[SOLVED] RTX 3060 runs INSANELY HOT

[SomeGuyonTHW]

I bought an Asus PH-RTX 3060 for near MSRP (strix or other variants were VERY expensive) but It runs VERY hot Like:
Instantly thermal throttles when I open any game!
I'm using HWiNFO for monitoring temps

when I open games like control. gpu ramps up to ~88c within first 40 seconds then throttles down shortly after.

things i have tried so far that didn't help: removing side panel, Undervolting (Not sure if I did it correctly), Putting an intel heatsink on backplate (I saw miners do with their 30 series) Reducing clock speeds of Both GPU and Vram.

I also have a question regarding last one:
Why it doesn't care about my set clock speeds And it exceeds it? I wanna lock down to 1600 but it goes up anyway.

so my issue is: I can't even put this card under full load. or else it starts killing itself.

not considering the fan which sounds like a 50 year old tractor. the gpu seems to have a decent heatsink and brand new which prevented me from repasting. so I can't understand why it's so hot.

does repasting void my warranty? i guess this gpu is gonna die next year anyway because of how hot it gets.

 

[R3kki]

Hello, Do you have installed msi afterburner?

 

[SomeGuyonTHW]

Hello, Do you have installed msi afterburner?

Yes I do! (that's how I lowered clock speeds and undervolted)

 

[GarrettL]

Please post your pc specs including the case you are using.

 

[jay32267]

I'm thinking this might have something to do with the fan itself.
....like it's not spinning at the proper speed due to a bad bearing or something similar.
This also may be why it sounds like a 50 year old tractor.

 

[R3kki]

Is your fan speed set to auto? And what case do you using? Maybe It's the bad airflow problem.

 

[SomeGuyonTHW]

Is your fan speed set to auto? And what case do you using? Maybe It's the bad airflow problem.

exact case model is TUF GT301 from asus, It's not the best airflow case out there but It's Enough for a 180w GPU I believe,
as mentioned earlier in post I tried with side panel open and it still goes as high as it can then throttles back, by room is a little warm though (~33c), summer is hot!

should I void my warranty by repasting? I'm not sure how much will that help, if I repaste and I see no change I basically have voided my warranty and achieved nothing, which makes me afraid of doing so!
most of threads I see people changing thermal paste/pads are on 2-3 year old GPUs which they see some improvement, I don't know what to do

 

[Phaaze88]

Asus PH-RTX 3060

It's in the name: Phoenix.
The previous Phoenixes had the same problem: the heatsink just isn't strong enough to smoothly deal with the power draw.
At least this time around, Asus didn't use the weak flower type sink you see on Intel stock coolers... unfortunately, the 3060 has at least 25% higher power draw than the previous gen models, so it sort of negated the move to use the bigger heatsink.

Why it doesn't care about my set clock speeds And it exceeds it? I wanna lock down to 1600 but it goes up anyway.

It's due to the Gpu Boost algorithm which was introduced with the GTX 10 series, and Nvidia has been using it ever since.
It will make its own adjustments based on the gpu's parameters. Most custom settings will mean little to it. Overclocking is pretty much dead, unless Nvidia gets rid of it.

FYI, underclocking the Vram does nothing, because the chips use minuscule amounts of power already, and the voltage going to them is fixed from Vbios - there's no changing it.

When the heatsink is the weakest link, undervolting is probably the next best thing you can do without having to go out and spend more money.
In case you didn't do it correctly:
1)Run Afterburner or hwinfo in the background, play games, then see how much voltage(max) the gpu is requesting. That will be your 'do not cross' limit.
2)Go into Afterburner > Curve Editor. A window pops up showing the gpu's voltage/frequency curve, with several points you can click on.
3)Click on a point, and then lock it by pressing the L key, then go to the main HUD and click the Apply button.
4)Experiment. Don't forget to reset the HUD between trying different points. You can save the profile on Afterburner too.
Advanced:
5)When you click on a point, you can use the Up and Down keys to raise/lower the frequency before you lock it in.
Raising it will help offset the frequency drop from the locked voltage... problem is, there's no guarantee it's stable, so you have to do even more testing to be sure. Warning: this part is tedious and probably not worth doing for most.

 

[SomeGuyonTHW]

It's in the name: Phoenix.
The previous Phoenixes had the same problem: the heatsink just isn't strong enough to smoothly deal with the power draw.
At least this time around, Asus didn't use the weak flower type sink you see on Intel stock coolers... unfortunately, the 3060 has at least 25% higher power draw than the previous gen models, so it sort of negated the move to use the bigger heatsink.


It's due to the Gpu Boost algorithm which was introduced with the GTX 10 series, and Nvidia has been using it ever since.
It will make its own adjustments based on the gpu's parameters. Most custom settings will mean little to it. Overclocking is pretty much dead, unless Nvidia gets rid of it.

FYI, underclocking the Vram does nothing, because the chips use minuscule amounts of power already, and the voltage going to them is fixed from Vbios - there's no changing it.

When the heatsink is the weakest link, undervolting is probably the next best thing you can do without having to go out and spend more money.
In case you didn't do it correctly:
1)Run Afterburner or hwinfo in the background, play games, then see how much voltage(max) the gpu is requesting. That will be your 'do not cross' limit.
2)Go into Afterburner > Curve Editor. A window pops up showing the gpu's voltage/frequency curve, with several points you can click on.
3)Click on a point, and then lock it by pressing the L key, then go to the main HUD and click the Apply button.
4)Experiment. Don't forget to reset the HUD between trying different points. You can save the profile on Afterburner too.
Advanced:
5)When you click on a point, you can use the Up and Down keys to raise/lower the frequency before you lock it in.
Raising it will help offset the frequency drop from the locked voltage... problem is, there's no guarantee it's stable, so you have to do even more testing to be sure. Warning: this part is tedious and probably not worth doing for most.

Oh, thanks for detailed response, I got all answers I needed!
will play around to undervolt, hopefully it stops burning my house down.

 

[Phaaze88]

Good luck!