ATI Radeon 2900 XT overheating, why?

[FaceBash]

I have a ATI Radeon 2900 XT with a Arctic Cooling Accelero Xtreme 2900 VGA Cooler attached to it. It is said that the cooler decreases temp by 20C. My case is an Antec 900 gaming case so the air flow is great and inside the case is really cool.

When ever I play games on high graphics but NOT overclocking, my graphics card overheats and my computer resets. The graphics card is crazy hot when I touch it. Everything inside my case is cold other than the graphics card.

When I first got my graphics card I could play games at full with the stock cooler just fine. I have only had the ATI Radeon 2900 XT since Christmas 2007.

Is the card just broken?

I have cleaned the dust out and it changed nothing.

 

[CCT]

They say "Thanks to the elegant design, Accelero S1 outperforms some active cooling solutions." which basically means it DOESN'T perform better than MANY/MOST active cooling solutions.

http://www.arctic-cooling.com/vga2.php?idx=138

In other words, you gave up good cooling for quiet.

Put a fan solution on it.

 

[FaceBash]

oh, ok then.
That sucks. =[

thnx for reply.

but that isnt the one i have, i have the one with three fans on it and is much bigger and more heat pipes.
(wont let me post link yet...)

 

[CCT]

If you have 3 fans and they run then the problem has to be poor heatsink contact, ie, too much paste, bad alignment, no paste, etc.

 

[FaceBash]

Well i wiped off the old paste and didn't touch what was already put onto the new cooler but there was a bit of a mess around the edges which i tried to clean up but still some there.

I will attempt to fully clear it and see what happens.

but the top of the graphics card is hot which means the heat is being transfered?

thnx agian for reply.

 

[CCT]

Was there a protective film on the new cooler over the paste/pad?

You only need a THIN layer of paste to fill the micro-scratches.