GeForce GTX 680 overheating problem

[Marblark]

Hello to everyone in the Linustechtips forums,

This is my first post, so bear with me.

 

My PC:

CPU - Intel Core i7-960 Bloomfield Quad-Core 3.2GHz

GPU - EVGA GTX 680 FTW+ 4GB

Memory - CORSAIR DOMINATOR 6GB

Motherboard - ASUS P6X58D-E 

Power - Antec High Current Pro HCP-1200 1200W 

Case - Thermaltake ArmorPlus(Armor+) (Not used very well?)

 

My Issue:

I have just recently moved to a new place. With this move, a new and unexpected issue arose. My video card has stared to overheat, to the point where the PC turns off/restarts.

This has now happened three times over the past two days. I am not quite sure what to do, so I will just dump as much information as I can, and hopefully your guys can throw some suggestions my way. 

 

The card has only overheated while playing a game. More specifically, Counter Strike: Global Offensive. Two other games, FIFA 14, and Divine Divinity, are also played, however they seem to be fine.  

 

I quickly took some temperature readings today (to the best of my knowledge/ability):

At Idle (~0% GPU usage) with 30% (auto) fan speed: 47-50°C.

When Playing Counter Strike (60-70% GPU usage) (auto fan speeds) the card goes all the way up to ~80°C. Now that did not shut down my PC, but I assume that at some points, after some playing time, and during more intense moments, the temp goes higher. 

After making a custom fan speed curve. At Idle (at 57% fan speed) it reads at 40°C.

(I have not tried playing Counter strike with the new fan speed curve)

 

I have had this exact computer for 2 years now. ~4 years if you do not count the video card. This is my first encounter with overheating problems. 

The new place is almost exactly the same as the previous one. It does not seem to be warmer in the room. The computer has adequate breathing room (in fact, it has more). 

I keep my PC relatively clean. I remove dust build up every month or two.

 

Does this seem like there is actually something wrong with the video card?

Do I just simply need to improve cooling? (CPU is water cooled using a CORSAIR Hydro Series H50, but the GPU only has its stock fan and a useless case window fan)

I really do not know how to approach this issue, I am open to any suggestion.

 

Thank you.  

 

 

 

 

 

[AlwaysFSX]

Skimmed through so sorry if you said this already.

 

Have you tried cleaning out the heatsink from dust? Maybe change the thermal paste while you're at it.

[JigglyPufflez]

I think a GTX 680 begins to throttle at 70C, but like @AlwaysFSX says, give it a bit of a clean, remove the shroud clean the thermal paste too, get rid of the dust. :3 Hope this helps!

[Marblark]

I'll definitely give it another clean. 

CPU temperatures are fine (getting up to about 55°C while in-game)

Ill try to better describe what actually happens when it "overheats", maybe its not even an overheating problem....

While playing CS, at seemingly random times, the computer screen just goes black, and I see a "no signal" message. Two out of the three times this happened, the computer did not turn off, it simply froze up I guess. The third time, the PC just turned off. (I highly doubt that this is a monitor issue since it is only about 2 months old) 

Another thing is, today, when it happened, I took off my headphones, and I could hear the GPU fan going mental. So this is why I assume that its the video card over heating... 

 

Edit:

I cleaned the GPU, and it was relatively dust free. I did not open it up completely however, since I have no experience doing that, I would rather try that tomorrow when I have more time...