Faulty Asus R9 290X, Can't RMA

[XxMX26xX]

Problem: Asus R9 290X DirectCU2 OC edition is reaching 94°C in game causing it to throttle it's clock down from it's designated 1000Mhz to a value between 400 and 800 Mhz after a few minutes of play (sometimes even on non-intensive games from 2010). This has been happening for some time now and i just now realized it was happening. Yes, i'm just utterly stupid, i let posts saying high temps are normal for my version of the card convince me everything was fine while my friends 290X Vapor X was outperforming my card by quite a bit.

Problem 2: ASUS' RMA services don't recognize my products ID and the store i bought the card in a year and a half ago has gone out of business march this year so my warranty ain't worth anything.

I have also switched to an arctic Xtreme Iv cooler (With arctic MX-2 thermal paste) half a month ago due to the fans on the DC2 failing.

Other info: The airflow in my case is good and the card is more or less dust free. I'm also running the latest crimson drivers.

Is there anything i can do to or am i just stuck with this now?

 

[_Cosmin_]

Since you have no warranty on GPU, you should change its termal paste too...also make sure heatsink is properly seated and coolers are working properly

 

[XxMX26xX]

Since you have no warranty on GPU, you should change its termal paste too...also make sure heatsink is properly seated and coolers are working properly

Is the MX-2 paste not good enough? All fans are working perfectly, heatsink gets really warm on touch in the area surrounding the GPU when in-game and the air it blows out is just as warm.

 

[RobCrezz]

It still hitting 94'c after all that?

 

[XxMX26xX]

It still hitting 94'c after all that?

Yep, Still hitting a solid 94! CS:GO: 94 (at 300 fps so it's expected i guess), BF3: 94, minecraft: 90, warframe: 94, dangerous golf: 94 and throttling like crazy, idle depending on room temp. between 51 and 62

 

[Ilikegladpandas]

What are you using to monitor temps?
What is your gpu voltage according to bios?
Is it going above it's core clock at any point?

 

[RobCrezz]

It still hitting 94'c after all that?

Yep, Still hitting a solid 94! CS:GO: 94 (at 300 fps so it's expected i guess), BF3: 94, minecraft: 90, warframe: 94, dangerous golf: 94 and throttling like crazy, idle depending on room temp. between 51 and 62

Thats really weird. What if you set the fans to 100%?

 

[XxMX26xX]

What are you using to monitor temps?
What is your gpu voltage according to bios?
Is it going above it's core clock at any point?

Using HW Monitor and MSI afterburner to check temps.
I'll check the BIOS but MSI says it's using just under one volt (961mV) when idle, jumps up and down slightly while gaming.
Clock pretty much never goes above 1GHz, it barely ever stays >900MHz

 

[XxMX26xX]

Thats really weird. What if you set the fans to 100%?

It's set to the fan curve the Xtreme IV manual suggested, so it ramps up from 20% at 50° to 100% at 75°C (Very low noise as well, impressed with the cooler)

 

[RobCrezz]

Very odd indeed, I would have expected the upgraded cooler to have made a difference if fitted correctly.