X1900XT 512MB Died. Poor cooling. Questions.

[rob[GL]]

So, customer today brought in a BBA RADEON X1900XT 512MB... Just purchased it 5 days ago. Apparently was playing FEAR for a few hours, the GPU temp was up over 90c for an extended period of time, customer closed the game, and went to take a shower... Came back and the card was toast... Computer was beeping away...

Bummer for the customer, but this raises the question, is 90c too hot for any card? Or did this card just fail prematurely? I know my X1800XT 512MB got to over 90c under heavy gaming, and it did not die... I thought it was very hot though, so I watercooled mine and now sit about half that.

But for your average user, who will probably not water cool, and just stick to the stock cooler... Is there a risk of any card dying? Or as I asked a second ago, was this just an odd case?


Also, I took some pictures... Can ANYONE tell me what the heck the 2 dip-switches on the bottom of the card do? Has anyone switch them to the "on" position? What do they do? I"M CURIOUS!!!!!!!!!11