ATI graphics card overheating

[EyeOfHorus]

Hey everyone,

I'm having an issue that has concerned me for the past month.
It just so happens that whenever im gaming it suddenly exits
and a message appears stating that my graphics card has over
heated. As time went on it got worse, to automatically restarting the PC outta nowhere and to even hearing noise of what might have been the graphics card fan spinning inside the tower clanking loudly but goes away after i stop gaming. Even reaching temps of 114*C & fan speed of 100%
I have heard about this problem on different forums and know its pretty common. I dont know if i
should check the fans or anything inside the PC tower. Or maybe that alone wont work. What is
the solution to this? i think If i wait any longer my PC days will be overrr.


MY Specs are:

Dell dimension 8400
Intel 4 3.6 ghz
250 GB
1 GB of RAM
ATI radeon X850 XT 256 MB

 

[jennyh]

It's heat, no way around it

Dell's are notorious for overheating, especially if you upgrade the gpu or cpu over their base specs.

You can help yourself a bit by buying pci extractor fans. They cost very little and help to pull the heat out of those cases, just slot one below your graphics card and you should see instant temperature drops. It might be too late for your current pc but its worth remembering in future.

 

[Dekasav]

Yeah, sounds like your case doesn't have enough (maybe any) ventilation, so the inside just heats up, and a fan/heatsink only cool if the air inside the case is cool (ventilated).