Well, sorta, I actually just want to know if anybody can tell me why this has happened.

Out of nowhere my video card started getting hotter and hotter. It used to idle at 40-45 degrees Celsius, but now it's averaging in at 60 degrees, and under load it's reached 91 degrees. [It happened progressively over time, not instantly]

Now normally I'd think it was a fan issue, only problem with that theory is that it just has a giant heat sink. [Gigabyte 8500gts]. The rest of my system runs at a normal temp, but I don't understand what's up with the video card, why would it randomly start overheating like that?

I'd start by cleaning it and updating drivers.

also, make sure it's spaced away from other pci cards.

maybe even add a fan?


I honestly don't know why that would happen though.

Yea, well the case actually has 5 fans already lol. You're definitely right with the cleaning though, the dust is starting to build up.

See if you can remove the heatsink. Maybe it's shifting away from the GPU somehow. Maybe clean, add new thermal paste, & reattach?

Most likely a dust issue. Take the GPU out and clean it of dust.

this just happened to me.
dust made the temp raise and now that it's higher, your thermal paste bakes into a clay shale. in my case then the fan worked over time and died. clean it, repaste it, and replace the gpu fan (since dust could also be slowing it down)

I think he said there was no GPU fan, just passive cooling. Either way though, I think you're right... the thermal paste probably turned to poo. Take off, clean, thoroughly, remove old paste, apply new paste, reattach, ?, profit!

Yea, if theres no fan then either its a driver issue, an issue with the GPU itself or a dust issue. If there was a fan chances are it was locked at 30% like all GPUs and you would need a program like rivatuner to change the fan speed.