I think my craphics card is cooking my entire rig...

1. What case do you have?

2. Ambient temps?

Try this: open the side panel of your case and prop a desk or box fan next to it and repeat your process. If you don't have the problem, then you know its a heat related issue and you have poor airflow. If you continue to have problems, then it is either hardware or software related. To fix eliminate software, format and do a clean install and try again. If the problem still lingers, I say hardware.

BTW...artifacting is a sign that you have GPU issues in most cases.

Download Rivatuner, and adjust the GPU fan speed (I have a 9800GX2 KO) mine artifacts ect after playing for a few hrs. Untill I set the fan to 50%+ using rivatuner, now I have no problems. Also what case do you have? Any space for a few more fans to increase airflow?


*EDIT* didn't see your link, I'd suggest putting in a blowhole on top (Dremel, or jigsaw) and getting some new 120mm fans (with high CFM ratings).

ok i did the test.i dled speedfan to get temps.
i opend the side panel, and as i have no desk fan of any sort i just opend my rooms window and let the winter night coolthe room down. i figure it went down about 5 cellcius.
i than ran far cry 2 for one hour. the gpu heat went down from avarage 80 with peacks of 81 to 78 with peacks of 80 , so the gpu didnt cool down much but, and heres whats important, i played for one hour with no problem, no crash to desktop and no artifects of any kind.( i used to get artifects seconds before crash to desktop).
then i tried assassins creed, again no artifects of any kind.
i put the side cover back, and far cry crashed after 5 min before the gpu even got passed 78(mybe it was chance that it crashed 5 min is alittle fast).

so am i right to think the gpu isnt the problem but the heat inside the case?
gpu ran hot anyway (2 cellcius down but thats nothing).
one more thing, the gpu overlaps the hd, it must make it hot as they tuch, mybe ill take hd down one notch, could that have caused problems? i dont have hd temps in speedfan.

More than likely, heat. Those graphic cards really get very hot, when you consider that 100C is the boiling point of water, 80C starts to make sense. (80C = 176F)

So, even with just the side off and no additional fan, your temps seemed to drop a decent amount. I would be willing to bet that if you got a desk fan or something and pushed the air into the box, you would see better results...fan+winter air= even better.

This leads us to the point Shadow makes: get a new case. Get one with good airflow and the ability to put fans where you want and where they are needed. Also, just because a case has a front, side, back, top, etc fan, doesn't mean its designed as well as others. Google some computer case comparisons to see which ones got the best ratings. The cheap ones aren't anything more than a box to put your hardware in. The good ones are a part of your system and work to keep the correct components cool with good air flow designs.

i was thinking of just putting additional fans on the bottum.
what do you think?

2 costum fans on tiny lags on the floor of the case pointed upwards and mybe mybe a blow hole.
im just a bit lazy to change the case completely, if ihave too ill do it, but if i can avoid it than great.

any siggestions?