours.

DON'T BE SCARED, remember, you have that card under warranty, if it screwed up, then RMA it, they'd probably assumed the fan isn't working properly and that's it.

If you are too scared to replicate that particular problem, then I have another idea assuming it's new... and assuming you are not happy with it since you use MSI Afterburner to get better outcome.

Call the store, ask for potential return for change of mind, at cost of restocking fees if you are unlucky but some store may give you good store credit at least here in where I live.

Tell them that the GPU isn't giving you as much FPS as you expected but it performs as it should nothing's wrong with that, so tell them that you wonder what if you upgrade it to 3070 Ti?

Trust me, try that, you may be lucky...

I did that with 6700 XT, get full cash refund actually LOL.

I did that with my TV, get full store credit refund.

Sometimes, stores just wanna make you happy so you keep coming back bringing all the children and grandchildren in the future. LOL

 

[Tempe9]

Second, if the sensors failed to send such signals to avoid overheating, and it's actually overheating, the system will crash, artifacting, BSOD. Then you will have different case, and by now should already contacted manufacturer for RMA.

Nothing like this happened, everything works fine now so I will just assume it's all good. Even if the card was really overheating it should have some sort of "failsafe system", GPU shutdown or something similar I guess.

I think some users treat their hardware waaay worse than I do so it has to have some sort of "idiot friendly engineering" within it.

Thanks for your reply. Time to enjoy new piece of hardware instead of worrying.

 

[Cookiezaddict]

Nothing like this happened, everything works fine now so I will just assume it's all good. Even if the card was really overheating it should have some sort of "failsafe system", GPU shutdown or something similar I guess.

I think some users treat their hardware waaay worse than I do so it has to have some sort of "idiot friendly engineering" within it.

Thanks for your reply. Time to enjoy new piece of hardware instead of worrying.

That's good mindset, just enjoy it, if it dies in 2 -3 4-5 6-7 years,,, it's just a god damn hardware. LOL Relax