{"slug": "quadro-rtx-6000-suddenly-overheating-even-after-heatsink-repaste", "title": "Quadro RTX 6000 suddenly overheating, even after heatsink repaste", "summary": "A homelab operator running two Nvidia Quadro RTX 6000 GPUs in a Supermicro server for LLM inference and hashcat benchmarks reported that one card suddenly began spiking to 86C under load and thermal throttling by cutting power, up from its previous 68-72C range, while the second card held at roughly 65C. Repasting the heatsink and inspecting the blower fan did not fix the fault, and the operator has removed the card, suspecting an impending hardware failure.", "body_md": "Hi guys,\n\nBeen a lurker on this forum for a while and finally made an account because I got hit with a hardware problem (lol) so sorry if the category or tags for this post are incorrect.\n\nI have a Supermicro server loaded with 2 Quadro RTX 6000s that I use for LLM autoclanking (slop coding lol) and spamming hashcat benchmarks as part of my homelab. The server is set up with dedicated GPU exhaust fans, so under maximum load, the two cards only reach about 68-70C. Even for a continuous run of a very long LLM session (multiple days), the temps never exceed 72C. I also have dcgm-exporter running which collects all the juicy stats I can view in Grafana, so I have a pretty good gauge of expected stats (temps, power draw, nvlink, etc).\n\nHowever, a couple days ago, one of the GPUs suddenly started spiking to 86C under load, and I could see the GPU thermal throttling by cutting the power (wattage drop). I figured it might be some dead paste, so I removed both GPUs, removed the heatsinks, and gave them a fresh coat of thermal paste plus an inspection of the heat sinks and blower fans to make sure nothing was clogged. For the Quadro RTX series, you can remove the heat sink assembly separately without removing the main plate that has the rest of the thermal pads, which is nice so you don’t accidentally screw something up.\n\nAfter repasting, the faulty card is still spiking to 86C under load, while the other card dropped a degree in average temp. As far as I can tell, the heatsink itself was fine, there was plenty of thermal paste to fill the gap, and the rest of the card seems fine (no sign of extreme heat damage, fan is running normally).\n\nHowever, since I have the other card to compare (still sitting at about 65C under max load), I’m pretty sure this is something indicative of a future fault, so I’ve removed the card for now.\n\nHonestly I have no clue what the issue could be and I was wondering if anyone here has had a similar situation before. I’m glad I caught the temps early since I’m pretty sure the GPU could have cooked itself to death had I continued to blast it with vLLM.\n\nI did see an old thread about the RTX series getting really hot ( [How to tame the RTX 6000, it throws out so much heat I think I may burn down my system](https://forum.level1techs.com/t/how-to-tame-the-rtx-6000-it-throws-out-so-much-heat-i-think-i-may-burn-down-my-system/233044) ), with 85C being an expected temperature, but that’s also something I experienced before I added the additional GPU exhaust fans to my server. Without additional cooling, the cards do get super hot and can reach those temps, but I’m pretty sure the issue here is something else since the second GPU is still sitting at a cool 65C under max load for an extended period of time.", "url": "https://wpnews.pro/news/quadro-rtx-6000-suddenly-overheating-even-after-heatsink-repaste", "canonical_source": "https://forum.level1techs.com/t/quadro-rtx-6000-suddenly-overheating-even-after-heatsink-repaste/260434#post_1", "published_at": "2026-11-11 10:45:59+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-11-11 10:52:44.721229+00:00", "lang": "en", "topics": ["ai-infrastructure"], "entities": ["Nvidia", "Quadro RTX 6000", "Supermicro", "hashcat", "vLLM", "Grafana", "dcgm-exporter"], "also_reported_by": [], "alternates": {"html": "https://wpnews.pro/news/quadro-rtx-6000-suddenly-overheating-even-after-heatsink-repaste", "markdown": "https://wpnews.pro/news/quadro-rtx-6000-suddenly-overheating-even-after-heatsink-repaste.md", "text": "https://wpnews.pro/news/quadro-rtx-6000-suddenly-overheating-even-after-heatsink-repaste.txt", "jsonld": "https://wpnews.pro/news/quadro-rtx-6000-suddenly-overheating-even-after-heatsink-repaste.jsonld"}}