Blackline Graphic Glitch on 7900GS?

[Abraxos]

Hello,
First time poster here. I have a IBUYPOWER PC with an 450 watt power supply, 2 gigs of Ram, AMD 4200 X2, with a Evga 7900GS 256 card. On older games like City of Heroes I have few problems but lately with higher end graphic games like LoTRs online and Everquest 2, I have been getting odd black line graphic glitches running thru the game. I've cleaned the fans, and removed the case from my desk to give it more ventilation and the lines have decreased but still occur enough to be annoying.
I'm assuming it's an overheating problem but wasn't sure if it could be something wrong with the card itself?
Not sure what my options are at this point and any advice would be welcome. I'm not much of a PC expert and I've never had any of my systems overheat in the past?
Do I buy a new card?
Can I add some type of cooling unit to the case?
Will a 7950GT or 8600GT run even hotter and cause more problems?
Do I need a new powersupply?
Thanks in advance.....

 

[xciter]

Those bugs are from overheating the graphics core. Your card is great for it`s money. You can try adding more exhaust fans on the back side of your pc case, or just putting one blowing on the backside of the videocard just over the graphics core. It`ll help, trust me.

 

[Abraxos]

Yeah
I just downloaded the software to check temp. It's idling about 131 degrees Farenheit and going up about 20 degrees when playing EQ2. Is adding fans relatively simple for a PC novice or should I take it somewhere?

 

[htredneck]

Hi:

I have had the same card for the past 3 months and it works perfect. I have the ASUS 7900gs

When I first got the card it idled at 58 C and 65 C under load and not even overclocked.

Try the 2 things I did in this order.

First, remove graphic card fan. Clean and reapply thermal compound. Any good thermal compound from computer store is better then what was on mine. Use Arctic Silver if you want to spend the money. I have found it to be very good.

Here is their web page with instructions on cleaning and putting on thermal compound.

http://www.articsilver.com/instructions.htm

This brought the temp down 10 C for me.


Second, If you want to bring the temps down even more and have less noise (and spend the money) here is a great fan I put on mine.

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

Now mine idles at about 40 C and 45 C fully overclocked and under load.


It isn´t difficult to do this but be careful with little parts, don´t force it and take your time.

Hope it helps

 

[xciter]

37$ is too much for a GPU cooling, try this link. It`s more quet than the zalman, or this link if you want to keep the price even lower. link this fan should do the job fine.

 

[htredneck]

I am sure there are cheaper fans. The truth is you probably don´t even need a new one if you do a good job cleaning and reapplying the thermal paste.