Question GPU hot even with fans throttling

[LeCommunistSpy]

Hi all,

I recently built a new PC and have been benchmarking and testing my single-fan EVGA GTX 1060 ("Superclocked" version I believe) with MSI Afterburner for a few days. Running the MSI Kombustor benchmark causes my GPU temperature to climb to over 90 degrees C, even when I set the fan speed to 100% (which is very loud and uncomfortable). Setting the fan speed all the way up barely impacts the climbing temperature. I bought the card used, so I opened it up and replaced the thermal paste with the Noctua paste that came with my CPU cooler. It seems to have had a negligible impact. There is a bit of dust on the GPU (I did my best to clean it, there is still some in hard-to-reach places) so could that impact it? I've opened up the case and made sure it had open air to run in and that didn't help at all. I've done everything short of just replacing the fan/heatsink entirely. Should I do so?

I've tried it with a few games and have seen polarized impacts. Some games I can run at ultra settings without hesitation, other games throttle the fan and stay at 90+ degrees. I've made sure the fan has good airflow, what's going on???

 

[Roland Of Gilead]

Are you OC'ing the GPU? If so, try it without the OC. Those single fan solutions aren't the best. They are loud and can cause throttling if you're pushing the GPU too hard.

Also, kombuster is a stress test. It's not unusual for the temps to go high like that. I've a two fan EVGA gtx1060. On BF V it doesn't get above 65c. Stressing with Superposition, Furmark, Kombuster will push temps to mid 80's. This is normal for Nvidia GPU's. If the temps are only when stressing, then I wouldn't worry too much. If the temps are hitting that at gaming loads, then it's way too high for me, and only some of that can be down to the single fan cooling.

 

[LeCommunistSpy]

I have not OC'd the GPU yet. I have played Viscera Cleanup Detail on max settings and the fan never throttles and I stay at decent temperatures. I ran Metro 2033 Redux at high settings and the fan throttled and went to high temps on the menu screen. It seems to vary a ton between games so far.

 

[Roland Of Gilead]

hmmm, that very well may be the case. Some games really push a GPU to the max.

It might be worth considering replacing thermal paste with something a bit more robust. it could just be a bad application of thermal paste. You won't know without trying.

However, seeing as your temps are that high, it may be a faulty Fan, or even the GPU itself. Is it new, can you RMA it?