9800XT Upgrade

[guzmanistan]

Howdy,
I bought a 9800XT like a year ago and stock fan died out so I bought a ArticCooler heatsink and I think I did the thermal paste application correctly then because for about 2 weeks I had about +10-15 FPS in Americas Army. Then it started going back down to what it used to do. At least now it doesn't show artifacts. I was wondering if anyone knew why and if theres anything I should to do make it run better?

Juan

 

[tazzmissionx]

I have had a 9800XT for around a year now, have not noticed a fan/heatsink issues yet, but I do remeber when I first installed Doom 3 and was playing, I would experience snow issues, and the only way that I could get rid of it was by underclocking my card below stock , but I didn't like Doom 3 after couple of days so I got rid of it.

Anyways, thermal paste varies, but it usually takes a couple weeks for it to settle, I have heard of people posting about heat or performance quirks bad and good during this period of time and then becomes stable. But other than that, I would look at the drivers that you are using and the configuration of them,possibly OC your card, or tweak settings inside AA