Just finished my first real gaming session on the 8800 GTX and the temperature readout in nTune is showing 75C under load after about forty minutes of running benchmarks back to back. Fans are at the default profile, case has decent airflow. Is that actually normal for this card or should I be looking at a better cooler already?

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Core 2 Duo E6400 @ 3.2GHz | ASUS P5B Deluxe | 2GB Corsair XMS2 DDR2-800
XFX GeForce 8800 GTX | Seagate 320GB SATA | Antec NeoHE 550W | Lian Li PC-7

75C at stock fan settings is right in line with what everyone's been reporting for this card - Nvidia set the default fan curve pretty conservatively on the reference cooler, probably to keep noise complaints down. If it bothers you, bump the fan speed up manually with RivaTuner and you'll see it drop ten degrees easily at the cost of a louder card.

Hank's right. We've had about a dozen threads on this already since launch, I'll probably merge a few of them this weekend. Short version: 75-80C is within spec for the reference 8800 GTX cooler, the GPU itself is rated well past that. Manual fan curve or an aftermarket cooler if you want it quieter or cooler, but you're not damaging anything running stock.

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Opteron 165 @ 2.8GHz | DFI LanParty UT nF4 Ultra-D | 2x1GB OCZ Platinum | 7900 GTX

Seconding the manual fan curve suggestion. I run mine at a fixed 55% and idle sits around 42C, load tops out around 68C in anything I've thrown at it so far. Card's a beast either way, just picked up the second one for SLI once the tax refund clears.

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Mobo_Mike
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Core 2 Duo E6600 @ stock | 2x 8800 GTX SLI | 2GB DDR2-800 | Asus P5B Deluxe
Windows Vista Ultimate x64 | Antec P180 | 650W PSU
"It's not a bottleneck if you can't tell the difference."

Thanks for this thread, first post here but it answered exactly what I was worried about before ordering one. Going with the reference cooler for now and revisiting the fan curve once it actually arrives.