Wow, there's a lot of people getting scared because iof this thread. Care to hear some other findings? These chips are typically rated to very high temperatures. Yes the card gets hot around the power circuit area, even in idle mode. But nothing a 12v 92mm fan cant take without crashing, even at 850Mhz core. And that's without extra heatsinks by the way.

I dont understand how you are not able to run 3dMark @ stock without a full cover solution. There must be some other problem.

Ofcourse, lower temps are better as always - lifespan is influenced. But throwing away your MCW60 and buying a fullcover is nonsense.