VGA cooler selection (and do I need one?)

[Dcamel]

I've recently been experiencing some heat issues with my XFX Geforce9800GT, with temperatures under load cresting eighty degrees Celsius on a fairly regular basis. I've had some intermittent but fairly serious graphical issues (artifacts, severe screen distortion) and not only do I find it inconveniencing, but it's obviously bad for the lifespan of the card, as well.

I cleaned out the case thoroughly with canned air (I'm a smoker, it was nasty, it's less so now.) and adjusted some ribbon cables to try and improve airflow, but that alone hasn't reduced the temperature a lot.

I've been -trying- to use RivaTuner to manually set my fan speed to a higher setting (I'm not offended by noise, I play with headphones on so it doesn't disturb me.) However, every time the GPU temp passes 70C, automatic fan-control kicks in. This may not be the place to ask this, but if anyone might have a clue why that's over-riding my manual speeds, it would be nice to know (running a display driver updated yesterday from Nvidia's downloads.)

Regardless, things aren't comfortably cooled right now. If I could get RivaTuner to work correctly, a VGA cooler probably wouldn't be necessary, but since some are very inexpensive, I'm strongly considering one anyways. However, I'm trying to find one that's not very invasive as far as installation goes. I was looking at:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835192007

My PCI slots are completely vacant, so I have plenty of room for it. However, I'm unable to figure, do I need to remove the stock fan on the card itself to install this, or can they be used together? If it's as easy as sliding the cooler into a slot below the card, I'm pretty willing to try this out, but if this and every other VGA aftermarket cooler requires messing with the card itself, I'm reluctant to try it, as I've had some bad experiences with screwdrivers and computer components before.

Do I need to remove the cooler on the card to use this? Help appreciated.

 

[jeremyshaw]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835118001

is far better of a cooler. Most B&M give better deals.

I have one, (8800GS), and the temps never reached above 45C, and that is at the lowest fan setting.

Not to mention: this includes RAM heatsinks, and a manual, physical, knob-based, fan controller. No more messy software to deal with.

EDIT: the 9800gt single slot cooler sucks, and 70C is a good load temp for the 9800gt - in a slimline system.

For a decently ventilated case, it's not that great (unless if you have the older, 65nm 9800gt, and not the newer 55nm varient)

 

[Dcamel]

That's both more than I'd prefer to spend on a cooler and more involved to install by all appearances. Again, I'm -hoping- to find a way to reduce the card's temperature without modifying the card itself in anyways, because I'm clumsier than the average human being. I should really put it out there that I've *never* added an aftermarket cooler to anything except for a CPU, which is pretty easy because you have to learn how the stock cooler goes on anyways, because the mounting bracket for that is on the motherboard and so can't be pre-assembled. If even the cooler I linked requires modifying my video card physically (removing the stock cooler) I'm likely going to explore other avenues of fixing this issue.

 

[jeremyshaw]

In that case, see if you can clear out dust from the heatsink (DO NOT spin the fan in the process!!!), as that lowered temps about... 5C (load) and 20C (Idle) for me (SFF system, here, of the ITX variant).

Or better case ventilation.

The best way to see if you need better case ventilation, is...
open the side panel of your case.

If it gets cooler, then...

you need better ventilation (more fans).

 

[Dcamel]

I already dusted the card thoroughly along with everything else in the case, but I'll see if leaving the side off lowers temperatures in the mean time. Right now my case fans are simply a single fan on the rear blowing out and the PSU fan, as well as a side-panel fan that blows inward (which someone told me was bad? Should be exhaust?). There's no front fan for intake.

 

[Seb1]

The XFX 9800GT has a custom single-slot copper cooler, probably the VRM stage is overheating on your card. You could try to use spot cooling with that Titan fan, but first my advice to you is to read and apply correctly the fan control following this RivaTuner guide.

 

[Dcamel]

The XFX 9800GT has a custom single-slot copper cooler, probably the VRM stage is overheating on your card. You could try to use spot cooling with that Titan fan, but first my advice to you is to read and apply correctly the fan control following this RivaTuner guide.

I've tried, believe me, but a guide can't answer questions, and I have plenty. I went through each step of that guide, enabling fan control with each method. I've tried using only low-level fan control, only driver-level fan control, and using low-level control after editing power user settings per the guide's instructions. In every case, once the card reaches 70 Celsius, auto-control takes over and re-adjusts it way back down. The only thing I haven't tried is making scheduler events for different temperature ranges, but if something else is yanking control from RivaTuner, it seems like they would continue to conflict.