My video card has a fever.

[Momiji]

My new video card is overheating! It's leaving artifacts all over my screen. The fan just isn't cutting it, either. I tried shutting my computer down and restarting it, and it worked for about 10 minutes, and now the temperature is just about as high as it was last night (72 degrees Celsius). It's 67 degrees Celsius right now.

So, my question is: how do I cool this thing down, without absolutely draining my already-low bank account?

Oh, it's an ATI Radeon 9800, by the way.

[Baloki]

Replace the fan with a new one or switch to a heatsink/fan alternative, shouldn't cost too much to get one that works well. Also try improving the air-flow in the case by simply cable tying wires together. Finally check that your not over-clocking it too much in the driver control panel as that'll increase temp too.

[Momiji]

Replace the fan with a new one or switch to a heatsink/fan alternative, shouldn't cost too much to get one that works well. Also try improving the air-flow in the case by simply cable tying wires together. Finally check that your not over-clocking it too much in the driver control panel as that'll increase temp too.

My friend overclocked it for me. I'm not sure how to reverse it.

[rubah]

Did he not tell you it'd run much hotter?

[crono_logical]

I wouldn't overclock it unless you really want/need those few extra frames per second that make a noticable difference because yes, it makes it run hotter (and shortens the lifespan as a result) :p

Personally, I'm actually for underclocking if you don't play that many 3d-intensive games, to reduce overall heat and power comsumption, and bump it up manually to normal speed whenever you do play and again if it would make a visible difference. I'm not sure if there's software to do this for you automatically depending on what you run yet :p

[Baloki]

Replace the fan with a new one or switch to a heatsink/fan alternative, shouldn't cost too much to get one that works well. Also try improving the air-flow in the case by simply cable tying wires together. Finally check that your not over-clocking it too much in the driver control panel as that'll increase temp too.

My friend overclocked it for me. I'm not sure how to reverse it.

Right-click on your desktop > ATI Catalist(R) Control Center > On the left hand menu select ATI Overdrive > If the "Preserve ATI Overdrive settings at login" tickbox is ticked, untick it. Else just drag both sliders to the bottom. After doing either of those click Apply then ok.

[Momiji]

Did he not tell you it'd run much hotter?

No. He just said that he just made it 'one badass card'.

He seems to forget that not all of us have the top-of-the-line equipment like he does.

@Baloki: I did yesterday. No improvement.

[Baloki]

That's the only way he could have overclocked an ATI card as far as I know, sounds like he's done something quite bad to it or it's already fried...

[Vincent, Thunder God]

First of all, I wouldn't overclock anything, in my experience it worsens functioning of hardware. Secondly, stop using the computer altogether for a day or so, I had the exact same problem with my brand new Radeon HD 2400 (despite having a lot of fans) and after leaving it a day, all was well ever afterwards. Perhaps it's a phenomenon experienced only with certain new cards that otherwise work fine.

[Momiji]

Well, I'll talk to him and see what he can do.

[Yrkoon]

clean out all the fans in your pc case i guess they have collected tons of dust which can limit their function.

then i would have a look at the graphics card fan and heat sink im guessing theres a ton of crap stuck to it and its fan.

dust build up can limit fan speeds and screw up the dissipation of heat from heat sinks.