8800GT Questions/Cleaning/Resetting?

[Standard]

I have the 8800GT in my 2008 Mac Pro. When the machine is tasked with 3D intensive work, the fan will be very loud. I've used SMC to check if it was the System Fan, and it's not...it's extremely cool and idling around 450RPM.

What can I do to fix this? Do I need to remove the card and clean it? Do I need to reset anything?

Thanks.

 

[666sheep]

Yes, try to clean it. Remove the card, remove cooler from it. Clean fan and heatsink fins, remove old thermal compound and put some new one on GPU and memory chips (try more efficient thermal paste - Arctic Silver or Arctic Ceramic for instance). It should help.
...or you can change card's cooler to passive one, Accelero S1 will fit: http://www.overclock.net/nvidia-cooling/476225-bfg-8800gt-arctic-cooling-accelero-s1.html