r/graphicscard

I have a 5-year-old Gigabyte RTX 3060 Ti Eagle OC. While gaming, my temps are around 88°C core and 105°C hotspot, which seemed high to me. Recently, I started getting crashes (black screen + fans ramping to 100%), so I took it for servicing. For the first time in 5 years, I had the thermal paste replaced. During testing, the technician found one of my RAM sticks was faulty. It worked fine at home earlier, but in his setup it failed. After removing that RAM stick, the crashing issue seems to be resolved (tested for about an hour in-game, no crashes so far). However, the GPU temperatures are still exactly the same even after repasting. The technician said the thermal pads were in decent condition and didn’t need replacement. I live in a Tier-II city, so I don’t have many reliable GPU repair options. Trusting GPU with any technician is a risky affair.

My questions:

Are these temps (88°C / 105°C hotspot) safe for long-term use?

Could thermal pads be the real issue here? Is it okay to keep gaming like this, or should I look for another repair option?

Should I undervolt my GPU to reduce the temperatures? If yes, please suggest reliable steps/links/videos for the same. No experience in this regard.

Any advice would be really helpful. Thanks!

Posting this for a friend who's having PC problems.

Here are the specs.
5700X3D
32gb RAM
9700XT
Win 10

Monitor is 1440p, 180hz

Problem started when we started playing Dying Light 2, he was getting terrible FPS.
Switching from DX11 to DX12 seemed to have solved the problem.

But now he's having trouble in Plague Tale: Requiem, which he wasn't having before.
In fullscreen mode, the game is giving around 25 FPS, though the steam FPS counter is saying 150+.
If he switches to windowed mode, the problem is fixed and he gets the correct FPS.

He's tried uninstalling and reinstalling graphics drivers, but it's not made a difference.
Power draw is 300W will playing in fullscreen mode, so it looks like the GPU is engaged.

CPU/GPU temps are normal.

Any ideas on what the problem could be?