How to diagnose why my GPU is suddenly running hotter?

[jackpj]

Hi all.

My gfx card (GTX 580) under 100% load used to always run at 82-84C maximum.Perfectly fine temp to run at. Yet all of a sudden, it hit 97C yesterday and shutdown.

I've since taken the side of my pc off and stuck a seriously powerful fan next to it blowing on the card and can only get it down to 94C

There isn't a spec of dust in this PC (or the heatsink). Does anyone know how I could go about diagnosing the issue?

thanks in advance

 

[g1abhi]

1. check if it happened after a recent driver update or not .
2. check if the graphics card fan is working or not and if it dust free or not.
3. You dont need a fan next to it, wont help. Also does it occur in idle states or during intensive gaming , and during which games?

 

[jackpj]

1. Good suggestion. There seems to be no Correlation with a driver update, but I downgraded just in-case. Didn't appear to change anything
2. The middle fan didn't free-spin very easily but still hit the top RPM. nether the less, I got into it, got it cleaned up nice so it works good as new, but still having the heat issue
3. The fan makes 3C of difference, which at that temperature could mean the diff between permanent damage of the card could it not? (I only let the card get that hot for seconds at a time )

I've got plenty of diagnostic programs for harddrives, motherboards, ram etc. But didn't know if there were any for gfx cards to let me know if its a write-off or not

 

[g1abhi]

when does it get hot , tell specific game or time after which it heats , and test if it occurs with every game or one you have started recently. If it happens with each game then maybe your card has developed a defect.