I just wanted to ask if there is any good cooling solutin for my ASUS 8800 Ultra? My graphics card is usually 65-70 Celsius at idle and goes to 80+ Celsius when under load... Is this normal? *What is the acceptable heat for the Ultra under full load?* I heard that the plastic cover on the steel cooler *melted * on some cards while overclocking...
Also when i turn on the overheat protection (default 80celsius) it is almost impossible to play anything, because my comp exits to desktop...
I have already 4 fans on my ATX house... Shall i put another one under/on the video card??? Or any good liquid solution for the Ultras?

My GTS overclocked at 320mb is virtually the same temp

Im going to try something like this:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6811999704

I know that the highest most cards can go without damage is usually about 100-110 degrees. my 1950 pro idles at around 40 deg C and goes upto 55 while gaming. I have however taken it all the way upto 118 and it still worked without a flaw.

I dont know what the normal temp should be for that card, so its probably best for me to shut up now and let someone else have a stab at that question.

Thanks guys for the reply. So you say that at 100-110 C the card can still work without damage?

Personally I think this is too hot. I got a Thermalright HR-03 for my GTX and it now never goes above 65C.

the cooler the better; while GPUs are engineered to run at higher temps than CPUs (it is not unheard of to see GPUs reaching 90°C or above without damage), often a little bit of tinkering will have drastic effects.
I don't have a high power card (a mere 6600), but I wanted something that was small, silent and still powerful enough for the occasional game.
When I first got it (an MSI 6600 Silencer, passively cooled), it reached 95°C when gaming (FEAR, several hours). It worked well, but I didn't feel good about it.
I removed the heat sink, added silver paste, re-seated the heat sink, added memory chip sinks on those that were exposed, and added a low-revving fan to my case (12cm, 750 rpm).
Its temp fell down to 65°C; I now game without a care in the world.

I just bought that air extractor, ill put it in to see how much of a difference it makes:

a new heatsink+fan would have been a better buy. my 7800gt temps were:
idle-50c
load-90c

zalman HSF:
idle-42c
load-55c

and the zalman is WAY quieter.

If you want realy low temperates shove it in a triple rad water cooling loop, wont ever get hot.