I have an RX 6700 XT that's hitting 85 degrees playing Palworld for over an hour. I cleaned the cooler last week and put on fresh thermal paste, but it's still doing this. My case has three fans and it's well ventilated. Do I need to replace the card or is this normal for this generation?
85 degrees is borderline but normal for that card under heavy load, especially in Palworld which really hammers it. If it's stable there and not throttling, just leave it as is - RDNA 2 can handle up to around 110 degrees before it becomes a concern. Just monitor it with GPU-Z to make sure the clock speed isn't dropping when it heats up.
I don't mess much with heavy hardware, but I keep an eye on my phone's temperature when I'm doing more intensive stuff, and I noticed that these safety limits are pretty generous, honestly. The RX 6700 XT was made to run in that range, and if it's stable and not crashing or shutting down, you're good - what matters is that the cooler is clean and the paste is fresh.
Just watch out if you see weird signs like artifacts on the screen, fps dropping suddenly, or freezing, then you'd think about replacing it. But high temperature alone without other symptoms isn't something to worry about with this generation, no.
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