GTX 1080 Ti (11GB) Running Hot when Idle?

Aug 10, 2018
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I am using SpeedFan to keep check on my CPU/GPU temps.

I noticed that whilst my CPU is dandy (between 27-30C when idle), my GPU is running at 55-60C when idle 😵 that seems very high.

I ran MalwareBytes and it isolated 8 threats, I rebooted but the high temp was still present.

I then updated my driver, and waited a while, but it's still high so that wasn't the cause. It actually went UP by 1C since updating.

My tower unit has a total of 6 fans: 2 in the graphics card, 2 in the cooling system, and 2 built in to the tower. I don't know if the gfx card fans spin when idle, but everything is spinning completely silently right now.

Can anyone help please? When I play even a relatively simplistic game like Paladins it's spiking to 80C. I don't even want to see what it's like when I play something really heavy like Quantum Break. All I know is when I built the computer about 10 months ago, I wasn't having this problem.

EDIT: Some other things I've tried:

- Lowered both monitors' refresh rates down. Small monitor to 50hz (from 60) and Large monitor to 120Hz (from 144)

- Set Gfx card settings to Optimal power instead of maximum

- Downloaded MSI Afterburner and turned fans up at lower temps. Still averaging 43-45C idle.

 
It might be safe. If I were you, I'd look up the maximum temperature of that specific GPU. My 980Ti's get up to 30-50 idle. Just one gets more heat because heat rises into the other graphics card. But however, try messing with fan speed at idle. I use MSI Afterburner to set fan speeds at certain temps. Idle seems fine though. It wont matter what game you play, if a game utilizes 90-99% of the GPU and you're at 80C in heat, it's possible any game will stay at that temp. As I've seen so far, utilization has showed me my temps. Not a whole lot different from like GTA or division to something like, idk, No mans sky, that's like indie game graphics right there basically. If you get close to your max temp, like 5-10 C off, close the game. Let your pc cool down. And then maybe air out the dust. Then some more diagnostics you can do, see if it's getting the right amount of power. If it's getting too much, might be faulty. I've recently replaced thermal paste on my cards, I no longer get to max temp and theoretically beyond on cooking my GPU's up.

Mess with fan speed. See max temp. See if there is too much power going to it. Dust it out. Try thermal paste (manufacture might of messed up and it may have not compounded correctly). If all basically fail. Idk then, just might be faulty. Do more research possibly before assuming faulty.
 
In idle, your GPU should be close to room temperature.
Unless your room temperature is 50C, your idle temperature is too high.

Use MSI Afterburner to check if the GPU is being used when "idling".
Also, did you change any Nvidia Control Panel settings? There was one to set the GPU to run at maximum performance always. Perhaps that's your culprit.
 
I have 2 cards. One that's bad. Idles at 50-60C reaches at max 81C. Which is the max for 980ti. My good card idles 27-32C. Reaches max 72-78C. That's full utilization. I believe his idle is fine, but maybe the gaming is not good. But maybe his GPU maxes passed 81C, seems really hot though. But I had the same problem. I repaste thermal paste. And it fixed my GPU, the one that is in good or decent temps. So maybe the solution is thermal paste. Both of my cards use to be at max temp. So I took one out to test around and it worked. But I'm human, so I'm not always right
 
Is your bad card on the top slot? The top GPU in a SLI config will always be hotter than the bottom GPU because the heat from the bottom GPU is being absorbed by the top GPU.
 


I did have it set to max performance, I've turned it to Optimal but as before it only dropped the temp for a moment and started to rise again. My room isn't warm, it's actually quite cold today (it's about 14C outside and I don't have heating on). I might turn up my GPU fans and just see if that helps. I know it won't exactly melt, but I'd rather have some noise than a hot PC.