Loud Computer

[Monkey Magic]

Generally x500 cards from Nvidia are pretty dodgy, you should stay clear. x600 are average, and x800 are the best. Sometimes a newer version card can be worse than an older one because of this. Eg: A 6600 is better than a 8500. So if you could get an 9600 that would be good! But it would probably be expensive, so the 8600 would be ok for you. Just google some reviews and see! Try this place!

Anyway, 120 degrees C is insanely hot, and is probably damaging the card and maybe other stuff. Something must be wrong, are you sure the fan is set properly and not clogged up with dust? Take it off and clip it back on.

And you can have a DirectX 10 card on XP, it just can't natively take advantage of the features of DX10 (Which won't make a different on a lower end card anyway.)

:( I sound like I know a lot about cards, when I have a GeForce 4. But I read a lot! You should just google everything. Grab as many reviews as you can before you make a decision.

[ExileStrife]

It's not exactly pertinant to the discussion, but GPUs can run just fine at much higher temperatures.  If you are not getting graphical defects (artifacting) then the card is working within tolerable limits.

[Monkey Magic]

I really must say that something's wrong if it's running at a whopping 120 degrees C, though. That's 248F! He shouldn't be persuaded to think that's normal.

The 6800 is not meant to get any hotter than around 80C at full load, so you really should check the fan setting and thermal paste. But if you're not having graphical glitches (like ES says, you should be if it's too hot,) then it could also just be that the temperature probe is broken. So does your case feel really hot?

[Sternhund]

I haven't had a really in depth look at the case while it's running, so I'll have to check how hot it is. All I know is that when it hits 120 C, the fan goes crazy, and you can even hear it from several rooms away.

When I get back in town this weekend I'll take out my video card, pull off the fan and examine it. Maybe I can grease up the fan some? There's probably a fancy way of doing that, but I might just use good ol' WD-40 unless that's a stupid notion to pursue. (Call me a hardware noob, if you must!)

Other than that, no graphics glitches. Sometimes I can tell it processes some graphics slower, as in I feel lag, but beside that no actual glitching. Might look into thermal paste as well, but I read that paste usually decreases the temp by 5-10 C, so if I can't find an error in the fan, I'll just go with the NVIDIA 9500 GT I linked earlier, and maybe spend that rebate money buying a better fan for it.

Will let you know. Thanks!

[IxTheSpeedy]

Sternhund, i'll go ahead and say, don't spray wd-40 into your computer.

[Humoresque]

Yeah, that -will- be BAD.

[ExileStrife]

You can put wd-40, or any other general-use household oil, into the barrings of a PC fan...

Come on guys.  It's not a conductor.

I guess I should add though, that wd-40 does get a little gunky after awhile.  There are better lubricating oils you can use.

[IxTheSpeedy]

I'd suggest just buying a new fan or two from //www.silenx.com to replace your existing case fans and your cpu fan.  Just be careful to get a high enough RPM fan for the CPU.  Those suckers can get hot.

[Sternhund]

Back home so I checked out all the possibilities. Touching the card proved it was extremely hot, and seeing as it's running over 135 C under load, it's my understanding it's bad to put the system under that much stress. The card's five years old, and I think that's the average lifespan of a video card. So, I'll just replace it with a cheap 9500. Not optimal, but I don't need anything fancy.

Thanks for the help folks. Really appreciate it!


Also, I was kidding about the WD-40.