GeForce GTS 250 Videocard overheating/thermal compound

My wife's GeForce GTS 250 started running really hot a few days ago. Nothing to bad in nonGPU intensive games, like DCUO, but whenever she loads up Skyrim or SWTOR it shoots into the 90s before very long. Well it used to stay in the 70's under load, and 90c is a little hot for me, so I decided to clean it out. I've never opened a graphics card before, but it wasn't too hard. I cleaned out ungodly amounts of dust and cat hair from the air intake of the GPU, so I'm guessing that is what caused the overheating.

Well, I cleaned the old thermal compound off of the GPU and heatsink, then put on some new stuff (just the radio shack brand that I had lying around). Everywhere I read told me not to put too much on, so I put on barely enough to cover the GPU, even though when I originally opened it the compound was EVERYWHERE, like they had used gobs. Well, I immediately closed it back up, threw it into the computer and booted up. I use EVGA Precision to monitor temps, and when she went into SWTOR it shot into the 100's almost instantly before I pulled the plug.

Should I apply more thermal paste? does it need to sit for a while after application before use? Is this card just trash?

Thanks in advance, Billy

Was the card running in normal temperature before when your wife used to play games like Skyrim or SWTOR? What power supply unit do you have? How many other fans do you have in your system? It is possible that due to playing heavy games, the card might be getting over heated, so try applying some more thermal paste and see the difference.

It used to run at the highest around 80c, but that was under seriously heavy loads. Now it gets up to about 60c on the desktop. I've applied more thermal paste, and it helped a small amount, but it's still climbing into the 100's during SWTOR or Skyrim, and now there are artifacts when it gets up there.

The system is pretty well ventilated. There is a fan on the front of the case, one on top, two in the back and two on the sides, though one of the side fans is no longer working, but that alone shouldn't cause a catastrophic change, plus the temperatures shoot up no matter what I do, case closed, case open, fans on, extra fans pointed at it, etc.

***EDIT****
The PSU is a Corsair TX750W, not sure of the make or model number.

Seems like the video card itself is having problem and getting overheated. What driver version are you using, is it the latest? Also can you try some other video cards, possibly if you can get, and see the difference related to video card problems or some other issues.

We did have the latest, but a day after upgrading is when we started seeing the problem. I rolled back the drivers, but it's still there, so I completely uninstalled the drivers and installed older ones, then upgraded to the newest drivers when even that didn't work.

I might be able to try to get another video card from a friend on Monday, so I'll try that as well.