Hi, I have a really old graphics card, GeForce 2 Pro GTS 64mb. Recently the fan started making loud noises, i suspect its wont live for that much longer but I was thinking, would the graphics cared run fine without the fan, when it dies. It's only a GeForce 2 and shouldnt heat up that much. Also, is there anyway to clean the fan? I've taken all the dust out of it but it still is making loud weird noises.
As for cleaning the fan, I dont know how you cleaned it before to get the dust out, but if you have some compressed air, that would help quite a bit to get most of the dust out. I couldn't really say whether it would be ok without a fan. First of all, you'd have to consider why they'd bother to put a fan on there in the first place if it didn't really need one. If you have reall good airflow in your chassis, then there is a chance you wouldn't need that fan.. even then, i think you probably would. For example, my mom's system has an old Voodoo Banshee card. That thing runs really hot without doing anything at all except having the system booted. So my suggestion to you is to replace that fan as soon as you can. I wouldn't wait for it to go out if i were you. Hope this helps.. :good:
Depending on your space, something like a Thermaltake BlueOrb (or the rebadged ones by Manhattan or other companies) would be a quick fix. If you were looking for a silent cooler, something like a Zalman VGA heatpipe cooler or the CoolerMaster CoolViva would be something to look into. Of course, if you're at a premium with expansion slots, neither one is going to be a good solution. I have seen some BFG cooling fans for like $10-20 at Best Buy that are for VGA cards. I don't know how well they work or if they'd work with your card, but it's at least worth checking out.
