Gainward GTX 670 Reference card temp questions

It just sounds like your card is running hotter under load What is your cooling situation like with your case. Perhaps one test you could do is taking your side panel off and seeing if the temps drop a lot. Kind of get a feel for how much airflow you need to obtain the temps you'd get.

Reference cards will run hotter, the point behind them is to not throw heat all over your case and heat up your other components like other cards. If you want to add more fans, you don't need a new PSU.

I'll try running the games with the side panel off, if that shows significant drops I may just invest in a new case and some fans. Currently have a Zalman Z9 plus, which is sposed to come with 6 case fans, the company who built and shipped my PC to me only put 4 in, though my processor fan is huge so I wondered if that was a factor in leaving them out. Any suggestions for some good ventilated cases?

Your case has good ventilation sometimes it comes down to finding fans that can push a bit more air if you are having issues with air flow. Which in turn may be cheaper then getting something like a HAF case from Cooler Master for example.

I didn't even know I could make the fans push more air attached to my case lol. I will have to look into this. I thought I'd just post an image of the GPU measurements while running the game on full, see if this helps you decide if the card is contributing at all:

So I busted the side panel off and ran Dead Island again like bigshootr8 suggested, and this is what I got:

take out your card and dust it off with a DRY paint brush carefully and thoroughly.....

even a little amount of dust accumulation causes those temps....dont worry....
and remember that a layer of dust acts as an insulator and keeps trapping in heat.....

See your temperatures in the 2nd test are closer to normal however still a bit high I would say. Well perhaps more normal for a reference designed card. Dusting out your case can be one way of going at it sure and should be done anyway to kind of keep your setup in check. Also, if your room temperature is hot and you don't have much vitalization for the case that could case issues as well. I'm not exactly sure where you put your case for example. My parents place there computer inside a closed wooden desk and that is pretty awful for air flow. Furthermore I would suggest perhaps picking up high airflow fans. Since I'm not one to say well your case sucks because it doesn't so get a new case. Worse comes to worse this still does not solve the issue then I would get in contact with gainward and talk to them about the temperatures you are experiencing what you have done to try and solve the issue and what they would recommend. I could tell you to re apply thermal compound to the GPU however I have a feeling that may void the warranty in many cases.
Two of these would completely fill your case.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

Haven't checked back here in a while.

I'm still having temp issues, even after cleaning out the dust from the case and room temperature is usually at anywhere between 16-20C. I've made sure there is plenty of space for the computer to generate a decent airflow, though I am recently finding out that the wrong side panel was given to me by Zalman. I am emailing Gainward now to see if they can give any suggestions.

The fans you suggested above, would they definitely fit in the case? I am considering buying a new case, but I am more inclined to buying a new graphics card at this stage.

Those fans will most likely fit your case. Fans come in 3 main sizes 80mm, 120mm, and 140mm. About 90% or case fans these days are 120mm, or 140mm (140's will always have holes to fit 120mm fans also). Take a ruler and measure if you want to.
Also, there's really no reason to spend $30 on fans. I bought these two Rosewill fans for $2 a piece about a year ago and they still go strong. Just keep in mind the noise and CFM. Around 20db's is on the quite side, and around 60 CFM is on the strong side.

Here's the ones me and my friends use:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168... these move alot of air and are really quite. You can get them in other colors too (I like no color at all)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168... These I bought on sale, they are much louder.
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/ite... These I have in reserve right now, they are cheap, I haven't tried them yet