Graphics card overheating?

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Newegg.com - XIGMATEK ACXTNRP-PC502 500W ATX12V v2.3 SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Active PFC Power Supply

snap up that little bugger for 47 shipped with a nice MIR. It's a good quality PSU and will run your 9600gt fine. Your current PSU is pretty crappy, it's rated at 400w but I'd be willing to bet even without looking at the specs on it that it's not either a full 400w psu (just advertised as such), the power isn't going to where it needs to be (the 12v is where most of the power should go, the 3v and 5v are for hard drives and other little things, the 12v is your cpu/mobo/gpu) and also it's probably not very efficient under load, which means if you've got a 60% efficient psu (80%+ is considered good) rated at 400w, then you're really only getting an output of 240w which isn't all going towards the GPU/CPU and Mobo, and the GPU under load uses up about 200w. One of the dangerous outcomes of under cutting your system's power is that you run the risk of damaging other components, which will end up in a lot more money wasted than if you had just bought a new PSU in the first place.

Are you also looking to get a new card, or will that be covered?
 
Newegg.com - XIGMATEK ACXTNRP-PC502 500W ATX12V v2.3 SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Active PFC Power Supply

snap up that little bugger for 47 shipped with a nice MIR. It's a good quality PSU and will run your 9600gt fine.

Are you also looking to get a new card, or will that be covered?

Ah, thanks. I'll definitely look into that one.

Fortunately, the card will be covered. The company I ordered it from was supposed to give me a new one but the one I got was refurbished so I get another one whether it's broken or not.
 
I just ordered the new power supply from Newegg. Thanks again for all of your help!

Do you think I should even bother with replacing the graphics card?
 
no you should definitely replace the graphics card. If it's artifacting, that's the GPU saying that something is going wrong, not the PSU.

If the PSU isn't giving the GPU enough power then you'll just notice a major slow down in 3D applications, or if it's very inefficient then in most tasks you'll see a slow down because it's not able to give the CPU enough power. A the card only takes around 100w on idle so the fact that it's artifacting while idling doesn't bode well for your card.

I suggest you get a new PSU because, I think the PSU is the cause for your card to start artifacting. I get the feeling that at some point or another something happened causing the card to become unstable, which leads to the artifacting. You usually see artifacting if you overclock a card too much and it becomes unstable, and you can fix it by lowering the clock speeds. Since the card is artifacting all the time, it means that your card has been damaged permanently, and if you don't replace the PSU next time something happens you run the risk of blowing a part that you can't replace for free like your CPU or Motherboard and that will cause way more issues than you want to deal with.
 
Alot of people hate cheap PSU's, and rightfully so. That said before i convinced myself it was worth the money i had gone through 4 very cheaps <500w PSU's. None gave me problems.

If your gpu is artificting i'd wager a few bucks on the gpu being faulty. It's always a good idea to get a good psu if you can, it can only help the situation. But i would be really surprised if that was the issue, i'ts never been the problem for me or anyone i know (in real life..) of a artificating gpu.
 
Okay, so it looks like I'm getting both a new PSU and GPU. Once they arrive in the mail, I'll let you guys know whether the problem has been solved. Thanks for all of the help!
 
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