R9 280x Toxic is overheating

konkorfour

Honorable
Dec 26, 2012
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So about 9 months ago I bought a new PC case, an AVP cube one. I upgraded from a Radeon 7850 to an R9 280x Toxic and it just about fits. I've had the card for a month now and it's been working great up until now. I have two fans attached to the case, one large 140mm on the side removing air and one 120mm on the back pushing air in.

Up until lately it's worked perfect and it's been rather quiet, but this morning I noticed that it was the loudest it has ever been and so I took the Card out to give it a clean but there was not a lot of dust or anything stopping the fans. I monitored the temps and though it stays at 35c idle as soon as I go into any game it shoots right up to 79c even if I'm sat at a menu. The fan will usually idle between 55% and 69% am I right in thinking this is an airflow problem? Leaving the side off for a while and testing again did the same thing, but I can't see what any other issue might be as it's not rattling and all of the fans are working as they should be.
 
That's how I had it before it started overheating, the card has no breathe room looking at the case today the side fan that intakes air only has a little room for the card and the card is about 1.5Inches above the bottom of the case with no where for the hot air to go.