4870 memory temperature

Hello,

I just ran the free version of 3dMark06 on my HD4870 and was pretty disappointed with the results. My FPS would be pretty huge and then suddenly lag noticeably every 5-10 seconds. The resulting score was 9543, which is about 5000 short of normal. I'm running it on a PCI 1.0 rather than 2.0 slot but I asked in another thread and was told this shouldn't affect the performance much. I checked my GPU-Z temps and it showed that the maximum core temp was 83 degrees C, but the memory and shader temps were 97 and 90.5, respectively. The card is at stock clocks. Are these temperatures too high?

Edit: I guess I should have posted all of my specs. I'm using an Athlon 5600+ at 2.9 GHz (stock), motherboard and case from an hp Media Center m7560n, Windows 7 Ultimate x64, Catalyst 10.6... anything else important that I left out? Here's the actual model of my graphics card: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121376

Yeah, that's WAAAAY too hot. My 4850's MEMIO only hits 75C under full load at 40% fan. Is the fan in that thing even working? My card only gets that hot if i force the fan to not come on till 100C (Made a mistake in the BIOS editor.).

Yeah, the fan is working and at 70% even at idle. I have a small, cramped case so not much to work with. I opened the PCI port in front of the heat sink (Asus Radeon 4870 fan does not have a PCI tab like I've seen in some other cards) and brought the temp down to 89 C under load. Is this safe? I've got core at 75.5 and shaders at 81.5.

89C is still pretty hot... how does it run with the case side off?

I have my fan set to max out at 80C if that gives you an idea... 4850 is a cooler running card though.

Dusty case? You might wanna take the card out and properly clean it up That should lower the temps to a normal level!

The case isn't very dusty at all and the card itself is brand new. I tried taking off the side and it definitely helped; memIO dropped from 90 (with a new system fan) to 82.5. It's still high but I'm pretty sure part of it is because there's very little airflow due to an extremely cramped setup near the rear of the card where the memory is. I posted in the case modding forum about mounting fans above the card. That would hopefully lower the temps. I'm still confused about what would be considered "acceptable" temps, given my situtation.

In theory, acceptable is anything below 120. I honestly don't believe that though. I like to keep things under 80C or so. My MemIO hits about 78C with the fan at 60% and the GPU under full load. I'd think if you kept the core temps below 70C, you'd be pretty well off. Under 80C should be okayish.

I'm just curious what program you guys are using to measure your temperatures? What are acceptable temperatures for the other components of the video card other than the GPU?

I'm using both HWmonitor and GPU-Z. Both are available on Guru3D.com I believe. GPU-Z had more detailed graphics card temperatures, but HW monitor tells you temps from all over your system.