So I've recently upgraded every aspect of my computer except for my hard drive (and my sound card, but I'm happy with the on board sound). My computer specs are:

AMD Phenom II X2 550 Processor, 3565 MHz overclocked.

ATI Radeon HD4890

4GB Ram (DDR3-1600MHz)

Hard drive:Seagate 160GB Barracuda 7200.10 Serial ATA II 7200RPM 8MB Buffer SATA

Looking for an RPG on the PS2 that isn't catered to young people or teenagers. I tried playing FFX, for example, and was turned off by what I thought were incredibly cheesy cut scenes. I heard the target audience of the FF series were teenagers so it didn't surprise me much. Though I'm sure countless people disagree with those comments... perhaps someone can relate and suggest an RPG that I might like.

Alright. Thanks guys.

well, was thinking of purchasing a HIS ATI Radeon HD4890 1GB DDR5 off ebay from a person. He has 100% positive feedback with only 9 previous ebay dealings, and is claiming that its in perfect condition.. Its half the brand new price in stores. Feeling like its a good deal.

Is it a bad idea to purchase a used video card? Do video cards go bad after a while?

I just tried both. Both had the same results as Ntune. Unless I'm doing it wrong, which I doubt.. as the programs seem pretty selfexplanatorywhen it comes to such a basic manipulation of hardware, being fan control. I've of course googled this problem on the internet beforehand and have found that people with the same card have had the same issue and have not found a solution... though I figured I'd ask you guys and see if I couldn't by chance find a way! xD

I've tried both Rivatuner and EVGA in the past, and the same fan problemoccurred. Going to download them again and retry it however. Can't hurt.

In regards to the dust, I blew as much of it as I could off. It still idles at 77/78, and the fans are still being very stubborn. They won't stay at 100% like I tell them too. On one hand, however, I noticed that it says under the speed modifier meter "Changing your 3D speed fan changes the rate at which your GPU fan operates while in 3D mode" I don't understand this statement. I suppose I'm not in 3D mode? In any case, my % setting will revert it self to a lower % regardless, almost like its set on auto even though I'm choosing the "Direct control" option.

In regards to the fan change suggestion.. Perhaps. Maybe I should just ditch the video card all togother?

EDIT: OOhh, you said modify the heat sink, not fan..

Though I havn't tried dusting off my video card, I downloaded Ntune (the nvidia application you suggested), and set the fun up to run under "direct control" in terms of fan speed, rather than "auto", and set the speed to 100%, max speed. After 1 minute, the fan speed readjusted itself to 21%... It seems that the fan just doesn't want to stay at the defined %speed value I set it at. Any clue as to why it is doing this?

So my Nvidia Geforce 9800 GT idles at 78 degrees C.. which seems just crazy. It overheats very easily if I do alot of gaming. I tried increasing its fan speed, as it stick to 40% speed regardless of what I'm doing on the computer, but after half a minute or less, the fan reverts back to 40% speed. At 100% speed the gpu drops down to the 60s pretty quick which is great.. good enough for me. But the problem is I can't keep the fan at 100%. I've tried using speed fan, but to no avail. Anyone ever heard of such a fan issue?