Is something wrong with my GPU? Should I return it?

[xtreemchaos]

yes putty n paint make many men faint, for me its all about air flow. I use a HAF XB evo its not pretty but very cool.

 

[Vayra86]

they are quite bad for airflow, but everyones gone nuts over them in reviews just cause its pretty - the ITX version is just as bad, after i researched it

Its not rocket science though. If a case is fully closed at the front you do need, at the very least, an intake gap along the entire side of the front panel, on both sides preferably. The top/bottom front panel openings are way too restrictive because you miss fresh intake at the middle where most of the heat will concentrate, sandwitched between CPU heatsink and GPU backplate.. That's how any half decent case does it really. Its how Fractal Design has been doing it for god knows how long... Never had issues with any.

NZXT is a brand of form over function, but that, again, can't be a surprise IMO looking at their offerings. And AIO focused, as pointed out. All an AIO really needs is fresh air at the radiator, so any sort of front panel design will probably do fine, the penalty for closing the sides isn't quite as extreme. But its still not ideal even for that purpose.

The silly thing is, that even extra top fans won't help much if you lack airflow in the center of the case. All you do with those is pull away lukewarm air from the CPU.