Own an ASUS RTX 4080 Super TUF and notice unusual hot spots? Well, you may not be alone. Some Nvidia users are reporting that a hot spot is appearing on their RTX 4080 Super just mere weeks after purchasing it. The hot spot appears to spike during rendering or gaming sessions, reaching temperatures above 90°C even when the GPU usage is below 100%. Let’s work out what’s going on.
The problem at hand
Now that we have some context behind the issue, let’s expand on why this could be a big problem for RTX 4080 Super users. A hot spot typically represents the hottest point on the GPU chip, and if the overall temperature is below 80°C it is not usually a concern. However, if temperate begins to rise over this threshold then it can cause some damage to the GPU’s output. In this case, with a user reporting temps of over 90°C, this can reduce the efficiency of your GPU hugely and potentially require a replacement.
When taking apart the GPU to investigate the problem, this user found a dried-up spot in amongst the still-liquidized thermal paste. Even after cleaning with isopropyl alcohol, the spot remained. After finally removing it with a plastic scraping tool, the user was able to finally clean up the whole GPU.
Should Nvidia users be worried?
For the time being, Nvidia users should not be too worried as this does remain an isolated case. With the user reapplying a new thermal paste to the GPU, we are not currently aware that the issue was either fixed or persisted. Additionally, it is unclear if this is a thermal paste problem or a design problem. One thing we do know is that this serves as a good reminder to keep an eye out for the temperature of your GPU and to monitor potential hot spots. You don’t want your brand-new hardware suffering due to unusual problems with thermal paste. We’ll be the first to update you if similar cases are reported by similar users.
