First things first, specs for my PC are:
-EVGA 1080Ti FTW3
-i7-6700K OC 4.3 Ghz
-MSI Gaming Z170A XPOWER GAMING TITANIUM
-EVGA G2 SuperNOVA 750W
-32GB DDR4 Corsair Dominator Platinum
-Acer 144hz 1440p Main display
-2 Dell 1080p 60hz displays

So here's my issue at hand. I've had this PC build since the 1080 Ti was released, so roughly two years. Everything has been wonderful, no issues with clock speeds, temps, or anything in that nature. I got off work yesterday and went to launch good old Call of Duty with the guys in Discord. Before I clicked launch, I noticed my temps were a higher than normal for being idle. I was sitting at 51C. I thought this was a little strange (I usually sit around 37C idle), so I launched my game and INSTANTLY went to 83C. I mean without skipping a beat, on the menu of Call of Duty. Now I first thought this was a faulty sensor (and I'm still partially leaning towards that). I opened FOUR different monitoring softwares. XOC, CAM, HWMonitor, and Afterburner. All of them were reporting the same temps (which again, could be a faulty sensors), same fan speeds, same everything.

Here's another strange thing. My load usage was only between 17% (main menu) and 45% in-game. That low of a load usage but I'm outputting over 83C? Just doesn't sound right to me.

EDIT 1: I would like to include that the CPU temps are fine and aren't overheating at all, it is also liquid cooled. All fans are working, and the airflow in the case has 2 pulling into the radiator, and two blowing out of the top/back. I've never had an issue with airflow in my case before (NZXT S340 Elite).

I did quite a few different things to try and fix these temps.
Deleted GeForce Experience (advice found on the EVGA forums)
Disabled Shadowplay before deleting GeForce
Made a very aggressive fan curve (I didn't enjoy this because my office now had a leafblower in it, this did not fix the temp issues either).
Made sure K-Boost was disabled.
Changed the power adaptive settings for my monitors.
DDU'd all drivers off my PC, reinstalled new and old drivers (thought maybe it was a driver issue)
Out of desperation, I wiped all SSDs, M.2's, and HDD. Reinstalled windows, and the issue still persists.
There's a number of other things I've done, just can't remember them to list them ATM.

I absolutely WILL NOT void the warranty and reapply thermal paste.
I would like to avoid RMA as much as possible. I need this because I do work from home often after hours. Using EVGA's collateral option isn't really the best for me ATM (the MSRP price is too high to afford currently).
 

Sajin
Reapplying the thermal paste doesn't void the warranty unless you damage the card in the process.

Is that so? I must've stumbled across some really uninformative posts doing some research late last night.

Isn't there a small sticker that says "VOID IF REMOVED" or something when taking apart the back plate? Or am I wrong there as well.

Sajin
The only sticker that says void if removed would be the warranty sticker. There is also another sticker that is placed over one of the screws on the backplate, but breaking the seal on that sticker doesn't void the warranty on the card... it only tells evga techs to inspect the card very good when rma'd to make sure the card hasn't been damaged.

Very helpful, thank you for that.
Watching a Nexus video, I see there's thermal paste AND thermal pads. Would it be recommended to replace both the paste and the pads, or just the paste for now (since I have some on stand by).

Sajin
No problem. Just replace the paste. The pads can be reused. 

Hey, bud. I changed the thermal paste without any issue. The temps aren't amazing like they were a few days ago for years, but they are significantly better. I'm pushing 60C atm playing CoD, and I'm roughly 40C idle. I appreciate the help, hopefully this doesn't get much hotter for more intrusive games. Thank you!!

Bmacker1994

Sajin
No problem. Just replace the paste. The pads can be reused. 

Hey, bud. I changed the thermal paste without any issue. The temps aren't amazing like they were a few days ago for years, but they are significantly better. I'm pushing 60C atm playing CoD, and I'm roughly 40C idle. I appreciate the help, hopefully this doesn't get much hotter for more intrusive games. Thank you!!

Sometimes it doesn't hurt to redo the application again. When you pull the GPU apart, look at the coverage of the TIM and you'll be able to tell if you've adequate coverage. As long as the TIM is non conductive/capacitive, a little excess is not going to hurt.