troubleshoot Very unusual thermal problems

[HiBOSS]

I'm in a real pickle, guys, and I need help. I bought a used GIGABYTE GTX 1070 Ti Gaming 8G and one of the fans was broken, so I took it apart and investigated. I noticed it was really dirty and ill-maintained, so I replaced the crusty thermal paste with Arctic MX-2 and the old, torn thermal pads with Arctic ones with 6 W/mK thermal conductivity of 1,5 mm on the VRM and 0,5 mm on the memory. Now when I launch Dishonored 2 I get near instant 80 degrees celsius, same with launching a stress test. I'm talking like 2 seconds from 50 to 80 degrees. When idle or browsing the card is on fan stop and when playing Exanima on full cranked settings It takes it a while to go up to 60 degrees.

 

What's going on? If the thermal pads are the right thickness, then I'm absolutely sure the GPU is making good contact with the radiator and I'm pretty sure they are, since after a few hours they bear slight marks made by the VRM.

 

Please help, I have spent all of my current savings on this.

[CommanderAlex]

So are there still three fans on the GPU? Did you make sure to tighten/replace all the screws you took off? When you say radiator, are you referring to the original heatsink or an AIO/custom loop? 

[HiBOSS]

Just now, CommanderAlex said:

So are there still three fans on the GPU? Did you make sure to tighten/replace all the screws you took off? When you say radiator, are you referring to the original heatsink or an AIO/custom loop? 

There are three fans still, I tightened all the screws I unscrewed and I mean the original heatsink (which I have cleaned with compressed air)

[CommanderAlex]

What are the fan RPM's when you go into game?

 

[HiBOSS]

1 minute ago, CommanderAlex said:

What are the fan RPM's when you go into game?

 

They get extremely loud, going to pretty much 100%. They are new fans, too, fresh off of aliexpress. They are kind of wonky, though, switching on and off when a couple degrees above the fan stop limit.

[CommanderAlex]

If the fans are genuine, there shouldn't be a problem. If the fans are not, I'd look into seeing if I can get original replacements. 

[HiBOSS]

17 hours ago, CommanderAlex said:

If the fans are genuine, there shouldn't be a problem. If the fans are not, I'd look into seeing if I can get original replacements. 

The fans are not at fault here. They blow as hard as the should. The problem is, at default clocks, the card heats up like crazy and I don't know why. Do you think maybe the MX-2 is just not enough for a GTX 1070 Ti? With this tab and one tab of youtube on chrome I'm sitting at 48 degrees with the core clock at 607 MHz. And if by original you mean straight from GIGABYTE, that's hella expensive.