Why is my 980Ti GPU Temp too high?

[Berryracer]

I was watching a video on how to overclock the GPU using MSI Afterburner and noticed that the guy's GPU temp was around 40C while he was encoding the video he was doing so I checked my GPU temp and was shocked that it's 72C for the first GPU and 69C for the second GPU and I haven't even overclocked the GPU yet and this is just in the Windows 2D environment.

Is this normal or is there anything I need to worry about? Heck if my GPU temp is so high without even playing any games, I doubt I have any room for overclocking.

What do you think? My monitor is an ASUS PG278Q running @ 144 Hz

 

[badb0y]

How many monitors do you have?

 

[Berryracer]

How many monitors do you have?

just 1 PG278Q

I just realized that the guy in the video is running a waterblock and I am just on air cooling on my GPUs, could that be the reason why his temps are so low and 71C on idle is actually normal?

 

[showb1z]

Running 144hz on the desktop? If so your cards won't downclock.
Try changing your refresh rate to 120hz, check your clocks and temps again.

 

[Berryracer]

Running 144hz on the desktop? If so your cards won't downclock.
Try changing your refresh rate to 120hz, check your clocks and temps again.

Tried going down to 120Hz and even 59Hz, doesn't change a thing, the GPU Temp is stuck @ 72C

 

[Berryracer]

I adjusted the fan curve to 3300RPM in Precision X just to try and the temp went down to 54C for GPU1 and 50C for GPU2

 

[Berryracer]

Strange, I just rebooted and the TDP went down and so did the temp. I have a suspicion that Google Chrome was causing this:

 

[kami]

Still seems kinda high for idle, is that the stock cooler or the ACX? Maybe it's normal for an SLI setup though. Plus other factors like case airflow and your ambient temp.

My single card idles like this (ambient temp is around 19-20C, which might be chilly for some people)

(Fan at 0 RPMs cause it doesn't spin up until 50C)