With the stock cooler at stock settings, I was seeing temps under full load of around 65 to 66C with ok air cooling. I did the 1.4V mod to the card before I bought the Zalman VF-900, and clocked to 675 core. I was seeing 85C to 87C max load. I kept it like that for a little under a week before I went and got this cooler. anything above 65C for extended periods of time isn't recommended. So, if you want to do the Vmod and/or OC the card, definitely get an after market HSF.
If you're going to keep it stock and have half way decent airflow, I wouldn't worry about it. It should run just fine. But, these cards really shine in the OC area. That's what makes these cards so nice. Every one I've seen so far has done at least 675 core with the 1.5 Vmod and many will do around 725. That's 50% to 61% over the reference 450Mhz core. At stock, this card is clocked at 500 core and I was getting ~4650 in 3dmark06. With my 7800 GT clocked at 495 I was seeing ~4300. I think the ~1800 3d marks was worth the $37 and about an hours worth of work for the conductive pen and the zalman VF-900. But at stock, it's still an excellent card and you'll see a huge improvement over a 6600. Let us know how it goes.
I thought the card ran hot with stock cooling when I first installed it (high 50s) as an upgrade to a 7800 GT. A Zalman VF700 has it running in the low 40s at idle now. The thermal compound on the stock heatsink with a smallish fan was not doing the job. Mine was a recertified card from EVGA/Newegg so the heatsink may have been removed previously.
This card does seem to OC a lot better than the XFX 7800 GT I was using before.
If you're going for an X1950, I would definitely recommend upgrading that PSU. ATI requires at least a 450W right now for all their top end cards, don't they? With DX10 just around the corner, I would keep that 6600 that you have a few more months and see what ATI and Nvidia have to offer for DX10.
i don't want first gen DX-10 cards. I doubt they will be all THAT much faster and besides 200watts for the gpu? no way.I'll mupgrade again when DDR-3 AM3 adn K8L coems out.
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