Would say setting my fans manually on the cards to 100% (auto seems to only put them at 35-50%) do any damage? Guess this would be a way to test, bang them to 100% fan usage load it up for a min or two and see if I get the white dots, but don't want to burn my fans out -.-
Only to your ears!

Nah they are rated for 1000s of hours, over the cards lifespan I expect. I'd still take the side off and maybe direct a house fan at the card, just to try and drop the temps by say 10c at load and see if the white dots go.