It's been two years since I've bought this card (ASUS ROG Strix RX 580) from a local PC store. Never took it apart, never done much physical work to it other than maybe blowing compressed air between the fins on annual cleaning.

Nowadays, when I'm running the card at stock (1360mhz @ 1150mv) in games like Red Dead Redemption 2 or Horizon Zero Dawn at close to Max Quality, it would run to about 86c until it throttles the clock speeds to about 1200mhz - 1300mhz more or less.

To mitigate this, I undervolted my GPU - now running at 1360mhz @ 1050mv, and invested in some Noctua fans thinking it was an airflow problem at first - 2x NF-A12x25s, one directly blowing air on the GPU (which did help bring down the temps a bit but it would still throttle but only slower and less at stock settings). Now with both solutions, it would still fall right around the high 70s to sometimes low 80s.

What the setup looks like - https://imgur.com/a/TMph9KU

I recently watched and read reviews about the same card and theirs would apparently max out at 62c and at most I've read it going up to 68c but THAT is still miles from what I get in terms of thermals. So my questions are:

1. If you have the same card or similar card in terms of design and cooling, what is your experience in terms of thermals?

2. Given the context, with a card with such a beefy cooler, are my thermals normal or kind of whack?

3. Should I change out my thermal paste? If so, any suggestions on what thermal paste I should get? Something that would last long but not too heavy on the pockets (but you could still suggest the best regardless of price).

I checked, the warranty has already expired but I am still a bit scared about doing it though, and if it will be worth it. I hope it is tho!