I think my GTX 1080 FE is actually overheating

[ultimadwarf]

Hi, noticed today my temps were much higher than usual. From what I've seen Founder's Edition 1080s average between 83c to 85c at full load. I like to check my temps every once in a while especially while playing games that would max out my system and found the card operating at 91c. I closed the game and left it a minute then brought up FurMark and did a bunch of testing.

Specs:
Windows 7 64-bit
8GB RAM
i5-4570 non-K
Gigabyte GTX 1080 FE NO OVERCLOCK
Note I use a 3840x2160 monitor and a 1280x1024 side monitor both connected to the 1080.

Started FurMark, within a minute it was at 91c and about 80% fan speed. A few minutes later, it slowly climbed up to 93c at 100% fan speed. I rebooted and tried again, got the same results.

Took the card out and blew some air in to get any excess dust, put the card back in. I wanted to test again but this time, I pulled the case from under my desk and took the side panel off to help airflow a bit.

Highest temp this time was 92c but it went down slightly, going between 89c and 91c at around 86% fan speed. I changed the fan to 100% and left it for 20 minutes, I came back to it jumping constantly between 87c and 90c, every once in a while it would hit 85c for half a second. The framerate was also jumping with the temps between 20-45FPS.

Also noticed it was thermal throttling hard during this whole situation, with clocks between 1400-1500MHz.

I do stress the system occasionally but I don't game as much on the PC as I used to due to friends being on Xbox. It still gets it's use playing high end stuff but a lot of the time it's older games maxed out or with mods. Basically what I'm trying to say is the GPU isn't under 100% load every day or every other day. Maybe only for a few hours a week at most.

I am used to it capping out at 85c at around 40-70% fan speed. I'm worried about the 90c, especially because maximum operation temps are 94c. It's still under warranty but it's got a year left to go. I'm not too concerned now but scared it will have bigger problems soon after warranty ends.

Been testing every couple hours throughout the day, restarted multiple times, same sort of temps. Not got the best cable management or cleanest case but it's not caked with dust and it's a mid tower, there's still a nice bit of room (plus it's a blower card which is supposed to deal with smaller spaces better). Ambient temps are fairly low due to living in Britain. The card's idle temps are around 40-44c.

Any suggestions?

 

[norcalsc]

one thing you can try to do to help keep it cool is increasing the rpms of your intake case fans. that will help to provide more cool air for your card to then push out the back of the case. I would be concerned as well, all you can do is try to manage it. does seem weird that you are having high temps all of sudden

 

[RobCrezz]

Make sure you have good airflow in the case.

I would replace the thermal paste on the card with something like Thermal Grizzly Kryonaut, and clean out any dust in the heatsink.

 

[ultimadwarf]

Not really sure if the temps are all of a sudden, I check my temps maybe every 1-3 at most months so it could be something that's slowly happened over time.

I will say I've not got crazy cooling in my case, no exhaust fan (behind the cpu) and no front intake fan (I'm not sure there's screw holes with my current case). Reasons for this is the CPU never goes above 55c at 100% load with a Hyper 212 Evo and fan on it, and the graphics card as mentioned has been absolutely fine up until now, no problems with heat, never exceeding 85c as is normal.

In an attempt to confirm airflow is not much of an issue, I plugged in a good floor fan and put it right next to the case, blowing air directly in where the side panel is off. With the highest fan speed I managed to get the card to drop by 1c and that was all...

Replacing thermal paste is not an option as it's a Gigabyte card still under warranty. Doing anything with the cooler will void the warranty from what I understand.

I'm going to contact Overclockers UK where I bought the card from sometime in the next few days and see if they'll take a look at it.

 

[RobCrezz]

I would just grab a couple of 120mm fans and fit one for exhaust and one for Intake.

Chances are its just the higher ambient temp.