Question GTX 1080 crashing

[alehei]

Hi all,

I have an ASUS ROG STRIX GTX 1080 and I've owned it since late 2017.


This past year it has been acting a bit weird. I remember when I first got the card it never exceeded 62c on stock settings and when I raised my TDP limit to 120% it just went about 66c and with just like 60-70% fan speed.

Over the years, temps started to climb slowly but never had any problems until recently.

It started going downhill when I noticed that if I set my TDP to 120%, the GPU would crash if it hits over 72c (which imo is still low temp to crash) but long story short, I decided to reduce TDP to 100% and run even more aggressive fan curve and let it run stock where it did not crash even if it touched 80c. Normally my GPU now would run at about 69-71c stock with 100% fan speed.


Yesterday, it decided to crash 3 times (on stock settings) with temps just at 71c and temporarily I adjusted TDP limit to 80% and seems to be stable running at about 59c


What's weird in all of this is the GPU doesn't go in the normal downclocking fase when it starts heating up but it goes from just running like 1923mhz to just crashing.

Also, I am noticing that the heatsink and fans are way less effective. I remember when it was new that If I ran its fans at 100% it would just go into the mid 50's with 120% TDP but now it barely manages 70c with fans full blast @ 100% TDP


I am of course thinking about re-pasting it but here comes my first question. I am trying to search on forums what thickness I need for thermal pads but data is conflicting, any ideas?


Also I am afraid that its not just a thermal paste problem, could it be the beginning of the end?

I mean idk, but it does not seem normal to crash at 70c and 72c VRM temp, nvidia's soft limit is 83 and actually it can be raised to 92. I ran it in the 80c range a couple of times and it worked just fine in the past. Any info on what might be the culprit?


Thank you very much.

PC Specs
Motherboard: Asus Z170m Plus
CPU: Intel Core i7 6700k @4.6: ghz
RAM: Corsair Vengeance 16gb x2 CL16 3200mhz
GPU: Asus Rogstrix GTX1080
PSU: Seasonic Prime PX 1000

 

[punkncat]

Have you ever simply blown the dust out of the cooler and cleaned the fans?

IMO bad card issues are things like artifacting, weird color changes, black screen. Shutdown could be indicative of poor cooling/cleaning. It could actually be that you have a tired PSU issue.

IDK specifically what thermal pads this is going to want. I always worry a bit myself about that in regard to the few cards I have ever done such service on.

 

[alehei]

Have you ever simply blown the dust out of the cooler and cleaned the fans?

IMO bad card issues are things like artifacting, weird color changes, black screen. Shutdown could be indicative of poor cooling/cleaning. It could actually be that you have a tired PSU issue.

IDK specifically what thermal pads this is going to want. I always worry a bit myself about that in regard to the few cards I have ever done such service on.

I clean it regurarly when I clean my PC (usually 2/3 months) but I never actually take out the shroud, it looks to flimsy for me and I'm afraid I break it lol. To the naked eye, id does not seem dirty at all, but idk whats under that heatsink.

I changed my PSU last month since tge one I had before started acting up.

 

[punkncat]

I clean it regurarly when I clean my PC (usually 2/3 months) but I never actually to out the shroud, it looks to flimsy for me and I'm afraid I break it lol. To the naked eye, id does not seem dirty at all, but idk whats under that heatsink.

I changed my PSU last month since tge one I had before started acting up.

One of the items that really surprised me on a recent PC upgrade/component change was just how much dust was on the backside of an otherwise clean looking fan/heatsink once I actually broke the components down and away from each other. You should be able to see this.

I still use (2) GTX 1080. I have an EVGA SSC and a MSI Gaming X. I monitor temps on both and have been rather amazed at how steady they have stayed over the years. Since GPU pricing is going the correct direction I am semi-seriously hunting something new but in no hurry simply because these perform so well in 1080 and 1440 gaming for almost everything.
I am a bit surprised at the low heat shutdown you are getting. My card(s) typically run well into the 70's during gaming, and the power limit doesn't start cutting till 81.

 

[alehei]

One of the items that really surprised me on a recent PC upgrade/component change was just how much dust was on the backside of an otherwise clean looking fan/heatsink once I actually broke the components down and away from each other. You should be able to see this.

I still use (2) GTX 1080. I have an EVGA SSC and a MSI Gaming X. I monitor temps on both and have been rather amazed at how steady they have stayed over the years. Since GPU pricing is going the correct direction I am semi-seriously hunting something new but in no hurry simply because these perform so well in 1080 and 1440 gaming for almost everything.
I am a bit surprised at the low heat shutdown you are getting. My card(s) typically run well into the 70's during gaming, and the power limit doesn't start cutting till 81.

And thats how it used to run for me since about a year ago and from there it had been at a constant decline.
I am currently too tempted to get a new GPU and eying a rog strix 3080 (overkill for my current setup but planning to get a new platform in about 2 years time), the thing is as I said before, my PSU recently acted up and had to replace it, a gpu was in my plans for this year but now after buying a PSU im finding it hard to chunk like 1k on a GPU so if maybe I can get another year of good performace from my 1080 it would be amazing and even I might consider keep using it since I dont play loads of AAA titles. The GPU is still a beast even at 80% tdp.

When you mentioned you took apart the heatsink, were tou refering to where the fabs are or the backplate? Also removing heatsink will expose the thermal pads right? I could gamble on opening it and the the pads remain in good shape I just reuse them. What Im hesitant about is if the pads get broken and I need to replace them

 

[punkncat]

^ In relation to the fan and shroud attached to the heatsink.

I take my PC out and blow them out about once every 4-6 weeks. I use a weak/cheap leafblower, take all the panels off and screens where such exist (I took them out of my current build entirely) and set them on the drive and perform said. About once a year I actually take thing out and clean them, but not particularly to a degree to wholly apart. This last revamp I actually took some things down to clean them, such as pulling the radiator and fans out of the case, taking the shroud off the GPU, taking out the PSU and so on such that I could really get TO them and clean with rags and wipes/alcohol. I was quite surprised to see how bad the back side of my GPU and AIO cooler fans were as well as what would seemingly be a small section under said on the rad and heatsink. It was funky to put a word to it.

 

[alehei]

^ In relation to the fan and shroud attached to the heatsink.

I take my PC out and blow them out about once every 4-6 weeks. I use a weak/cheap leafblower, take all the panels off and screens where such exist (I took them out of my current build entirely) and set them on the drive and perform said. About once a year I actually take thing out and clean them, but not particularly to a degree to wholly apart. This last revamp I actually took some things down to clean them, such as pulling the radiator and fans out of the case, taking the shroud off the GPU, taking out the PSU and so on such that I could really get TO them and clean with rags and wipes/alcohol. I was quite surprised to see how bad the back side of my GPU and AIO cooler fans were as well as what would seemingly be a small section under said on the rad and heatsink. It was funky to put a word to it.

Yup usually I take my parts out too but never actually full dissessable them. I'll find a tutorial on how to take the shroud off hopefully it won't break. Is it possible to take out the backplate without removing the actual heatsink? Thank you very much for your help