tigyor
Hello! I have an EVGA RTX 3060 XC Gaming graphics card and a Zalman Z3 NEO case with 7 fans. I read that this card usually runs at around 70 degrees Celsius, but sometimes mine reaches 85-87 degrees! Isn't that a bit too high? If someone else has the same card, please let me know what temperatures you experience during gaming! When I remove the side panel of the case, the temperature goes down to 78-81 degrees. Would buying a case with better airflow, like a mesh case, help? Thank you for your answers.

 
 
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Couple of thing:
 
Temp drop of 4C to 6C with case side removed does indicate airflow through your case is not currently optimal
 
Is the GPU running any OC?
 
How are you controlling the GPU fans?
stock fans controlled by GPU ?
custom fan curve?  if so what software are you using to control GPU OC &/or GPU fans?
 
How those fans are setup in your case?
fans used ?
blowing in or out ?
fan speed & how is it controlled?
 
How is the CPU cooled on your rig?
 
 

tigyor
Hello! I have an EVGA RTX 3060 XC Gaming graphics card and a Zalman Z3 NEO case with 7 fans. I read that this card usually runs at around 70 degrees Celsius, but sometimes mine reaches 85-87 degrees! Isn't that a bit too high? If someone else has the same card, please let me know what temperatures you experience during gaming! When I remove the side panel of the case, the temperature goes down to 78-81 degrees. Would buying a case with better airflow, like a mesh case, help? Thank you for your answers.

That's unnecessarily high, especially for a 3060. I had the 3060 XC myself for multiple months, never seen it go above 60 celsius.
I would certainly invest in an airflow case, especially something thats open in the front and top with not very restrictive mesh, i would also get performance fans with excellent airflow.
That combined with a more agressive fan curve in Afterburner will keep your hardware cool, just as it did mine.

You said all the fans are blowing air out except the restricted front fans?  I would turn the bottom fans around to blow air in and up.  Cooler air in from the front and bottom, warmer air out the top and back.

One question that should be asked also is do you have air conditioning? It's good to remember that this is the warmest part of the year and it's also been unusually warm this year in some areas. If it is in a place that has air conditioning it would likely be good to consider the case as well as the fan quality but in this case the fans are probably not an issue as long as they are working correctly. 

The best you would probably see with a more open case is temps like you see with you case side panel removed, if room temp is the same.
 
All fans & brands of fans are not equal; so, airflow depends on many factors, size, rpm, pressure & flow
 
Your goal should be to make sure all hot air is pushed out of the case (from all sources) before it is recycled by the GPU - causing a heat loop.
 
My question about your CPU cooling - this was more about where that heat goes from the cooler. (sorry for not being clearer) If CPU is also dumping heat to the inside of your case .... not pushed directly out of the case, then that is something else to check on
 
On my EVGA 3080 lowering the GPU power target from 100% to between 90-95% makes a big impact in my observed temps & does not seem to impact performance.  The reason is the cooler GPU will have higher MHz so there seems to be no big performance impact (except maybe a little when running benchmarks, were every little bit can help, if you can keep it cool)
 
Max GPU temp - Nvidia spec is 93C

93c is the max allowed temp which means the gpu still runs at full speed at that temperature. Thermal throttling will occur after that temp, and gpu shutdown will occur at 105c.