Hi guys,
First post on here so mind the noobieness () . I bought my GTX 670 FTW from Newegg back in Jan' 2012 and it's been running splendidly till about a week ago. I've tried playing Archeage and noticed that my GPU started heating up to 90+ C and sometimes caused my desktop to restart. I haven't cleaned my tower in about 9 months so a lot of dust was inside when I cleaned it on Sunday, hoping that getting rid of all the dust would maybe have solved the problem. My fan curve is set to be pretty aggressive running on 80% power when its above 70C but I've noticed that even other games like DotA2 have been hitting up to 90C recently when in the past have barely hit 70-75C. I never tried to mess with the GPU overclock settings either. As of right now on idle it would be around high 40C to low 50C (is it normal for my GPU and Memory Clock to spike randomly when idle?). So I have a few questions for any experts on this matter...
 
a) Should I take out my GPU and open it and check if the heatsink inside is covered with dust? (would this void my warranty?)
b) Would reapplying new thermal paste help?
c) Should I just say screw it and RMA it..
 
Thanks for any help guys!
 
Below are my Components:
EVGA GTX 670 FTW 2GBAsus Sabertooth Z77
Intel i5-3570k w/ Coolermaster Hyper 212 EVO Fan
G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 2 x 8 GB
Corsair TX 750
HyperX 120 GB SSD
Coolermaster HAF 922 Tower
Win 7 Ultimate 64 Bit
Using Dual Monitor Setup
GeForce Driver 344.11
 
heres a ss of my idle

Heres one while running DotA 2

 

thanks man for the advice, will try a clean install of the drivers after work and see if that helps!

FUSIONCHA0S
You should not have to reinstall the driver unless you upgrade your driver every time a new one comes out, or if you downloading a beta driver.  If so, then id say yes to uninstall and reinstall.  I usually apply new thermal paste every year even though you should rarely have to apply thermal paste after manufacture has applied.

i think i do update my driver every time a new one comes out, but not the beta ones. Also is artic silver ok to use? Since this one is used mostly for CPU heatsinks, would it still work?

bob16314
Arctic Silver 5?..AS5 is not electrically conductive, but it is slightly capacitive and could potentially cause problems if it bridges two close-proximity electrical paths and should be kept away from electrical traces, pins, and leads..AS5 has a break-in period of 200 hours and multiple thermal cycles..TIM that's neither conductive nor capacitive with a shorter, or no break-in period would be the way to go..Just don't put too much on like in post #27..A rice grained sized drop in the center is all that's needed on a GPU chip..I've used AS5 before on GPUs and it worked okay.  

hmm i did put a rice grain sized drop in the center but i didn't spread it out with anything and let the heatsink pressure do the spreading when i screwed it back on. Should I just redo it with a TIM? and if so what's a good brand to buy?
My idle now is around 37-40C and when I tried a stress test / benchmark it went up to about high 60s.

awesome, thanks so much for your help !