About a year and a half ago, I treated myself to a birthday present in the form of a brand new 1080TI FTW3 (Part #: 11G-P4-6696-KR). For the most part, things have been very good. Great graphics, very good framerates, generally flawless gaming experiences.
However, about a month ago, I noticed that when I was in the middle of a graphically-intensive gaming session, the fan would get loud. Like... really loud. It's gotten to the point where my housemates have noted that they can hear it from a few rooms over, behind closed doors; and I can hear it even when I have my headphones on with the game audio going full-blast. I haven't experienced any crashes or overheating problems and the gameplay performance remains top-notch, but something is definitely wrong with one of the fans, and I think it's getting worse.
I've read about this being a somewhat common issue with the 1080TI cards. I've tried re-seating the card in my mobo; still the same noise when gaming. I've read a few other DIY fixes for noisy fans, but all of them involve disassembling the card in some way and voiding the warranty.
I'm starting to get worried that, if I don't take care of this, the card will one day fry and take my pci-e bus with it (as something similar recently happened to one of my friends with his 970). Do I need to wait until I start getting BSODs (or worse) to RMA the card, or can I get a replacement preemptive to a failure?