Hello all, my first thread.  Hopefully someone can help me.  I've had this card for a little more than a year and have been using MSI afterburner v 2.3.1 to monitor my cards functions.  Usually when I play BF4 using Geforce experience to optimize settings the temps never get above 75 C.  Lately they have been 83 or higher.  I took off the case and realized that when I got the card I never took off the clear plastic that comes on the video card and it was laying on the bottom of my case.  There was a little piece missing and believed it got sucked up in the fan and restricting air flow and I thought that maybe this could be the reason for the recent spike in temp.  So I took the cover off the card, cleaned it out.  Used Artic silver 3  and put it together and now I'm freaking out because it climbs thru the 90's and as high as 97 C.  Thinking I didn't put on enough thermal compound I took it apart again and rebuild it but with the same results! But whats weird is the second the cards power rises the GPU temp rises with it immediately....its not a gradual climb.  I'm still concerned after putting on thermal paste it went from mid 80's to mid-high 90's.  I've done the remove all drivers, reboot, reload drivers, reboot, reload MSI and I'm sure I removed any profiles.  Maybe time for an aftermarket fan?  Any help is appreciated.  BTW also using Nvidia 337.55 driver.

Now that you mentioned it, I did spread the thermal paste with my bare finger.  I did clean everything with a lint free cloth and alcohol.  It's a cooler master RC-690 with 3 x 120 fans blowing in (front, side, back) and 2 x on top sucking air out.  I tightened the screws enough without over torqueing them.  I'm lost.  Should I redo the thermal paste but with gloves this time?  What is the normal method of applying this stuff?  I've never had an issue like this.

"Did you also replace your thermal pads?"
I did not.  I thought this would be an easy fix because when I first took off the heat sink, only half of the GPU was actually covered with the factory TIM.  But now I see how I messed up.  Just at idle the fan is at 30% and its sitting at 40 C.  It used to sit between 32-34 C.  These fans are 3 years old and I have extra one so I'm going to replace those and redo the heatsink and thermal paste here in an hour or so.  My wife has me doing yard work currently :P.  I appreciate all the replys.

Check to see how your Tim spread with the Pea method. I used the edge of a credit card, after cleaning it off, to spread the TIM. make sure that you are getting good coverage. Also, is there any more TIM you could try?

So no matter what It doesn't go above 97 C.  This is totally baffling.   The only thing I can think of is the heat sink itself is bad?  Idles at 37 C, I dropped core clock -32 and memory clock -33 but upped core voltage +12 and it still sits at 97 C.  I ran malware bytes because some peeps were saying they had evidence of it but I'm at a total loss.  I'm ready to format windows and start from scratch!!!

This last time I just squeezed out enough to make a pea sized amount, didn't spread it and put the heatsink back on.  Is it possible my heatsink is bad.  All of this is weird, it was sitting at 83 C before and now its as high as 97.  Is more than 1 place that I have to put on tim like any heat sinks for components on the card that I missed?

Check your spread on the TIM as you just applied it with the Pea size method. Make sure everything is evenly covered, and if so, reapply the same way. If it is missing any portion of the die at all, you should spread it using a flat edge. If it is completely covering, you may have a bad cooler or a bad sensor.

Downloaded cupid hwmonitor and it verified what MSI was telling me.  One question, do I need to put thermal paste on the RAM as well?  I don't remember seeing any on there and there are just those rubber pads.  Could this be the culprit?
 

If you take the heatsink off again, please post pictures of all of the parts, as is comes apart, to include the Thermal Paste and all.

 
My question is, why is AS3 being used?

I've had excellent results with Antec Formula 7 thermal paste. However there are even better thermal pastes, such as the revered GELID Solutions GC-Extreme. You can get it on the Egg for less than $15. It's thicker than normal thermal paste, so it doesn't degrade over time as fast as others.
 
When you apply it, coat the GPU and the heatsink seperately, as thin as possible. Then smash 'em together and tighten those screws. Use FurMark to heat up the compound and help it set. I usually do 15 minutes of FurMark, then shut down and let it cool for an hour. Boot back up and you should have much better temps.
 
Google this: Thermal Paste Comparison, Part Two: 39 Products Get Tested
Page 20 on Tom's Hardware has all the GPU thermal paste comparisons.
I would post the link but I think I'm too new to post links. 

Really quick question.  I have been using Arctic Silver 3 (from previous builds).  I have GELID solutions otw.  But my question is, when I cleaned around the GPU the first time some of the paste got on the circuit board.  Is this stuff conductive?  If I didn't clean this off enough could this be part of the reason for the high temps?  My sons just played 3 hours of BF4/Skyrim without a hitch and it sat at 97 C the whole time.  I'm wondering if I goofed this up??

I should be getting my new thermal compound today.  I'll clean the card and post pictures when I'm done. 

Let the flaming begin!  I didn't realize that artic silver 3 was a conductive compound.  I took A3ON advice on got some GELID Solutions GC-Extreme.  Worked like a champ.  Temps down to 30 at idle and 75 C at ultra settings on BF4.  I appreciate the help.  Here's the pics to show you how NOT to use thermal paste!!

 
Eeeeew...Just, eeeeew...That's all...(except that for a rice grain sized drop of non-conductive TIM on a little ol' GPU chip would have been plenty, and that glad it's better now).
 

silversweetz