my x1950xt arrived from newegg...

[OnlyCurious]

Man if you don't have hl2 by now then I don't know what to say. Honestly, I couldn't strongly enough recommend not getting that card. Generally it seems like you will be required to buy a cheap cooling solution, or even more likely a 30 dollar fan upgrade. This pushes you to about the 200 dollar range, why even bother with the card at that point. Spend the extra 50 and get an 8800gts, or just wait longer for another card to capture that particular price point. This card was the worst decision I ever made concerning a personal build.

Does the heat slow the VPU down?

 

[aaronkupen]

Does the heat slow the VPU down?

If it gets too hot it could damage the card or produce visual glitches such as artifacting.

 

[Vaanish]

If you get the XT then just get the Powercolor model which has a HSF which is actually efficient and works, unlike the POS on the sapphire.