GTX 1060 3Gb running at 82*C

[Ocelote.12]

I use MSI Afterburner so it shows that the card in some games goes to 82*C and never higher. I suppose it throttles then, but it's unnoticeable in games. Is it safe to play games on such temperature?

[Midnight Aurais]

it starts throttling at 85c let me guess a 1 fan design if it stays under you are fine

cpu's are rated for 105c while videocards 120c till thermal shutdown

[Ocelote.12]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von Midnight Aurais:

let me guess a 1 fan design

No, it's a dual fan model. The smaller type of dual fan models. ASUS DUAL-GTX-1060-3G.

How safe is it to open the card and replace the thermal paste? I've done this to CPU, but never did this to a graphics card. I'm too worried that I can break it in the process.

[_I_]

either adjust its fan curve, or its fine
as long as its not throttling and staying under 90c its ok

[Midnight Aurais]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von Ocelote.12:

Ursprünglich geschrieben von Midnight Aurais:

let me guess a 1 fan design

No, it's a dual fan model. The smaller type of dual fan models. ASUS DUAL-GTX-1060-3G.

How safe is it to open the card and replace the thermal paste? I've done this to CPU, but never did this to a graphics card. I'm too worried that I can break it in the process.

yeah what _I_ mentioned pretty sure the card might not allow it to go to 100% to operate silently but if you use msi afterburner then go to the cogwheel for settings and then make a fan curve you can make it go to a 100%

[Blaagh]

is it like this one? if you are cautious its not that big a hassle

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iST_1TF0JOg&t=379s

[Ocelote.12]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von Blaagh:

is it like this one? if you are cautious its not that big a hassle

Yes, it's this "white" model.

[Rumpelcrutchskin]

Should think about getting a new card. 3 GB version was one of the crappiest cards Nvidia has ever done that wasn`t good even 9 years ago when it released.

[Ocelote.12]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von Rumpelcrutchskin:

Should think about getting a new card. 3 GB version was one of the crappiest cards Nvidia has ever done that wasn`t good even 9 years ago when it released.

I'll also probably need a newer CPU for modern games (current one is Intel Core i5-3570K), so I'll wait for opportunity to do a full upgrade. A new mobo, new RAM, probably a new computer case (my current one does not even have cable management), a new M.2 NVMe SSD (current one is SATA Samsung SSD 860 EVO) and several new multi-TB HDDs.

[gwwak]

It is a little warm, but still safe at 82C.

[Lixire]

It is safe to play games when the GPU is at this temp range. However, I do imagine that your GPU is barely boosting itself at this temp so you might leave some performance on the table but overall nothing wrong with that.

[_I_]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von Rumpelcrutchskin:

Should think about getting a new card. 3 GB version was one of the crappiest cards Nvidia has ever done that wasn`t good even 9 years ago when it released.

pretty much this

the 1060 3g and 6g were different class cards
they have the same core design, but the 3g has parts disabled that make it a weaker card

it was about $50 price diff, imho well worth it

[Chaosolous]

My old 1660 SUPER used to run at a steady 88C, never had a problem with it.

Whatever that' worth.

[PaulKrawitz]

My 4090 OC from Asus reaches a maximum of 65°C during stress; I've never seen it go any higher than 65°C.

[Illusion of Progress]

It's warm, but fine. If you prefer it cooler, you can set up a more aggressive fan curve and put better cooling on it (the latter probably isn't worth it for a GTX 1060 at this point).

I had a EVGA GTX 1060 6 GB and with its default fan behavior, it would often run up towards 83C, but often no higher (maybe a few degrees higher here and there).

If you're wondering why that temperature point, it's at 83C that most modern nVidia graphics cards will tell themselves to "boost less to try and stay under this point".

You might be thinking "that sounds a lot like throttling"?

Yeah, it is, but here's the thing. The word throttling has lost its meaning since this behavior became standard because technically, modern chips (CPUs and GPUs both) start "throttling" well before this temperature point, so focusing on it happening isn't too important. The important part is "is it throttling to prevent it from reaching the advertised boost clock or not". If it's still going up to advertised speeds but running at 83C, then it's operating as advertised, but it's just running warm.

The temperature only matters if it's reducing your performance below the rated speeds.

I ran my card like that for 6 years. I observed it, and it was still boosting over the EVGA advertised boost clock (which itself was higher than nVidia's standard boost clock). When it was new, that was when the news that some EVGA cards (like GTX 1070 and 1080) running warm due to hot VRMs was coming out. EVGA released updated BIOS that gave the cards more aggressive fan curves but never did this for the GTX 1060. I was confused and asked EVGA about it and they said it was for the VRMs, not the GPU itself, and that the temperatures were fine and set that way to prioritize lower noise versus higher noise and lower temperatures for little to no gain. They said I could set a custom fan curve if I chose, but that the default behavior was in spec and supported. So I ran it that way, as I do prefer lower noise.

At times, I tested it with an Afterburner fan curve. The temperature would get to the upper-mid to upper 70s (76C to 79C) instead of the lower 80s (only tested in one game though, but it was one reaching the 83C limit). So I dropped ~5C, noise went up, and performance remained the same.

Now if it starts easily going above 83C to 85C and it's boosting less than advertised, that's when you should intervene. It's the upper 80s to lower 90s where most nVidia cards will actually shut down.

Keep in mind, all of the temperatures above are "average temperature". You could argue these are less meaningful and that the "hotspot" temperature is more important, and nVidia (and/or software monitoring applications) was hiding this temperature on nVidia hardware until recent years. I think the limit on that more between 105C to 110C.

[Bad 💀 Motha]

It's what like 10 years old now? Probably needs new paste (maybe thermal pads too) and new GPU fans.

At the very least would need to be removed and take a brush and air blower and make sure it's as dust free as possible.

Many of those aftermarket GTX 9 / 10 / 16 series GPUs have some really cheap priced, low quality fans on them.