So what should be the temperature after which I should start worrying. Because playing while keeping an eye on the GPU temperatures is really frustrating after investing so many dollars.
You don't need to worry unless our temperatures are often in the 95C range. Once that happens it probably means one of these:
1) The dust has built up in the heatsink and the heatsink needs cleaning with compressed air/dis-assembly and removal of the dust;
2) Your fan speed is too low - time to raise the fan speed;
3) Your thermal paste material is drying up - generally speaking many 250W+ GPUs benefit from a 4-8*C drop in temperatures if you change the thermal paste material because the factory paste is usually poorly applied and is of poor quality.
Here is a
very basic video (among many others on Youtube) on how to replace and apply the thermal paste on a graphics card that has direct contact heatpipes not connected with a universal copper plate -- I believe the drop was 8C on a GTX470.
Changing the thermal paste material is the cheapest and easier way to reduce temperatures without spending a lot of $. A good paste like
Thermalright Chill Factor 3, Tuniq TX-2 or TX-4, etc. are a good starting point. Don't use Arctic Silver 5 because if you get some of it on the PCB, you could short the videocard.
http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/coolers/display/thermal-interface-roundup-1_12.html#sect0
For the most part, the dust is the biggest factor that you have to worry over the ownership period because your temperatures might climb from 87->95C because of worse airflow to the heatsink fins over time.
I believe that the vendors should provide at least 10 - 15 C of gap between operating temperatures and throttling temperatures.
Unfortunately, Asus dropped the ball.
I am not trying to make you feel bad about your card but for the next time you buy a graphics card, do more research. Not all GPU heatsinks are created equal. Look at this:
http://www.hardware.fr/articles/853-16/temperatures-bruit.html
There are various websites that do round-ups of a specific GPU family to do the work for you to show the temperatures and noise levels, such as Hardware France:
http://www.hardware.fr/articles/853-16/temperatures-bruit.html
Another great one that even has videos is Computerbase.de:
http://www.computerbase.de/2015-08/partnerkarten-geforce-gtx-980-ti-test/4/
Alternatively, you just have to find individual reviews for the card you are looking to buy and look at the data OR ask on a forum like ours :biggrin:
Also is it a bad idea to run the fans at 80% while gaming for about 2-3 hours a day?
That's nothing, don't worry about it. Even crappy single ball bearing fans are rated at 30,000 hours. Plus, you have 2-3 year warranty. You can crank the fans to 100% if you want as long the as noise doesn't bother you.
EDIT: Could it be an issue of the 600W PSU? I have read at many places that the card can consume upto even 510 W on full load and may be my PSU is giving that much power. Should I try a higher wattage PSU?
That's
total system power, not the power usage if your 390X. The GPU itself uses
about 260W.
The issue is your card's heatsink + fan profile + thermal paste material + case airflow + ambient temperatures.
Since you are using this card as a stop-gap before 16nm HBM2 GPUs, just pay attention to dust clean-up and if you want to tinker with it, change the thermal paste material, although Asus might void warranty on that.
The warranty will not apply to or be valid under conditions including but not limited to the following:
​
b) The
product has been tampered with, repaired and/or modified by non-authorized personnel;
f) There is damage from improper installation, improper connection, or use of parts and/or components not manufactured or sold by ASUS;
http://www.commercialsupport.asus.com/#!graphics-card-warranty/c26b