MSI GTX 670 Power Edition running hot

[imrazor]

I recently moved a MSI GTX 670 Power Edition to a new case - and my temps went through the roof. In my old case (Corsair Carbide 500R I think) my temps were running around 67C under load, BUT it had a 200mm fan pointing right at it. In the new case (actually a Dell Precision T5500) I was getting very high temps, 90C and up.

By rearranging some of the PCI cards, removing a hard drive blocking airflow and moving the 670 closer to the 2x120mm fans at the bottom front of the case, I've gotten temps down to around 76C. In spite of my research indicating that throttling occurred at 82C, I saw the speed drop from 1215MHz to 1201MHz at 70C, but it maintained that speed all the way up to 91C. At that point, I got nervous, stopped pushing the GPU and rearranged the components in my case.

TL;DR Is 75C too hot for this card? Shouldn't it be throttling at 90C? Is a PCIe rev. 2.0 x8 slot going to cramp my style?

 

[panathas]

Obviously your GPU was getting more cold air in your previous case but you have to also consider that this GPU is old and its thermal paste has probably dried after all those years. So you have to do some maintenance job. Remove the GPU cooler, clean it from dust and reapply the thermal paste on the GPU. After that the temps should return to more normal/acceptable levels.