Question RTX 3070 Ti Dual Fan GPU Reaching 89°C in CS2

[kajizoN]

Hello,

I purchased a second-hand GALAX RTX 3070 Ti Dual Fan about a year ago and have been experiencing serious overheating issues. The seller assured me that the card was never used for mining, but I can't verify that. Due to the urgency of my purchase, I didn’t have much time to investigate further before buying.

My issue: Even though I keep the fans running at 100% speed, the temperature reaches 88-89°C while playing CS2. Since these temperatures seemed too high, I had the thermal paste replaced by a technician, but it made almost no difference. I also requested a thermal pad replacement, but the technician refused, saying, "We don’t replace thermal pads because they won’t be as good as the originals."

During an OCCT 3D test, the hotspot temperature reached 104°C. Are these temperatures normal? If you can recommend another test, I can run it immediately and share the results.

What could be causing this issue, and is there a way to fix it? This has been bothering me a lot, and I haven’t been able to find a definitive answer anywhere. I’d really appreciate any help.

MY PC
Motherboard : MSI PRO A620M-E
Ram : Kingston Fury Beast 16GB 6000MHz
CPU : AMD Ryzen 5 7500F 3.7GHz - 5.0GHz
CPU Cooler : Arctic Freezer 34 Esports Duo
Graphics Card : Galax RTX 3070 TI 1-Click OC Feature
SSD : Kioxia Exceria M2 NVMe 500GB 1700MB-1600MB/s
PSU : FSP Hydro 500W

 

[helpstar]

uninstall any tuning tools like occt, afterburner,...

update the motherboard´s bios
update nvidia.com drivers
eventually freshly install the gpu drivers

Is the airflow fine in the case?

 

[kajizoN]

uninstall any tuning tools like occt, afterburner,...

update the motherboard´s bios
update nvidia.com drivers
eventually freshly install the gpu drivers

Is the airflow fine in the case?

I believe the airflow is good because I had the case assembled by a technician.

My BIOS is up to date, and since I’ve freshly installed Windows, my NVIDIA driver is also updated. I’ve tried changing versions before, but it didn’t affect the temperature.

I don’t use MSI Afterburner; I only used OCCT for the temperature test. I’m not doing any overclocking at all. The only thing I do is set the GPU fan to 100% using the FanControl app because even at 100%, the temperature is still high, and without it, I wouldn’t even be able to play games.

 

[Eximo]

Umm, 500W, that is a bit risky for a 3070 Ti, which is a 290W part. 7500F is pretty light, but that does mean you are running around 80% PSU load, constantly. This will make that PSU have a quite short lifespan.

I recommend getting yourself a decent 650W or 750W PSU before something bad happens.

Sounds like you need also disassemble and re-paste your GPU, it shouldn't be getting that warm under normal circumstances. In your screenshot there, the card is throttling itself, only pulling 254W and only 1470 Mhz, it should be closer to 1900-2000Mhz under boost, even a stock one is supposed to go to 1770Mhz.

A technician is no guarantee the fans and chassis have enough airflow in the first place. What is the chassis? How many fans do you have in there, and where are they?

 

[kajizoN]

Umm, 500W, that is a bit risky for a 3070 Ti, which is a 290W part. 7500F is pretty light, but that does mean you are running around 80% PSU load, constantly. This will make that PSU have a quite short lifespan.

I recommend getting yourself a decent 650W or 750W PSU before something bad happens.

Sounds like you need also disassemble and re-paste your GPU, it shouldn't be getting that warm under normal circumstances. In your screenshot there, the card is throttling itself, only pulling 254W and only 1470 Mhz, it should be closer to 1900-2000Mhz under boost, even a stock one is supposed to go to 1770Mhz.

A technician is no guarantee the fans and chassis have enough airflow in the first place. What is the chassis? How many fans do you have in there, and where are they?

My case is the Gameforce GF-8307 4-fan model. (In the image below, the two fans visible at the bottom of the case are not present in my model; other than that, the case is identical.)

Honestly, I don't know much about airflow, so I'm sending some pictures of my case.

And I had previously replaced the thermal paste, but it made almost no difference. I have never replaced the thermal pads, so I’m not sure if it’s necessary.
Do you have any recommendations for a good thermal pad and thermal paste combination?

 

[Zerk2012]

My case is the Gameforce GF-8307 4-fan model. (In the image below, the two fans visible at the bottom of the case are not present in my model; other than that, the case is identical.)

Honestly, I don't know much about airflow, so I'm sending some pictures of my case.

And I had previously replaced the thermal paste, but it made almost no difference. I have never replaced the thermal pads, so I’m not sure if it’s necessary.
Do you have any recommendations for a good thermal pad and thermal paste combination?

So you have the 3 front fans blocked by glass and one back fan?
Take the glass front off the case if you can!

 

[Eximo]

Well, the best way is to measure the pads and then order the closest thickness to that. Brand doesn't matter so much, but I have used Arctic, Swiftech, EK, and Fujipoly before.

Sounds like the card may not have gone back together properly.

I would call that the worst airflow possible with 4 fans. 3 of them are behind a solid glass panel and I don't see any vents at all. So presumably they are on the bottom, as far as possible from those fans.

Remove the front glass panel and see if temperatures improve.

 

[kajizoN]

Well, the best way is to measure the pads and then order the closest thickness to that. Brand doesn't matter so much, but I have used Arctic, Swiftech, EK, and Fujipoly before.

Sounds like the card may not have gone back together properly.

I would call that the worst airflow possible with 4 fans. 3 of them are behind a solid glass panel and I don't see any vents at all. So presumably they are on the bottom, as far as possible from those fans.

Remove the front glass panel and see if temperatures improve.

So you have the 3 front fans blocked by glass and one back fan?
Take the glass front off the case if you can!

Looks like I just had a major embarrassment—seems like I have a lot to learn from this forum XD 🤣


As you suggested, I removed the glass panel from the front of the case and won’t be using it anymore

@Eximo @Zerk2012 correction: looks like my CPU temperature was significantly affected. thank you

you are suggesting that I measure the thermal pads, but I'm afraid to open up my GPU because I have no experience and might damage it. I've never done this before.

Is there a place where I can check the typical thermal pad thickness used for this GPU?

 

[MtFkr]

My case is the Gameforce GF-8307 4-fan model. (In the image below, the two fans visible at the bottom of the case are not present in my model; other than that, the case is identical.)

Honestly, I don't know much about airflow, so I'm sending some pictures of my case.

And I had previously replaced the thermal paste, but it made almost no difference. I have never replaced the thermal pads, so I’m not sure if it’s necessary.
Do you have any recommendations for a good thermal pad and thermal paste combination?

First, the case doesn't have good airflow because the intake is obstructed by glass. No matter how much you put fan inside, if there's not much unobstructed gap near intake fans, your case airflow won't improve much.

Second, if you have repaste the GPU, make sure you tighten the screw accordingly, sometimes bad die to cold plate contact could be the problem. I've come across many overheating GPU only to found the heatsink screw is too loose or unevenly tightened.

Third, since it's secondhand GPU, it's not rare to find the card thermal pads already replaced by the seller. Sometimes the thickness isn't the same as old pads. Especially if the pads is too thick, thus it could cause bad die to cold plate contact.

For thermal pads, gelid gp-ultimate or gp-extreme is solid choice.
For thermal paste, any decent paste with good longevity is good enough. MX4, MX6, NT-H2, Z5, etc.

Hope that helps 🫡

 

[kajizoN]

First, the case doesn't have good airflow because the intake is obstructed by glass. No matter how much you put fan inside, if there's not much unobstructed gap near intake fans, your case airflow won't improve much.

Second, if you have repaste the GPU, make sure you tighten the screw accordingly, sometimes bad die to cold plate contact could be the problem. I've come across many overheating GPU only to found the heatsink screw is too loose or unevenly tightened.

Third, since it's secondhand GPU, it's not rare to find the card thermal pads already replaced by the seller. Sometimes the thickness isn't the same as old pads. Especially if the pads is too thick, thus it could cause bad die to cold plate contact.

For thermal pads, gelid gp-ultimate or gp-extreme is solid choice.
For thermal paste, any decent paste with good longevity is good enough. MX4, MX6, NT-H2, Z5, etc.

Hope that helps 🫡

I removed the glass panel at the front of the case and will never use it again. I checked the Gelid GP-Ultimate and GP-Extreme thermal pads you mentioned, but I don't know which thickness to buy.

I had a technician replace the thermal paste on my GPU since I have no experience opening a graphics card myself. Is there a way to find out the correct thermal pad thickness for my GALAX GeForce RTX™ 3070 Ti online without opening the card?

also, thank you very much for your comment and recommendation