Video card annoyance...

echosystm · Post by **echosystm** » Wed Apr 04, 2007 4:35 am

Hi guys,

I bought an X300SE passive video card, but the damn thing keeps overheating! The shop I bought it from won't let me exchange it either, since there is nothing wrong with the card perse, its just badly designed heh. I play one game - counterstrike 1.6. It's 7 years old, so an x300 is more than enough!

Are there any other passive video cards out there which are less likely to overheat? The heatsink on this thing isnt great... as can be seen in the picture below:

Are there any other cheap cards which are less prone to being a complete dick around like this? I was thinking a 7300gt might be ok? I don't want a 7100gs as they use system RAM.

Does anyone have experience here?
Also, I only have one 120mm case fan, and one 120mm fan in my corsair power supply (both ridiculously low speed). Is that enough to even be running a passive video card AT ALL?

Thanks

J. Sparrow · Post by **J. Sparrow** » Wed Apr 04, 2007 5:35 am

If the card is fine for you, you could try with an additional fan, or maybe switch to an aftermarket cooler. Unless switching cards is cheaper (which I assume is not, if the shop ain't going to swap it)

echosystm · Post by **echosystm** » Wed Apr 04, 2007 6:22 am

Well, an aftermarket cooler will set me back about $40AU. An entirely new video card is only $96AU, and it would be nice to be able to sqeeze a few extra fps out! If I can be assured a new video card wont have any stability issues, I will definately go down that path.

angelkiller · Post by **angelkiller** » Wed Apr 04, 2007 6:29 am

Do you feel like making something? I don't know what tools/skills are available to you. You could find an old computer and take the heatsink from it and cut holes to fit the mounting holes on your video card. So you'd end up with a CPU heatsink on your video card.

It's just a thought....

Lawrence Lee · Post by **Lawrence Lee** » Wed Apr 04, 2007 7:17 am

Take it off, clean the base and add some thermal compound. I have a X300 that uses basically the same heatsink and I have no problems with it.

Le_Gritche · Post by **Le_Gritche** » Wed Apr 04, 2007 7:27 am

echosystm wrote:Well, an aftermarket cooler will set me back about $40AU. An entirely new video card is only $96AU, and it would be nice to be able to sqeeze a few extra fps out! If I can be assured a new video card wont have any stability issues, I will definately go down that path.

And what about strapping a fan on the card, like J. Sparrow wrote ?
If you have one 80mm fan lying around you could just put it in your case. Either on the front of the PC case and you make sure the airflow pass on the graphics card heatsink or you can just strap it directly on the card.
You can also undervolt the fan for more quietness.
If you are happy with the x300, and are willing to spend some time doing it yourself rather than some money buying a new card, that could be a way to solve the problem.
Speaking of undervolting I'm thinking of something else : you could underclock your graphics card. As you probably don't need too much performance to play CS, you may reduce the card's GPU frequency, resulting in a lower power consumption.