http://www.google.com/products/catalog?hl=en&q=thermaltake+shark&um=1&ie=UTF-8&cid=11237961091916857024&ei=A8CkTKfWI5KgsQPGw9T9Dg&sa=X&oi=product_catalog_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CBoQ8wIwAA#.
Have a look at that case. It's the same model as mine. You will be able to visualize the two openings on the left hand side of my side panel. I was somewhat mistaken when I said that they are parallel to the PCI-E/PCI slots because they actually are quite large. I can view the entire motherboard when I look into the openings.
I have read that, generally, it is best to have more air going OUT than IN because the air going out is heated air which is what you want to get rid of. If that's the case, then those honeycomb vents are doing me an injustice and assuming that heat did kill my graphics card then, as you implied, I have an airflow issue.
There should be software to detect the temp at which my GPU's are running, correct? Any recommendations?