Yeah, I understand its voxel based and unique gabba gabba hey I'm not comparing, I'm using other games as a yardstick with which to measure heat. So those two games which are pretty punishing on the card, they play fine; the GPU temp is fine and the fan doesn't crank up. Summary, 7dtd is to blame in some way because no other game/app does this.
The airflow is fine, I've not installed anything in the case, and I blew it out recently. I've completely uninstalled the driver using a dedicated driver cleaner from nvidia. The most INTERESTING thing is that it only happens when their is LOD to draw. If I am inside or digging for treasure and am surrounded by walls or dirt, the card doesn't overheat. THAT says something, although I'm not sure what...
-slog
PS: cool avatar