My Gigabyte RTX 3070 Eagle OC has recently been running hot and noticeably louder than usual. I cleaned the entire PC and graphics card with an electric air duster, then used MSI Afterburner to apply an undervolt and custom fan curve based on a tutorial. While gaming, the card is usually around 85% utilized and reaches roughly 85–90°C, with the fans becoming very loud. These temperatures are similar to what I saw before cleaning, but the noise has increased.
My FPS is capped at my monitor's 165 Hz refresh rate. The PC sits on a stand with about 2.5 inches of clearance from the floor. I have already reset the fan curve, but I would like to lower the temperature and noise without immediately replacing the GPU, since I may use it in a future build.
3 Answers
Check both the regular GPU temperature and the hotspot temperature with HWiNFO or a similar monitor. If the hotspot is much higher, the thermal paste or thermal pads may have degraded, especially if the card has been used for several years. That can make the fans ramp up and may cause thermal throttling. Replacing the paste and, if necessary, the pads could help.
Try setting a smoother fan curve so the fans start spinning earlier instead of suddenly ramping up once the GPU passes 60°C. A power limit in MSI Afterburner can also reduce heat and noise, especially when combined with a sensible undervolt. Make sure the undervolt is actually stable and that the card is not being pushed to its original boost voltage.
Also inspect the fans themselves. Make sure both are spinning properly and that none of them are grinding or running intermittently. If the fans are simply worn out or naturally loud on this model, replacement fans may be cheaper than replacing the entire card. Lowering ray tracing settings, using a more aggressive DLSS mode, or reducing the frame cap slightly can reduce the workload and noise as well.
GPU utilization by itself does not tell you exactly how hard every part of the card is working. Ray tracing and other specialized features can increase heat even when the reported utilization does not look unusually high.
The post sounds like the card was only cleaned, not repasted. If the paste is still old, cleaning the dust alone may not change the temperatures much.