I need some advice on a problem I'm facing with my MSI GeForce RTX 3060 12GB. I've had this card since 2022, and it was running perfectly fine until three days ago when I decided to open it up for the first time to clean it. I noticed the thermal paste was dry, and there was quite a lot of dust. After cleaning it and applying new thermal paste, I'm experiencing issues. The fans are now extremely loud and spinning very fast, and the temperatures are climbing to 80-90 degrees even when I just play Fortnite. Before the cleaning, the card was silent and never exceeded 60 degrees. No matter how carefully I spread the paste or how securely I mounted the cooler, the overheating persists. Any suggestions or insights would be greatly appreciated!
2 Answers
I agree with GamerDude88. It’s crucial to have the cooler seated properly, and the thermal interface needs to be just right. If it’s still overheating, double-check to see if there might be dust in the fans or radiator fins that could block airflow. Sometimes even doing a slight re-application of thermal paste can help if the first try didn't go well.
It sounds like you might have a bad remount of the cooler. If the pressure isn't even, the thermal pads might not be making proper contact, or you could have used too much thermal paste. I’d recommend reopening the card, reseating the cooler, and ensuring everything is aligned properly. Just a small blob of paste should do. Loud fans usually mean it's overheating, so it's something that needs to be fixed!
I followed all your steps, but I'm still seeing 90 degrees! I made sure to use just a little paste and put pressure on the cooler during assembly, but it hasn’t improved.