bad frame rate and running hot.
 

i am running Gigabyte 880gm - D2H motherboard
evga gtx 580 SC
8gigs ram 1333
amd 965 BE - not ocd
thermal takes 800w PS

Playing Battlefield 3 i am running 35-50 frame per second and msi afterburner is saying card is 80 degrees sometimes higher.

I am not sure if the low frame rate is my mobo being crappy or card issues but am looking for suggestions

Make a custom fan curve in MSI afterburner and put an OC on that CPU, sounds like its being bottlenecked.

Yep, the default fan profiles are bad unless you have great/amazing air flow within your case. A tutorial to do so can be found in my signature.