EVGA Geforce 7600 GT running very hot, need some suggestion

My cpu runs at a constant 44 degrees, however; I have a EVGA GeForce 7600 GT 256MB PCIe video card and it runs at around 62-64 degrees if I'm not gaming. If i run city of heroes then the heat goes up to about 80 degrees. Now here is the kicker I have my cover off the pc and have a small desktop fan blowing directly on the video card. If I put my cover on then the video card over heats past 100 degrees and screws up. So I have to run with the pc cover off and a fan blowing directly on the video card. I'm running nvidia 93.71 drivers but it doesn't seem to me that adjusting the fan speed actually increases the fan speed at all, I don't hear any noise difference.

Even with the cover on my pc my cpu never goes over 46 degrees. So I know that I need to increase air flow near my video card but even with the cover off and a fan blowing directly on it it goes up to 80 + degrees. My normal air tempurature in my house is about 75 degrees.

need some suggestions, is there a different driver i can use to better control the fan speed? I'm not sure I understand the fan speed on the new Nvidia control panel. GPU fan speed I manually set it to max (now i can't recall the exact numbers but its maxed) at like 145% / 73 degrees and click apply and it saves but i don't hear any difference in my fan.

need some pointers.

my motherboard is: MSI K9N SLI Platinum Socket AM2 Motherboard
cpu: AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+ Socket AM2 (Windsor)
Here is the link to the exact video card i'm using. ( i'm only using one and no sli)
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applica [...] =E145-7908


forgot to add. I don't overclock.

k, I didn't know if it would be possible to remove the fan from the video card to do that.

Well GB's suggestion seems like a good one. However, here's one that may be just as good for a bit cheaper and without a MIR. Here's a little review by our very own Cleeve. Price was an issue when he reviewed it but that wouldn't be the case now for a decent VGA cooler like this.