MSI GTX 1080 FE overheating

[x7solidstate7x]

Roughly 2 months ago I bought an MSI GTX 1080 Founder's Edition. It operated as I expected it to for the first couple weeks - never going above 83c, and downclocking all the way down to its stock 1607mhz as the heat increased...I know that temperature throttling is nothing out of the ordinary with the founders edition cards.
However, recently, my card has been refusing to downclock to 1607mhz to counter overheating. Without downclocking, it just soars past 83c about half of the time. The highest I've seen is 89c and that really concerns me.

I prefer not to use a custom fan curve since it can get very loud. I have also never overclocked this card/tweaked with voltage etc.


I really like this card. Is there a simple way to fix this, or would it be a legitimate excuse to return it to msi?

 

[genthug]

There is a simple way to fix it, unfortunately both have drawbacks.
1) Custom fan curve. Obvious drawback already stated.
2) Watercool it. Drawback being money.
If I were you, I would've expected as you did to get high temps out of it, but I also would've expected to set a custom fan curve on it. Yes, it's loud, but it's the easiest solution, and it doesn't cost any more money.
I would reinstall your drivers just in case that's having an effect, and go into Geforce experience/MSI afterburner to set a max temp where it will begin to throttle. This should automatically be set to 83-84, but just in case I'd check it, and I might check that there aren't any discrepancies in any of the software you have running (mainly geforce experience and afterburner/precisionX/etc, if that's on the machine)

 

[Natsukage]

Hello there.

Just in case...have you have tried cleaning out any dust in the card? Using a compressed air can, or simply blowing on it?

 

[x7solidstate7x]

Hello there.

Just in case...have you have tried cleaning out any dust in the card? Using a compressed air can, or simply blowing on it?

I dust out my computer with compressed air every month or so. My card has no dust in the fan or aluminum fins

 

[Natsukage]

The only other method I can see that may repair it that isn't watercooling or a fan curve is replacing the thermal paste on the heatsink. This ruins your warranty of course.

Remove the reference heatsink, clean all the old paste with alcohol, then use a new paste, such as Artic Silver 5 or equivalent.