Is it normal for the whole card to be hot? I even have a case fan blowing directly on it. This is the card Im returning to Powercolor because of artifacting. I had a 9500 that ran hot but not like this one. My 8500 didnt get hot even when I OC'd it.

have you had the card long? if so, try to re-apply thermal compound to the GPU & heat sink & kleen the fan.
if it's brand new, its your chioce to either check out the amount of compound on the GPU, or send it back .
in my travels i have found that the amount of Thermal compound applied by the Factory is barely enough.
To answer your question,, all or 98% of the heat should be in the heatsink itself. If the "card" is hot,,, heat transfer is in question.

What brand and wattage is your power supply?

A inadaquate power supply could cause problems. My friend got artifacting on his 9800 Pro because his PSU was dipping to 2.8 on the +3.3v rail. Also, make sure to reconnect your power connectors because heat can cause things to expand and make the connections loose.

Good Point Brown,, i didnt think of that

I never checked the GPU heatsink. Im sending the card back today for an exchange.
I have a 365W Enermax PS. My system temp has dropped 6* since I put my old 8500 back in.

I think these 9800 pros really do get hot. The stock cooling really sucks (especially during summer time). I would upgrade the cooling if it was out of warranty.

The HSF is HUGE and still seems to suck. Im going to order a new cooler as soon as the replacement card gets here.