Hello, a few days ago i noticed an issue with my video card (GTX 660 EVGA) when playing BF4: it would freeze the game, crank up the fan in some way (making a very loud sound) and then going back to normal. When looking at the MSI Afterburner's monitor, i noticed the GPU's temperature was VERY high (95°c ~ 100°c or maybe even higher) even though its temperature when idle was around 30°c. I set up a fan speed curve and it didn't work: i told it to go full throttle when T>65°c but it just handled 74% speed.
 
 Here's the fan curve along with the BF4 GPU monitor's graphic:
 

 
I dusted and cleaned the whole computer, checked the ventilating system (2 big fans on the front cover blowing in and 2 more on top blowing out), cleaned the GPU's heatsink and changed the thermal paste properly, updated the driver (353.62) and it didn't help much. Then i tried testing other games. When running Dark Souls II on full settings i noticed it was a lot cooler (52°c Max), as you can see below. 
 

 
I know Dark Souls II is a lot lighter, but something still seems wrong with BF4 and i dont have any other games installed to test right now (I tried BF4 with low settings and nothing changed).
 
What do you guys recommend on this situation? How can i fix my fan so it goes 100% speed? 
 
Here's my specs:
 
GPU: GeForce GTX 660
CPU: Intel Core i5-2320 3.00GHz
RAM: 8GB
OS: Windows 7 Home Premium
Power Supply: 750w
MB: Gigabyte GA-B75M-D3H
OS and BF4 running on a Kingston 120GB SSD
 
 
Thanks in advance.
 
 
 

The fan is going at a maximum speed of 74% (around 3100 RPM), as shown on the graphic. When i try to force 100% it still stays on 74%. Upon some research i found out some other people also have their fans reaching max 74%, so i don't think it's the motor.

MattyMattMatt
That's weird because in this image: 
 
Looks like the fan is hitting 100. You could check to see if there is new firmware for your card, maybe there was a fault with the fw's fan controller.

The fan is hitting max 74% and i've installed the latest GeForce driver. Tried MSI Afterburner to manually set it to 100%, but still 74.

MattyMattMatt
Firmware is separate to drivers. Like this: 
 
No idea if there is any for the 660 though

  
I can't see any of the images you're posting

I'm having a similar issue. My 660 started overheating a few days ago. It didn't overheat before weeks ago with The Witcher 3 (which obviously had a less than desirable performance with this card, but I checked the temps back then because I was paranoid of how massive the game was for my humble 660).
 
Now, even playing Mafia 2 and Overlord 2 I get slowdowns from +60fps to 25 after a few minutes. I upgraded to Windows 10 Pro x64, (which updated my video driver to 353.62). I'll try reinstalling the driver directly from Nvidia and if any other suggestion fails, I'll roll back to Windows 7 to see if it solves the problem. Also, I don't know if changing the thermal paste voids my Evga warranty.
 
My system:
CPU: i5-3470
GPU: GTX 660
RAM: 8GB
OS: Windows 10 Pro 
PSU: CX600
 
I just created a ticked with support just in case my videocard is about to kick the bucket.
 
EDIT: 
Support told me I won't lose my warranty if I change the thermal paste, so I'll do it later and post any changes.
 
EDIT 2:
I applied fresh thermal paste and cleaned the heatsink because it was badly covered with dust. It improved my temps a lot (about 8-10°C), but some games still  reach 89-90°C. No slowdowns so far.
 
I'll test the card for a while because the warranty is good for about six more months.

Rma the card if under warranty.

Yup, its still High 90's. case is clean. I'm going to pull the heatsinks off and re TIM them, see if that helps.

found one bios for the EVGA 660SC havent tried it yet though cause new Win10 drivers seems to have helped the heat issue. For some reason I can't post links. Oi.

Having the exact same thing with the exact same card.
I also put some fresh paste on the GPU, not much difference.
I can't run Rust because of the overheating but I know several people with the same card that can play Rust, without problems.
The overheating isn't sudden, it's been escalating over time for me.