Modding Stock 8800gt cooler

I did, and it actually raised temps as the "fins" aren't exposed to direct air, it needs to blow down the length of card to get at the fins.

I did this with an 8800GTX. It actually worked out pretty nice. Wish I had a pic, but I ziptied a fan to the back of the card to blow across the heatsink. It was a high-cfm 80mm Vantec tornado. i also pulled out the PCI slot covers to increase the airflow. I saw about a 10C drop under load and a 7C drop at idle, if my memory serves me properly.

*EDIT* There are two holes on the back of the card by the 6-pin power connector that small zip ties fit perfectly through

Wow what happen to the heat sink, its damaged as hell

Might aswell try it see how it goes. Thx guys

Since you'd be in it anyway, may as well put some AS5 or the like on it. That tends to help a bit, too

Couldn't you lap the cooler (I dont know anything about 8800's im just wondering if the heatsink would be copper or not) Even if its not copper couldnt you just polish it up to make it have better contact then try other things

Yup its copper and pretty shiny/flat too. Lapping it wouldn't do anything imo.

I second replacing the thermal paste. Of the 8800GTs I have opened up, they all had a lot of thermal paste applied. Put a little AS5 (or whatever you have) on there and you should see a decent decrease in temps.