Are you monitoring the CPU frequency as well? The Ghz. If that doesnt fluctuate, its probably an erronous sensor.
The other things to bear in mind is:
One of those readings isnt really "read", its calculated.One wrong value somewhere blows up the temp in proportion. Mine says 68C occasionally as max but I know the CPU rarely goes over 55C.
Then theres the other sensor reporting a temp which is outside the CPU which can reach 10 degrees higher, safely.
And last is the motherboards own temp monitor for CPU (I'm sure most if not all mobos have one). I find this one generally to be the best bet. It doesn't fluctuate like crazy.
Mine is called IT87 in HWmonitor, Linux names it as such as well when typing the command sensors-detect. Different sensors on different motherboards.
What your case feels like doesnt really say much. The side of my case felt lukewarm when my GPU was running 85C inches from it.
If you want to feel safe about it, install MSI Afterburner (including rivatuner), make shortcut-key for the OSD (on screen display). It's in Settings-> OSD->Toggle. Also open up Rivatuner (its in your systemtray) and make sure the option Show onscreen display is ON. Tell HWmonitor to show temps in OSD. And have the OSD up all the time while you play games. You can customize the size of text and color of it in Rivatuner.
Do temps really reach 80c?
GL