[mythtv-users] Another Nvidia card question

[Joe Hickey]

On Fri, Mar 9, 2012 at 3:59 PM, Gabe Rubin <gaberubin at gmail.com> wrote:
> My question is, will a passively cooled card (i.e., a card with a
> heatsink) solve this problem?  I came close to buying a Zotac GT430
> because it seems to do all the fancy vdpau stuff I want, it has a
> heatsink as opposed to a fan, and the heatsink is narrow enough that I
> can have a card next to it.  But I don't want to go this route if
> there is still a good chance that this card will overheat too.

Fanless cards typically run somewhat hotter than the ones with a fan,
relying solely on airflow in the case to keep the temperature within
spec.  My guess is you'd be worse off with a fanless card.

Sounds like your case fans + gpu fans + cpu fans are not working well
together, i.e. if you are blowing hot air from the cpu fan right next
to the gpu, it's not going to cool well, or if you have an intake fan
that is sucking in already hot air from some other component.  Either
way you have a cooling problem that a passive card is most likely
going to make worse, rather than better.