Little help here

[Apathy]

Ok, I got a 6600GT AGP video card, and on some games, for some reason, it decides to lock up. It's funny though, it's always around the same spot in the game when it locks up.. I can play fine otherwise..

I know it's a heat issue because I've heard crappy stuff about the stock heat sink. If I let my comp stay off for about an hour, and turn it back on, and look at the same places as it would usually lock before, it doesn't, but having my comp on for a decent length of time, is when it goes nuts.

I've decided to get a better heatsink
I wanted to get this http://sharkacomputers.com/arconvsi5r2f.html but I don't have a PCIe card, only AGP.. Is there a decent GPU cooler like that anywhere..

I've stopped playing alot of games due to this, not just unreal games.

I got the video card almost a year ago now..

[legacy-XMas]

I don't know how long ago you got that card, but I'd consider taking it back to the store you bought it from.

[Logy]

The stock HSF should be adequate for regular, non-overclocked use, unless the card is defective, your case has poor ventilation, or you live in a volcano or something. Maybe you should make sure there is adequate air moving through your case, which could lower the temperature by a bit. Or you could move out of that volcano.

The 6600GT AGP is the ******* stepchild as far as cooling solutions go. The odd positioning of the GPU means most aftermarket HSFs won't work with it.

Zalman makes a cooler that will work with the 6600 AGP, but the positioning is slightly ODD

THIS is what I use on my 6600GT PCI-E. It should work on any card, but as you can see, you have to make sure you have room in your case, and you MUST have adequate air flow.

Mine happened to go perfectly with my case, in that the fins are directly in front of the exhaust fan. It runs about 8C less than the stock HSU, and it dead silent. It was a mild hassle to install, but worth it in my opinion.

[Apathy]

I ordered it online, no taking it back..

How much did the cooler that you got cost?

[Logy]

About $25 bucks at Newegg.

I think they have the Zalman, too, for $30 bucks or so.

[Apathy]

You have no idea how much help you've been.. I haven't yet ordered it, but I'm going to tomorrow.. I'm thinking which one I should get atm.

[legacy-LordJaffa]

I know this is a very basic question, but have you plugged a molex power cable into the back of it? There are a few people who do miss this fine point out, and i thought I'd make sure of it.

[Apathy]

Heh.. I made that mistake the first time I put the card in.. When I booted, it whined about not having enough power because of that.. I shut it down, and plugged it in.

The power unit is 530.

[legacy-LordJaffa]

When UT locks up, can you exit it and get back to windows?

If you can, look up a program called RivaTuner and get to "hardware monitoring", it'll keep track of your Graphics card temperatures, if theyre above 70C, then get the new heatsink etc.. if it's in the mid 60s, then dont waste your money, its more than likely to be something else, it's not overclocked is it? what are the core and memory clocks? they should be around 500 for the core, and 1125 for the memory.

[Apathy]

Nothing on my computer is overclocked
Core Clock - 300
Memory Clock - 900

I don't know where it says the temp of anything.

[legacy-LordJaffa]

Go here to download Rivatuner, install and run the program, you will get 2 dropdown boxes, and a diagonal grey arrow underneath each one, click on the top grey arrow, and select the picture of the computer chip, you will then get a page up showing you the clock speeds and temperature of your card, run UT2004, (in a window maybe) and keep an eye on the temperatures you are getting, what is the highest, and what seems to be the average? I've never had a problem with my 6600GT before, and the only person i know who did allowed it to be tuned by the "Nvidia autotuner", which went way over the top.

[Apathy]

THe top box has nothing of what you said, but the bottom one does
It shows core, and memory clock.. No tempts.
The "standard 2d" core is at 300.. I was messing around with the drop down menu, and clicked on performance 3D, and it changed the stuff.. I just put it back at 2d

[IMG]http://members.***.net/joseph0483/videocard.jpg[/IMG]

[legacy-LordJaffa]

Don't worry about the 300/500 thing, it automatically switches to 500 when you open up a 3D program like a game... you'll notice when you start a game with the status monitor up, it'll change to 500MHz automatically, nothing wrong with that

[Apathy]

I still see no temp reading

[legacy-LordJaffa]

on the top grey arrow, you will see a black chip with a magnifying glass over it, which comes up with speed and temperature charts. thats what i meant by computer chip.