by Strategic Retreat » Wed Sep 21, 2011 5:31 am
The fact you used that video card on another system with no problems doesn't mean it can't be overheating now. As mechanical objects age, they begin under-performing, and this is true for the fan on the radiator as well. The radiator itself can get clogged by dust and other grimy trash and begin under-performing itself about bleeding heat away from the GPU.
First order of business, if you want to follow my suggestion, is to ascertain the speed of the videocard fan. Then at the very least make all the radiator go through an as thorough a cleaning as possible.
You gauge the speed of the fan in a very empiric way, touching it while it works and trying to stop it with your fingers. If it requires a certain effort to stop it, then it is hale and sound. If a feather touch is more then enough to stop it instead, the fan has reached the end of its life, it's not cooling the GPU as well as it should, and must be replaced.
Regardless from the heath of the fan, remains a good idea to use a compressed air can or a garage air compressor on the fins of the radiator, anyway.
PS
On this very PC I'm using a Ati Rage 32Mb which has about 15 years, a d on another PC I'm using another videocard that has a decade of life, both from time to time used still for 3D works. Allow me a healthy degree of skepticism hearing of limited life of a videocard. Maybe if you overclock them... or if you do not have care of their heat-sinking needs... but if well cared and not asked to do more than what they were designed for, there's no real limit.
Last edited by
Strategic Retreat on Wed Sep 21, 2011 5:37 am, edited 1 time in total.
There is no such a thing as overkill. Only unworthy targets.