radeon 9800 pro overheating

[wealthysoup]

Ok now my radeon 9800 pros overheating not only on counter- strike source but fs9 as well  :'(
So I need to know what would be the best thing to do without spending a fortune on cooling.
Would it be better to buy a case fan to remove warm air from the case or a new fan for my graphics card?
Also what fan would you reccommend for the job

p.s. I don't want to spend anything more than around

[Weather_Man]

Unless the GPU fan is not working, go for the case fan first. Especially if you don't have one on the rear.

Be sure to clean all the heatsinks/fans also. Dust can impact cooling greatly. A can of compressed air can do wonders.

[Brett_Henderson]

Yeah... If it didn't overheat before and now it is.. something (dirt .. fan ?) has changed..

[congo]

I would be inclined to force fresh cool air in past the video cards HSF rather than extract from the area.

This will give a few degrees less ambient temp over the card's HSF. The air needs adequate or forced exhaust

[ctjoyce]

One word "Zalman" If you are sure its overheating, and want to make sure that you get the best cool you possable can, the zalman VPS-700Cu is the best sink on the market. It also has RAM sinks, so everything gets cooled.

Cheers
Cameron

[wealthysoup]

What is overheating, the GPU or the ram on the card?

What were the symptoms of the "alledged" overheating?

Dont, have a clue, but i touched the back of the card last night when it crashed and almost burnt my hand (its never been that hot before)
At first things like text gets messed up and goes all blocky so that you can't read it then after about 4-5 mins after that the whole computer crashes and doesn't respond untill its reset ( Im quite certain its the graphics card because these problems only started happening when I upgraded to it from a ge force fx5200.
Could there be a problem with heat being transferred from the card to the heat sink?

[congo]

Yes, that could be an issue and was foremost in my mind as a possible cause actually. If the Heatsink is cool and the card is that hot, then it's almost a definite.

Some NV6600GT models have a real design flaw in that it is very easy to "bump" the HSF assembly so it sits askew and doesn't contact the GPU properly, it could be something like that. If you have no dust, the fan works, and the HSF seems seated properly, try leaving the side cover off your PC for a session and see if that cures the problem, if it does, then case ventilation is the cause.

Any card should be cool enough with the supplied cooling solution, if it isn't, return it, or fix it yourself and risk voiding your warranty.

[wealthysoup]

I've got it runnng with the case off, so I was thinking of egtting better cooling forthe card, but since I've got a 1 year warenty for it i'll probably try to get it changed and see if that helps. Thanks for the help everybody.

[ctjoyce]

Well it dosnt void the warrenty if they dont find out

Cheers
Cameron

[congo]

Well it dosnt void the warrenty if they dont find out

I think they would notice a great big Zalman cooler, ram heatsinks and epoxy splashed all over the PCB. Not to mention a non standard heat paste, the great big scratch across the board where your screwdriver slipped and the broken fan blades!



Congo, the "experienced" modder, says:

"Damn the Warranty, Full speed ahead!"

[rootbeer]

Contact www.1coolpc.com in the morning or sooner if you just can't wait. Bart will ease all your concerns...

[congo]

Dont, have a clue, but i touched the back of the card last night when it crashed and almost burnt my hand (its never been that hot before)

Hmm, if that card is similar in design to the 9800XT's I'm familiar with, they are a hot running item.

The whole ATX design is flawed in my opinion as the heat rises into the PCB because the components on addon cards face downwards in an tower case.

[ctjoyce]

So you buy a Lian Li V1000 or 2000 case. The motherboard is mounted upside down.

Cheers
Cameron