Rivatuner shows my 8800 ultra to be sitting idly at 68C.

I get crashes after gaming for an hour or two, and I'm suspsicious that it could be my card overheating. How hot is too hot for these cards?

Don't worry till about 100+c. Anything 80+c for a vid card is hot but only after 100+c do you really need to worry.

the 8800 ultra gets hot...those temps are not terrible but u are losing possible fps because ur card is not cooled enough. Make sure u have a good exit fan and a good enter fan. ur case should act like a wind tunnel for those cards for them to work properly. I bet ur temps get to about 75-80 and then ur comp dies. three options: 1) 100% gpu fan duty cycle, 2) 100% gpu fan duty cycle and a card cooler which is about $20, 3) water cool. I would have to say that smokedyou911 is alittle off...while ur card may not be damaged by temps < 100c...but u will not be playing long at temps around 80c at least not with good fps... I would shoot for temps around 55-60 idle and 70-75max. This will keep u gaming for hours and hours all night even...Keep cool and have fun!!!

He is not losing any fps, video cards don't start throttling till 100+c. His card is also cooled enough els wise it would artifact/ draw frame weird before crashing. Water cooling? No need, unless you want to oc like mad, but then why buy a 8800 ultra just to oc? Does that extra 300 points in 3d mark make a difference in gaming?

Ayways, to the op we need ur cp sceps and what happens when your cp crashes.

no freaking way... do u really lose frames for your card loaded at 80c? If it does ill get ln2 cooling tomorrow.

not true at all.

high end cards will get up to 80degrees quite easily, my GX2 is generally around 75 level.

If you haven't tried already, download rivatuner and monitor your system heat while playing games. Most higher end cards won't throttle until 100* and sometimes 105. Rivatuner would be able to tell you if you're getting too hot. Generally speaking anything above 80* is undesirable and may contribute to shorter life-spans for graphics cards (though I'm not up to speed on what cards can handle now-a-days). I've been told that some cards can handle much higher temps, but haven't seen anything that verifies this. Does anyone have any hard info to quote?

huh? who brought back this thread? It was posted like 2 months ago