Rob Williams said:
Out of curiosity, which card model was this?
It was a 6800 Graphics card, but it had the exact same type of heatsink that they use on the 6800 GT cards.
I did some research after my card died, and I found out that the heatsink they gave you was a piece of junk. The OEM heatsink was actually better! The only graphics card I ever seen where the manufacturer stuck a new heatsink on it, that was WORST then the OEM-type heatsink. When I say OEM heatsink, I mean the heatsink that Nvidia designed for the card.
The heatsink that they gave you on the BFG card can cause the card to burn out and die in no time. It was a pure copper heatsink with two tiny fans on it. The problem is that the heatsink was almost totally FLAT. Almost totally flat, with not sufficient heat flow. It did have a few tiny little pieces of metal sticking up, but not enough to do any good. You can remove the metal cover from the BFG heatsink to get a good look at how poorly it was constructed.
If you want absolute proof of how badly the heatsink was on the BFG. You can do a search on the internet for reviews on the BFG 6800 and 6800 GT. Most of the reviews that were written before the card went retail had the OEM heatsink on them, and in those reviews you can look at the temperature values that the reviewer reported. Before the card went retail, the manufacturer used OEM heatsinks. Then you can go check out reviews that were written after the card went retail and BFG stuck the piece of junk heatsink on it. In those reviews the temperature values are always a LOT higher then in the reviews written BEFORE it went retail. Absolute proof that the heatsink that BFG put on the cards was a piece of junk and worst then the OEM heatsink.