Can you show a pic of the area you are talking about?
Funny, if you are making contact with the thermal pad, it should not shoot UP in rpm's, it should lower.
But, you might be bending the card doing that by hand, and making the sensor go bad and tell the card it is too high a temp, and thats why the rpms go to 100% (or whatever how high the fan goes).
I would stop squeezing the card, let people see what area and what you are seeing, and then wait for opinions to see if the card needs to be rma'd or not.

Here's a pic.
The temps aren't a result of sli or airflow. I tested with only this one card in the PC, with my case open and closed.

The card is still under warranty with EVGA, but the shipping and customs are too expensive for an rma to be worthwhile.
A used 970 here is about R3000. RMA will cost me over R1600, and take very long.
I'd rather try to fix this myself, but does anyone have any clue how? Should I add a thicker thermal pad?

It was getting to throttling at stock clocks, so I replaced the thermal paste with some cheap Coolermaster thermal paste. Didn't help much for this card. I've ordered some MasterGel Nano, so when it arrives I'll try that. It is supposedly better than MX-4.

As for thermal pads, I'm not sure if any are missing as I can't find any diagrams online.
And since the 1mm pad isn't making contact, wouldn't a 2mm pad be better?

As I said earlier, it doesn't have to do with case airflow. I've tested with the side panel off. I'll see if good thermal paste helps when it arrives.

Unfortunately I couldn't find any full cover blocks for the ACX 2.0+ 970.

DylanJP1234
So after some research, I've discovered the thermal paste I applied has a thermal conductivity of 0.8w/m-k. I'm quite sure that's the problem. The paste I ordered is 11w/m-k so it should improve the temps tremendously.
Thanks for all your help, I'll give my results in a few days.

Thanks for the info. Please keep us informed.

Thanks Dave. I thought I could use a tie strap, but couldn't find where to put it. I'll try a string later on today, as it's more flexible. Let you know what happens.

Edit: Here in South Africa we call zip ties tie straps.

Oooh, someone with more 900 and EVGA knowledge has to answer, as I have no idea where it would be.
 
Is there any way to lift the actual cooler instead of that hole in the pcb card? If so, does that make it ramp up the fan speed also? Or is it just when you lift the pcb part of the card it does that? I am wondering if a bracket holder would do that? Like, maybe lift from the middle of the card all the way to the back of the card, and see if it does that? Here is the kind of bracket I am talking about (thanks Sajin for making me aware off these in the first place):
https://www.amazon.com/upHere-Graphics-Anodized-Aerospace-Aluminum/dp/B076GYL25H/ref=sr_1_1_sspa?ie=UTF8&qid=1520293446&sr=8-1-spons&keywords=video+card+bracket&psc=1
See how it holds the card all the way along the screwed in part to the back of the card? Thats what I am wondering if you can mimic, by hand, maybe using 1 finger from the middle bottom of the cooler (not the pcb), and try to hold it from the middle all the way to the very back end of the card. Maybe it wont do that fan thing?
 
I did find a review of that card that takes the whole thing apart, so maybe they something in the review about where the sensors are located?
https://www.bit-tech.net/reviews/tech/graphics/evga-geforce-gtx-970-ssc-acx-2-0-review/1/
 
It does show the pad placements and everything, so its good to read and try to figure it out yourself also.
 
Maybe an EVGA tech can read this and answer what that might be.
 
I would still put on some good thermal paste AND new pads, and put it back together and see how it does.
 
Another thought:
Is there any way to lift the actual cooler instead of that hole in the pcb card? If so, does that make it ramp up the fan speed also? Or is it just when you lift the pcb part of the card it does that?
 
Anyway, if you cant get it to work right, I would contact tech support.
If the card works ok, then just use string in the middle and the rear of the card (to try to stop droop in the middle of the card, and keep all the pads level and adhering to the things they are cooling).

I still use arctic silver 5.
After it cures, it lasts for like 5 years. 2 to 3 years longer than the thin gray pastes of today, but much harder to apply very thin layers.