Question GPU slowly building up heat

[etre]

Hi,

I bought an used Inno3D GTX 1060 3GB. When loaded at max in games or firestrike, it would reach fast the operating temperature , somewhere between 55C and 60C from what I could tell and after it will continue to slowly build up heat, 1C at a time, to around 80C.

The card is idling at around 40C, fans on.

The fans are in good working condition. The heatsink is quite clean. Did some pcb cleaning here an there. Changed the thermal compound (mx4). I changed the fan speed with afterburner. No matter how hard I crank up the fans it will still heat up.

I tested the card in 2 cases, one with 3 fans, other with 5 fans. There us difference of temperature, about 3-5C between the cases. In the smaller case it will get to throttling temp eventually and stop (83C according to afterburner). In the better vented case it will stop just shy of 80C, at 79C.

Seem weird to me. Any ideas why is doing so ?
I'm thinking something on the pcb needs cleaning, higher resistances etc.

Note, this model does not have heatsinks on vrms or vrams. The card had a smell of hot plastic when I unpacked it and the area behind the chip and vrams had the resistors (? Small electronics) with a brownish tint.

 

[vapour]

build a custom fan curve using MSI afterburner and see if it helps. Most modern design will only max fan output after it passes certain threshold, but you can reduce that.

 

[etre]

build a custom fan curve using MSI afterburner and see if it helps. Most modern design will only max fan output after it passes certain threshold, but you can reduce that.

As I told in the original post, I did that and didn't help.

As it happens, I did more. I mounted a heatsink from Arctic Accelero Xtreme III, fitted the shroud with fans from this card (I don't have anymore the original fans). Required some work, cutting a DVI slot since it got in the way, cleaning the PCB with IPA, making some custom washers to even the load between PCB and chip.

Well, the result is that I have a monster cooler, longer than the card.
It gets to +50C and then .... slowly climbs up to around 70 now.
Thing is, I had this cooler on a GTX 1060 6GB. That thing never went above 60C with this cooler. For some reason this GTX 1060 3GB overheats.

I wonder if it's because the ram and the vrms don't have heatsinks. I should buy some and test again.

Until than, what do you guys think. Is this card on its way to the bin ?
What is heating it up ?



Edit: I tested a lighter game. Minecraft, 35% load. The card stays at idle temps, 40C.
This is strange.

 

[vapour]

Sorry missed that part. I guess I will then try undervolting then. If it does not help, I will try RMA. Inno3D is not good brand but stock setting should be fine, this seems not right.

 

[etre]

Sorry missed that part. I guess I will then try undervolting then. If it does not help, I will try RMA. Inno3D is not good brand but stock setting should be fine, this seems not right.

I don't have the option to undervolt in Afterburner, or I'm missing it. I did lower the gpu clock and memory frequency, -100 offset each. To no effect. Still slowly climbs to 70C. Between 60C and 70C it goes up at a rate of about 1C per minute.

I wonder if something inside the GPU is shot.

 

[vapour]

try this: View: https://www.reddit.com/r/nvidia/comments/9g1y61/how_to_undervolt_gtx_1060/

 

[etre]

try this: View: https://www.reddit.com/r/nvidia/comments/9g1y61/how_to_undervolt_gtx_1060/

I did that. I'm not sure if it's working or not. I mean, it seems the temps are not getting close to 70C, never mind 80C like before. But I might need to do more testing. The voltage monitoring shows my changes did nothing (same voltage as before) but I'm seeing positive results temps wise. I'm tired, probably cant' think the situation through. Tomorrow is another day.

Thanks for the replies.

 

[punkncat]

I suspect poor case airflow. Remove the panel from the case and see if temps don't plateau.

 

[etre]

I suspect poor case airflow. Remove the panel from the case and see if temps don't plateau.

Nah, I did that. Beside, I tested in 2 cases/systems. 2x140 fans on intake on both and some exhaust. Same stuff.

Some component is not working properly. I think there is nothing I can do beside providing overkill cooling and lower top clocks/voltages. I suspected the pcb to need cleaning but did that.

What is left to try is to put heatsinks on vram and vrms, although vram chips are very close to the chip and partially covered by the heatsink mounting plate (custom pcb design).

The good thing is that the hot plastic smell came from the dvi port and maybe the fans. The pcb beside overheating signs (color) seems fine. One of the dvi ports is gone now.

I suspect the previous owner kept the card in a poor ventilated case and it overheated in time. Some component is faulty now. I can only hope it wont get worse.

Anyway, this card is for my kid. Is at minecraft stage now. For minecraft this card is more than adequate.