Extreme video overheating

[InCreator]

I'm so sad!

I bought my PC about a year ago, and it worked perfectly.
Then, this spring, video problems rised their ugly head, games started to look really terrible...

Like this, this and this

I didn't know what's the matter at first, tried reinstalling drivers, clocking over and under, playing with directX, etc.
But recent observations have proven that my video card simply heats to melting!

Without anything working, simply at XP desktop, its temperature is around constant 57°C. Whenever I start a game, it quickly rises to 93°C! Near 90, artifacts and texture stretching occurs, and every degree adds some more litter onto screen. In some newer games, game engine tries to cast shadow to the artifact too and it gets really weird.

Now, video comes from my Geforce 7900GT/GTO card. I opened case, cleaned everything, suspecting evil dust, though there wasn't much, and noticed that even though fairly modern,  my card doesn't have any fans attached to it. It simply has a heatsink (radiator thingy?) and two (aluminium?) tubes going from sink to other side of the card. It's placed (strategically?) under extra large CPU fan (Intel Core2 Duo E6400 CPU needs it, I guess), supported with downward power unit fan(I think) and one extra slow fan, which sometimes doesn't work and produces nervous crieking noise.

Anyway, even with this slow fan going around, heating doesn't get much lower.

Sorry for low quality, used cellphone for photos:


The whole cooling plan


Closeup on video card

Now, I'm not an expert, and don't know much about cooling, thermal pastes or even where GPU is, under heatsink or the other side (there's a little suspicious tin box connected by those two tubes), but I really don't understand why this stupid card got cooled well before (everything worked at high settings for about half a year) and overheats now.

I've been googling for various video card forums and threads, but nothing found nothing simple or cheap.
I'm also aware of the fact that many new cards come overclocked from store, but I've underclocked this card more than it's healthy and still heating was there. With constant crashing as a cool add-on. So...

Suggestions?

[BOYD1981]

with these newer graphics cards i think it's good practice to either install more fans inside the pc, or do as i do and get yourself a nice big desktop fan aiming directly inside your pc (you do ofcourse need to keep a side panel off for this). i don't really need to do this anymore as my 7900GS stays quite cool (although it does have a fan), i started doing it when i used to have a Radeon 9800XT that was very fond of overheating, like 65°c idle going up to and beyond 80°c when playing games.
also, is that temperature reading the actual graphics card, cpu or motherboard? you should be able to get the temperature of your graphics card from the display settings.
if you're concerned that it is the graphics card you could knock it down a few slots and get yourself an exhaust vent fan to put above it to draw the heat directly out of the pc.

[Domino]

Was it meant to be liquid cooled? It seems weird that there are no fans attached to it. I read on Google that there are graphics cards that are meant to be liquid cooled. Sorry i can't help, but just throwing out a suggestion.

[InCreator]

I don't think it was really meant to be liquid cooled... But who knows. There doesn't appear to be a place to install the fan.

I ripped some old power units apart and took the fans. I think I'll try to stick few fans here and there and see if it helps, because it's the cheapest way I can think of.

[dasjoe]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_cooling
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heat_pipe

read this.

your graphics card is passive cooled through a heat pipe. it expects the cpu fan to suck cold air in and blow it over the northbridge (the thing under the heatsink which you labelled as unknown/cpu), some important capacitors near your cpu and of course the back of your graphics card where its heatsink is.

read intel's chassis air guide: http://www.intel.com/cd/channel/reseller/asmo-na/eng/62086.htm
it'll give you an idea what exactly your problem is and how to fix it.
hint: fix the "extra slow" fan, make it run faster. make your cpu fan run faster, too. control airflow, change it so it follows the specification. reduce obstacles, get case fans, use round cables etc.

or just get a graphics card with active cooling.

[Shane 'ProgZmax' Stevens]

It also may have nothing whatsoever to do with cooling.  The graphic problems you're showing could easily be a driver issue.  I recommend getting Driver Cleaner, clearing out your drivers and installing the newest stable forceware version and trying the game again.  Also, if you haven't yet you should try searching the forum for that game for similar graphics issues and see how they were resolved.  And yeah, you could have graphic glitches in every single 3d game with messed up drivers.  I've gone from one set that displayed everything perfectly to another that had random polygons without textures so it can happen.

[Ishmael]

Sound like a cooling issue to me. I have a passive cooled 7900GS, a normal size CPU fan and two case fans, and everything stays cool enough. So try fixing the broken fan, and set all fans to full speed. That ought to fix it, unless the card really already is physically melting or the heat pipe dying.

But it's still a good idea to clear the drivers and install the latest stable ones.

[radiowaves]

So we are reaching to the age where everything is getting smaller and more powerful, but fans are getting bigger and bigger. Soon we will have to have some kind of nucleotherma cooling system... This new technology is bullshit, PIECE OF CRAP! And in ten years each computer would need its own power plant...

So, in other words, computer technologies haven't advanced at all in recent 25 years, its has just gotten smaller but its still the same. There is only one real computer in the world, sitting in Silicon valley, and that is a prototype of quantrum technology which is doing sudokus with style!

[FSi++]

Umm... Radiowaves?

Sorry dude, but do you know what are you talking about?

I doubt it.

[lo_res_man]

radiowaves
thats bull, it's like saying physics didn't advance between newten and einstien. Sure the basic technology is the same and there hasn't been terribly much REVOLUTIONARY change, but there has been a lot of PROGRESSIONAL change. think about this for a sec, a mainframe from 1985 got about ( ithink) 4.5 ghz and cost millions, that is change, not to mention 'pixie-dust' hard drives, allowing the 300gbyte models we see today. So we don't have a quantem-pc boo fricking hoo. of course fans get bigger, the smaller the wires greater resistence, MORE HEAT!

[radiowaves]

Tecnologies still work much  like in the 80's, its just all cramped together in small parts so we could use more and get more power. Old computers didn't have huge fans. new tecnologie would be a computer that is powerful but doesn't heat up. Shure things have gotten cheaper as the market has grown. Its like Ford T that went into mass production on conveyours.

[FSi++]

actually miniaturisation does require advancement of technology.
There is a difference between transistors on 1985s chip and ones from your Pentium IV

[radiowaves]

Yes, ofcourse, but function and IDEA of a transistor or chip remains the same,

[InCreator]

Eh, don't drink & post I'd say. Anyway, i'll try to install new fan now.

[lo_res_man]

oh yeh ,
of course it does, the idea of even a 'quantum' chip would be the same, the only differance in IDEA is that can do many things at once. computers use bianary even a quantem chip wouldn't change that

[InCreator]

Our universe is based on binary.

Something exists or not, moves or not, light is turned on or off, earth goes around or doesn't, etc.
If there would be third alternative, it would be REALLY revolutional.
Especially if it could be used in microprocessors... start inventing!

[lo_res_man]

on the other hand it isn't. a light may be on or off to human perseptions but electrons still flow, just in smaller amounts.a electron until it is observed is in all possible states at once, an object may spin but be so slow we don't notice it. the universe is quite a fuzzy place. even in a transistor the one and zero are more or less not absoluite highest possible amount ' true' bianary one or absolute nil 'tru' zero

[Ishmael]

There you still get is it on or not and can we see it or not, and is it moving or not and can we see it or not.

[scotch]

The important property of quantum computers is that their registers are not necessarily holding a 0 or a 1 until measured. They can hold a quantum superposition of both. This lends them to a whole different class of algorithms, some which solve things much more quickly than a Turing computer (for example integer factorisation, which is assumed to be difficult, and the basis of a lot of cryptography, has a very efficient quantum algorithm). When you read the algorithm result off the registers it may well be wrong, but repeated runs will near certainly get you to the right answer to whatever probability you're happy with.

Neat sounding idea, popular with sci fi authors and academics alike, but they aren't necessarily good replacements for a traditional computer, and nobody will be making really useful programmable ones for a long time.

In conclusion quantum computers have nothing to do with cooling your video card.

[lo_res_man]

There you still get is it on or not and can we see it or not, and is it moving or not and can we see it or not.

but direct comman sense human perseptions are not the best guide to understanding the universe. okey lets shut up, and get back to the poor guy who's video card is melting like the wicked witch of the west