As the title states. I've been having a heck of a time with controlling temps on this card recently. Noticed temps soring to 85c in 7days to die. ive never air cooled this card always liquid cooled all my gpus. this is the first time I'm having this issue. when I redone some of the tubing I swapped coolants to XSPC EC6. Before I ran EK cryofuel blood red for years no issues. due to recent events I've swapped coolant brands. this is when I've noticed these temps.  
 
While I had the system apart re-bending tubes I ordered Kingpin Thermal paste. applied it top the gpu and cpu. started having issues. so I pulled the card back out and removed the block found out I didn't apply the paste very well. that stuff is thicker than a snicker. so I went back with my tried and true Arctic silver. same outcome. Hotspot temps i just seen was 109c. I know I correctly applied the paste this go round as I always spread the paste. I know there's mixed views on how to correctly do this. but this has always worked well for me.
 
today I pulled the rads out swapped out my noctua fans back to my lian li as everyone was saying that's the issue since temps would come back down once I pulled the front cover off the case. my cooling loop is the exact lay out in this case as it was when I put my 8600k build in it. 
 
When I changed over to my 12900k with the classified z690 I was using my lian li fans no issues. the 8600k build with this gpu was with my  noctuas no issue.
 
could this be an issue with coolant? as now fans have been proven not to be the case here. 
 
I'm literally stumped. Also what else could factor into high hot spot temps? Thanks in advance
 
Case: Fractal Designs Define s2
 
mobo: Classified Z690
 
Cpu:i9 12900k
 
RAMM: corsair dominator 32 gigs ddr5 6000
 
GPU: Evga 2080ti xc gaming
gpu block: EKWB Vector
 
PSU: Evga Super nova 1300
 
Coolant: XSPC EC6
 
 
 
 
 

I’ve cleaned the blocks inside and out. As far as I can tell no trapped air. Coolant is opaque sorry left that out. I have had hard tubing in this case since the 8600k build. I just re did some of the tubes I was unhappy how they turned out bend wise. As far as pads I had to order some replacement pads from ek but one of memory serves correct I had to source from some where else. As far as having a blockage shouldn’t be any. But valid point.

there are some 0.5mm thermal pads listed - you would need to cut to size, or at least into strips to cover several ram chips
 
https://www.performance-pcs.com/search/?q=EK+thermal
 
EK Thermal PAD F 0.5mm - (120x16mm) (EK-THERMAL-PAD-F-05)
 
EK Thermal PAD G 0.5mm - (120x24mm) (EK-THERMAL-PAD-G-05)
 
and there are other bigger thermal pad sizes ..... (avoid the conductive one)
 
did not even look for other brands of thermal pads, that PPCs might also sell

Found all the packages I used from ek for the thermal pads. All is correct sizes or at least thickness. Still going to replace the pads once I get the new ones in. While playing cyber punk earlier temps spiked to 80c. Took a break and came back. Ram no oc on memory just upped power target and temp limit. Temps started to rise again. Pulled front cover and everything stabilized. Just shut cyberpunk down after a good session with temps and hot spot never rising above 70c. And gpu temp with in +/- 10c from hot spot. Running furmark now and gpu leveled off at 50c with hotspot 67c.

Cpu never gets above 60c. With cover on I see cpu rise to just under 70c. Now cpu and gpu are 2 degrees difference of each other. This is why I’m stumped and leaning towards a coolant issue at this point. Cpu block is oriented for correct flow path. Next step shortly is reinstall front cover and restart furmark.

I am 12 minutes into furmark run where as last night 9 minutes in with cover installed hotspot spiked and gpu temps reaching 80c+.

Rad info is as follows EK cool stream SE 360 slim x2 I’ll get a picture of the system and hw info window and post them. In all my years dealing with liquid cooling this is honestly the first time I’m stumped with diagnosing heat issues

running furmark with front cover reinstalled and im seeing hotspot rising. front panel filters are freshly cleaned made sure of that yesterday. while furmark was running pulled panel off instantly dropped 2c and continued. that in itsself points to airflow issues. but again same exact layout as the last build in this case. now you see why im so baffled

OK, you say as compared to the last build in this case.  Maybe the new build parts, make more heat?
 
Which fans blow in vs Out ?
 
Fans @ 100% rpm?  how are the fans controlled?
 
Is cold (room) air blowing into the radiators?
 
It is not clear (to me) how the second radiator (front of case?) is plumbed into your loop
 
list the flow of the loop ... Start with the pump Output (pressure side)
 
 
the below info is found in My thread --->>>  Ready to try water cooling. Where to start? Library of links-basics to expert
 
  To "do the Math to compute heat loads" TDP & Calculating Delta-T
 
(excerpts)

First tip: Google is your best friend to help find TDP (Thermal Design Power) of your components to be cooled in your loop.

(CPU watts @load + GPU watts @load + GPU watts @load+ pump watts) x 0.85 = Loop TDP watt estimate
 

Fans are 100% pump is 100% front rad is intake top is exhaust. So flow is as follows. Res to gpu, exit gpu to top rad, too rad feeds cpu, exits cpu into front rad. Front rad returns to res. As far as ambient air temps. It does get a tad warmer in that room then the rest of the house with pc running. But it’s always been that way. What’s got me baffled is the fact that when I installed the new mobo cpu combo I didn’t have this issue. Until I swapped coolants.

All tubes was replaced. I flushed system with a flush and removed and tore down both blocks to clean them. I also use a spare psu to power just the pump as I’ve done since I’ve dove into liquid cooling. Don’t power the complete system up until I got all the air out. As far as any restrictions from tubing. There isn’t any. As far as gelling and debris go I haven’t seen any in my blocks or signs of clogs. When I fill the system it flows as free as if it was new. After the flush ran for a solid day as instructed per the instructions. I followed with distilled water. Pulled rads and flushed them separately with distilled water using a spare pump. After I let sit for a few days to ensure complete dry. As per instructed for EC6 any contact with water, cooling properties will become null and void.


I talked with one of our guys at work who has very good knowledge with chemicals and coolant make ups. He made a valid point towards my theory. The thermal properties of this new fluid may not be suited for this build. As it’s not capable of dissipating the heat as fast as the cryofuel I ran. It is highly possible that since the res is mounted to the front rad it’s heat soaking and just can’t expel heat as efficiently as the cryofuel.


Sorry for lengthy response. I found all my thermal pad packages last night and I indeed used the correct pads in the correct spots on the correct components. Coolant may seem like grabbing straws. But everything is leading me
To believe this. I just can’t wrap my head around how pulling the front cover will settle the hotspot temps like it does. I’m not arguing by no means. If I’m not learning I’m not living

I’ll have to do that this weekend when I have my day off. When I start to work in my system I want to complete the task with no interruptions. Being on call has it disadvantages. I’ll report what I find then. Thank y’all for trying to help me narrow this down.

It's annoying having to put effort into seeing someone's image; especially on mobile when every input is less precise and tedious.

this is 25 minutes in. currently 34 minutes in and seeing 56c gpu and 70c hotspot. I reasted the GPU and reversed fan direction. Ill be running  some games shortly but so far things are looking under control. seems to have been fixed. judging by the way the paste looked when i pulled the block off. it was combination of things. my arctic silver is back up and dont really know how old that tube is. so i used my kingpin paste again. foun d a bit of debris in the fins of the block cleaned all that out. and reversed the fans.  After a round of 7 days to die gpu was 55c hotspot was 69.8c.  When i originally purchased this case i wanted to fill it. ive had big cases and they still looked empty. In my opinion I think i did it nicely. However it does apparently have to airflow flaws. One of which is if you use a 360mm rad up top you can not fit a case fan on the back of the case. Unless you mount it on the outside like i had. After i move i might revive my HAF Stacker or check into some other cases. 
 
Thank yall for the help and brain storming on this issue with me